CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – “He told us our child was going to get autism,” Brianna Gower said. “He was telling us that we were just trying to kill our kids because the water is so bad and that we are bad parents for not getting a system in the home.”
New homeowners in Clarksville, typically young first-time home buyers, are reporting becoming prime targets for water softener sales companies looking to sell thousand-dollar water softener and filtration systems. It starts with a free gift, a complimentary service, and a water test. Minutes later, these homeowners are making what they believe is a beneficial investment with low monthly payments.
But many homeowners are surprised to find that there have been liens placed on their properties that only become apparent when they are selling their homes.
Sales tactic complaints
Gage and Brianna Gower, 20 and 21, had just moved to Clarksville when they received a card in the mail stating that they had a received a free gift. Brianna decided to call about it, and shortly after, a sales representative from a water filter system company arrived at their house. The gift ended up being a free water test.
“He came in and set up his test kit and showed us how his bottled water compared to our tap water, (which) has a whole bunch of chloride, calcium and other stuff,” Gage Gower told Clarksville Now. “He told us that chloride causes autism.”
While decades of research are continuing, there is not yet a known environmental cause of autism.
“He was really disrespectful,” Brianna said. “He was very unprofessional. He was telling us that we were just trying to kill our kids because the water is so bad and that we are bad parents for not getting a system in the home.”
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According to the Gowers, the salesman told them if they didn’t get the system that they were poisoning their son, who was born prematurely and recently released from NICU.
“He was like, ‘So technically what you’re saying is that you don’t care about your premature son who has health problems. You want him to bathe in this nasty water that’s going to kill him.’ He said all these people that don’t get this system are killing their kids and that we were all really bad parents,” Brianna said. “And then he said, ‘It’s not my problem if you guys just want to kill your kid. I’ve watched so many of them kill their kids for not getting this system.”
The Gowers did not buy the system, and they asked the salesman to leave.
Surprise lien when selling house
Catherine Peterson, 21, purchased one of these water softener systems, and that decision ended up causing problems when she tried to sell her Clarksville home.
In September 2021, after Peterson and her family moved into their new home, they received a phone call asking if a sales rep could come by their home and test their water. Thinking it was better to be safe than sorry, Peterson agreed.
“The guy came and started showing us all these tests and everything and said, ‘This could give your daughter cancer,'” Peterson told Clarksville Now. Although she was taken aback by the almost $100 a month payment, at the encouragement of her husband they bought the system. Peterson later discovered there was a $150 annual payment as well.
Being a military family, the Petersons moved earlier this year and put their house on the market. Four days before closing, they discovered there was a lien on their property.
“We had to pay them $7,300. It was a wild and unexpected amount,” Peterson said. “We were supposed to make out with money from the sale, but now we are only getting $400.”
Title agent sees dozens of surprise liens
Clarksville is a revolving door of military families moving in and out. When these families prepare to move after a few years of residency here, the fine print of these water softener companies becomes apparent in the form of liens into the thousands of dollars.
Katrina Washam, a senior title agent with Governor’s Land and Title, said she’s seen about 60 families with similar liens on their property. Of those, only one was aware of it.
“Typically, what happens is they will come to homes, usually we see that they tend to be targeting younger buyers, and test their water. … What they don’t tell them is that there will be a lien placed against their property,” Washam told Clarksville Now. “So, they are signing all these documents and there’s all these small words down there that typically states there is going to be a lien against your property due to this.”
Washam was able to obtain a copy of one of these contracts and found that the lien was buried under four pages of paperwork, clauses and fine print. However, even if someone was to try to thoroughly read their contract, the verbiage is complex, and a lot of people don’t exactly know what a lien is, she said.
“A lien is where they have stated that you owe them this money,” Washam explained, “and that they have some kind of documentation providing that they are entitled to this money. It’s another way to ensure that this creditor is being paid. … It affects you when you go to sell your home because that has to be paid off in full. A lot of people don’t realize that or think that they can just take the filtration system with them when they move, but the lien is attached to that property, not the system.”
“Say, you were going to buy a house from me. You can’t buy that home and that lien be on there. … If I was going to sell that house, in order for me to sell it to you and give you what’s called a ‘clear title,’ I have to pay off any liens or judgments that are against me or my home.”
Water filtration systems aren’t the only companies that do this, according to Ciera Netherton, real estate agent and owner of Legion Realty.
“Security companies and solar panel companies employ the same practices, but we see it all the time with the water softener companies,” Netherton told Clarksville Now. “Another lien just popped up on another one of my listings. She bought this water softener system in September (2022) and they filed a lien Oct. 31 (2022).”
Is Clarksville water safe?
On Oct. 6, Clarksville Gas & Water earned a perfect score of 100 on its water system sanitary survey conducted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
Mark Riggins, CGW general manager, said the sanitary survey is an unannounced, onsite, in-depth inspection by a TDEC team over the course of a few days, which evaluates and inspects every facet of the water system and ensures the City of Clarksville is delivering safe and reliable drinking water to the public.
“This is the fifth water system sanitary survey (since 2010) in which we’ve received a perfect score of 100,” Riggins said.
Of note, this latest perfect score came with no recommendations, which is extremely rare under TDEC’s standards.
“A water test is completely free,” Riggins told Clarksville Now, saying CGW can come out to test a home’s water on request. “If people think there is something wrong with the water, we want to know. We’ll answer 24/7.”
However, Bernie Green, a plumber with Freedom Plumbing, said that although the water quality in Clarksville isn’t unsafe, it could be better. “Clarksville Water & Gas is held to a low standard,” he said. “The water is fine. But it could always be better. If you go to the Environmental Working Group website and type in your zip code, you can see all of the chloramines, radioactive isotopes and chemicals that are in the water.”
Do you need a water softener?
Green suggests that all homes could benefit from a water filtration system, but that water softeners are a luxury.
“A filter is much more important. A softener is kind of like your Cadillac water, right?” Green explained. “A softener, all it does is you add salt to the system, water passes through it, it backwashes the water and gets rid of that salt taste. It doesn’t actually remove stuff out of the water, it reverses polarity of the molecules that are in the water.”
If water is too hard, it’s difficult to get soap to foam into bubbles. If it’s too soft, it’s difficult to get that slick soapy feeling to wash off your skin.
“That’s why you hear a lot of those sales pitches … saying healthier skin, healthier nails, no soap scum or lime corrosion or buildup on your faucets. Which is true, but you can get a lot of the same stuff with filtration systems because it actually removes that stuff out of the water,” Green said. “A softener, all it does is make that stuff slick. It makes it molecularly slick that way it can’t stick to stuff.”
For more
If you made a similar purchase and don’t know if there is a lien against your property, contact a title agency and ask for a title search to see if anything is showing.
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