Landlord requiring rent increase for amenity not included in lease

[mjl5007]

What is the name of your state? PA

Four tenants signed separate leases for a four-bedroom apartment for the period of one year, beginning August 26, 2006, and ending August 18, 2007. Rent is paid per month and the amount is specified in the lease. These leases were signed in January of 2006; several months later, the property was bought by a new landlord, who has chosen to install wireless internet service throughout the premises for use by tenants, and is requiring all tenants to pay $15/month per person in additional rent for this wireless internet service. The service is being added under a section in the lease entitled "OPTIONAL SERVICES", that states that if landlord chooses to add any optional services, "such as laundry facilities, rental of small appliances, etc, the charges for such services UTILIZED BY TENANT shall be deemed additional rent." In this case, the four tenants do not wish to utilize this wireless internet service, and rather would like to obtain internet service from another provider in the area. The landlord claims that the "addendum" for the wireless internet service has been made a part of the lease, yet there have been no papers signed indicating this. Also, the leases originally signed by the tenants, under the previous landlord, contain no other provisions allowing landlord to add and charge for amenities and/or services other than the above stated section "OPTIONAL SERVICES", nor does the lease contain any provisions pertinent to a transfer of ownership of the property to a new landlord. Can the landlord legally require the tenants to pay the extra charge as a rent increase for a service the tenants do not wish to utilize? Are the tenants required to sign any addendums that modify their current lease?

 

[seniorjudge]

Can the landlord legally require the tenants to pay the extra charge as a rent increase for a service the tenants do not wish to utilize? Are the tenants required to sign any addendums that modify their current lease?



What does the original lease say about your questions?

 

[mjl5007]

The only thing the lease says about charging for any additional services is the section entitled Optional Services:

"If Landlord elects to provide any optional services, such as laundry service, rental of vacuum cleaners or small appliances, etc., the charges for such other services utilized by Tenant shall be deemed additional rent. Tenant's failure to timely pay for these services shall be treated as a default of this Lease Agreement."

So, as I see it, we only have to pay if we use the internet service, which we have no intention of doing. Also, there is nothing in the lease about addendums or changes to the lease. Am I correct in assuming that since there is nothing in the lease providing for the transfer of ownership of the property to a new owner, as has occured in this situation, that the new owner must honor all preexisting leases between tenants and the previous landlord for the duration of the term set forth in the lease?

 

[Who's Liable?]

The only thing the lease says about charging for any additional services is the section entitled Optional Services:

"If Landlord elects to provide any optional services, such as laundry service, rental of vacuum cleaners or small appliances, etc., the charges for such other services utilized by Tenant shall be deemed additional rent. Tenant's failure to timely pay for these services shall be treated as a default of this Lease Agreement."

So, as I see it, we only have to pay if we use the internet service, which we have no intention of doing. Also, there is nothing in the lease about addendums or changes to the lease. Am I correct in assuming that since there is nothing in the lease providing for the transfer of ownership of the property to a new owner, as has occured in this situation, that the new owner must honor all preexisting leases between tenants and the previous landlord for the duration of the term set forth in the lease?

You are correct... The new onwer MUST abide by the existing lease, he CANNOT modify the lease without your consent UNLESS there is a specific clause/section in the lease that allows them too...

"Utilized by tenant" is the key prahse, if you do not use you do not have to pay. It would be the LL's duty to prove to a judge that you used the wireless internet service...

The best thing for you to do is send him a CRR letter stating of your intention NOT to use the wireless internet service, therefore you are not obligated to pay the monthly fee they are charging... Keep a copy of the letter as it is proof in a court of law...

 

[Gadfly]

I'm not sure, but it appears that the word "optional" is important. If the LL is providing an "optional" service and you choose NOT to use it then you shouldn't have to pay for it.

Others will correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[mjl5007]

That's pretty much what we (the four tenants) thought. We originally recieved notice of this wireless service in a letter that was mailed to all the tenants. The mailing included a cover letter, explaining that the service was being added, and they even quoted the "optional services" section of our original lease, stating that they were adding the new service under that section (pretty much blatantly stating that it was optional). They also included an "internet addendum" that they said we had to sign and return within a month (which we haven't done), which basically had all kinds of stuff like "we don't guarantee any minimum transmission speed", "we don't guarantee any type of security, and everyone must have antivirus and firewall software installed on their computers", and "we don't guarantee any amount of uptime; if the system goes down for whatever reason, we are not liable for any damages as a result of the service going down." What's even better is that there are many a horror story floating around from tenants at other properties owned by this company about the wireless internet service... outages for weeks at a time, incredibly slow, unreliable, etc.

We've gone to the property manager several times already, asking how they think they can modify our lease and charge us for something without giving us the option, and their standard response is "the wireless is coming into your apartment regardless, we can't shut it off for just your apt, and so you're going to be charged no matter what." The property manager also couldn't tell us the exact (or even any vague) legalities of how they were allowed to do that, yet she consistently refused to give us the name or number of anyone else higher up in the chain of command (this is a large corporation) that could give us that information. When she finally did put us in contact with someone higher up (after repeated requests), they told us they would have their legal team look at our lease and call us back by a specified date... it's now four days past the date and we've called back several times, but have only gotten secretaries to take messages to call us back. It seems that they don't want to talk to us for some reason ;-)

We have actually already submitted a letter to the property manager of the complex, as well as faxed a copy of it to the corporate offices, stating that we believe they are in violation of the terms of the lease and we shouldn't be required to pay if we don't use it, which we do not intend to do. We have copies of that letter, of course.

At this point, we're still trying to get an official response and some sort of explanation of their position, but they're still playing hard-to-get. Our next course of action seems to be to consult an attorney and see if we have a solid case against them, and decide whether it's worth our trouble and money to fight them for it.

Anyone have any other suggestions and/or advice as to how we can get this resolved? First month's rent is due Aug 3, 2006, so we'd like to know what our chances of winning this are by then, so we can decide whether or not to refuse to pay the $15 rent increase and fight, or just to give it up and pay. Thanks everyone for all your help and advice!