I have her look at the lease. I would have never thought that this would be a component of one; that never was for any of ours. ...
I use a pretty standard lease for my rentals, and UTILITIES are addressed in point number 2 of the lease agreement, right after the number 1 provision on SECURITY DEPOSITS.
Our UTILITY lease provision reads:
“Resident(s) agree(s) to transfer the publicly metered utilities in their name at the time of move-in and to keep them turned on, paid in full and not to discontinue or interrupt the publicly metered utility during their residency. Resident(s) will be charged directly, or by our Utility Billing Company, for applicable electricity and/or gas which is not transferred to Resident(s) own name, in addition to administration fees (per occurrence and per utility type) and late fees (see Utility Addendum), effective the date of move-in. In addition, Resident(s) agree(s) to pay for all other utilities as described in the Utility Addendum. Landlord will consider any unpaid utilities as additional rent owed.”
The “Utilities Addendum” is a page long and addresses water/sewer costs and trash removal fees which in my leases are included with the monthly rent payment. Water is not paid separately.
If the dispute is over a water bill, however, the correction needs to be made by the water company and that is from whom your tenant needs to seek reimbursement. The landlord has no control over how a utility company bills their customers.
