Landlord refuses to show original utility bills

[Silverkitten]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington.

Hello. I live in Washington State, Seattle area. I currently rent out a room in a private residence. There are 4 other roommates including the landlord. None of us signed a lease. We paid 1st and last months rent and a $500.00 damage deposit upon move-in and can move out at any time.

Each month the landlord emails us our rent due plus the utilities for the month. He adds the utilities together and splits them 5 ways giving each of us the total amount we individually owe that month.

The landlord has refused to show the original utility bills, just a breakdown of the utilities in MS Word format. Something just feels wrong with the bills. They seem unusually high and I don't understand why this is. I don't see why we can't see the original bills if he has nothing to hide. If there is private information on their than he can mark it out.

My question is: Do we have any rights to see the bills? Or is our only resolve to move out because he won't show them?

Random venting: He is a business man, I would like to ask him that if he was renting a commercial property for the use of his business would he be fine to pay a total utility amount from the landlord without seeing the bills and just take his word for it? Would that be good business sense? I think not.

Frustrated!

Thanks for reading.

 

[Who's Liable?]

You are within your rights to request the original bill...

 

[ecmst12]

But if the lease doesn't say he has to show it to you, then he is not required to.

 

[HomeGuru]

But if the lease doesn't say he has to show it to you, then he is not required to.

**A: there is no lease and L is required to prove the amount of the bill.

 

[LindaP777]

Call the utility company and ask

I would suggest you call local utility company and ask how much your bill has been running. I our area, we can call them and get the amount for any property.

 

[Cvillecpm]

It is doubtful you can get copies of bills that are not in your name. If your landlord did not agree to provide a copy of the utility bill when you rented, he does not have to provide it.

 

[LSCAP]

If the other roomers aren’t complaining you might cause them a problem.

He might throw all of you out.
BTW does any one have an electric heater?

I haven’t checked the weather in WA but it had been a cold winter. You know, electric heaters, more lights on, though anything with a motor would raise the bill a lot more than lights.

So, when it’s cold, depends also on heat system. Circulating pumps for hot water heat, or fans for hot air heat.

 

[lauras2u]

Request the bills in a certified letter. Later if u have dispute in court over deposit, he is going to claim that u never asked.

 

[esa79]

Request in a certified letter, and then contact the utility companies yourself and ask for the amounts.

I lived with 2 roommates whose names were in the utilities, and they pulled some BS about how their "personal information" was on the bills, so they would just put a post-it on frig with how much I owe. I ended up calling the companies myself, and found that I was paying $20 more than they were on some utilities.

 

[Silverkitten]

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post and offer your advice. I haven't talked to my landlord about this just yet and plan to do so in a nice and respectful way. I will then be more firm if I need to. I know without a lease he could just tell me to get out.

My roommates feel the same way that I do and we just want to make sure we aren't being cheated. He is happy with all of us here and I don't think he wants to have us move and have to find random people again.

I asked if we could have a house meeting once a month to talk about concerns and we are going to have one soon (if we can all be in the same place at the same time!) and I'm going to bring this up then.

Thanks again!