Working with Household Stops

Working with Household Stops

Some libraries utilize "household stops" to encourage patrons with excessive fines to return their items and resolve their account charges. When a library adds a household stop, all cardholders residing at the same mailing address will have their library privileges suspended until the offending patron's account balance is below the threshold set by the library.  The account charges are not cumulative across all accounts on the address - a stop is only added when one of the accounts exceeds the charges threshold.

Libraries that add household stops will also be responsible for regularly checking for accounts that have been paid.  Once the offending patron's account balance is below the library's threshold, library staff will remove the blocks from the patron and the other same-address accounts.  

Currently, Plainfield sets a household stop at $50.  If an individual patron has more than $50 in charges, Plainfield staff will manually add blocking notes to all of the patrons that share the same address as the patron.  Once the offending patron's charges fall below $50, staff will remove the blocks from this patron's account and all other same-address accounts.

What Does a Household Stop Block Look Like?

Fined patrons: Patrons with high account charges receive a Library Assigned Block with the message: "Household Stop"

Associated Patrons: Patrons who reside at the same address as someone with high account charges will also receive a Library Assigned Block with the message "Household Stop." 

What do I do if I Encounter a Patron with a Household Stop?

All patrons with a household stop on their account will be blocked from checkout.  If this occurs at the checkout desk, library staff should verify if the offending patron still has account charges.  If the charges are still higher than the library's threshold, inform the patron that they are unable to use their library card until the account charges have been resolved.

If the same-address patron's account charges have been resolved, any staff member can remove the block on the patron's account.

If the patron claims that they do not know the patron or the patron no longer lives with them, staff should take the following steps to clear the account:

1. Remove the Household Stop block from that patron's account.  
2. Add a note to the "Fined" patron's account stating that they need to supply a new address. 
3. Un-associate the patron with the rest of the household.