Landlord wants reimbursment for bills never put in tenant's name

[Who's Liable?]

I think I answered that already. And in case you missed it, I've been living in the same rental home for almost 20 years! It is not a seat-of-the-pants decision to just "up and move out" on the landlord. He was informed well in advance of our plans and has been given proper LEGAL notice according to our lease agreement and Rental Assistance procedures.

Why are you focusing on the non-issues? This isn't about me breaking the lease or doing anything out of line. It's about my landlord coming up with a BOGUS reason to extort about 3400 dollars from me because he MAD we're moving out.

I need advice as to the legality of what HE is doing...
I'M not the one doing anything "questionable" by any legal standards or regulations...

You could argue in court that since no bill was ever sent to you, nor did you pay anything towards the bill, the LL essentially took over the payments and thus you cannot be expected to pay past due amounts. In essence, there was no reasoning for the LL to expect you to pay it, they took it upon themselves to pay the bill. Had they really wanted you to pay for it, they would have made the effort to contact the utility company and have them send you a bill..

Be expected to pay for the past 3-6 years, but not the full 20 years.

 

[Antigone*]

Absolutely! We are following both lease requirements AND rental assistance procedures to the letter.
A tenant is allowed to move out at any time during a lease year, (exceptions being the first year in a place, and if there was already a move out within the last 12 months prior).

We're doing it all by the book.

I find this statement fascinating.

How could you be "doing it all by the book" if the book states that you pay the sewer and you have not?

 

[MAT555]

I find this statement fascinating.

How could you be "doing it all by the book" if the book states that you pay the sewer and you have not?

I will try to clarify again:
The landlord checked off on our lease that I would be paying the sewer bill- however, he never made the proper arrangements with the sewerage authority in my town to transfer the billing to my name.

By law, only the land owner can do this, because unpaid bills can result in tax sales and leans against the home... so billing transfers are only allowed to be done by the landowner.
The landlord never put the bill in my name. He never ASKED me to pay it, he never forwarded me the bills, he never asked for even a partial payment on any of the quarterly sewer bills for more than 19 years.
I can NOT pay a bill I do not receive nor have any access to.

Besides this, over the years we've discussed this sewer bill several times and we made verbal agreements about us as tenants doing 'favors' for the landlord just like he was doing us a "favor" by paying that bill 4 times a year.... We did LOTS of exterior work and maintenance on the house and grounds... we did many repairs ourselves, etc... all above and beyond the typical tenant's responsibilities. He knows that.

So the whole deal comes down to a "check mark" on the lease. Sure the bill would be my responsibility
** IF ** the landlord followed the required procedure to do that.... but he never did and that is not MY doing.
That was HIS choice, repeatedly, for 19 years. He can not come back now, 19 yrs later, and try to collect on it after the fact.
And I firmly believe any judge in any small claims court would agree with me. And ever since I mentioned that (last) statement to him, the landlord has changed his tune completely! He is going to be releasing me from my lease. And so... we move on.