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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    2

    Default Responsibility for Utility Bills When Living With Roommates

    This question pertains to the laws of Washington State.

    I just moved out of a house that had two other roommates living there. We had a oral agreement that each of us would pay 1/3 of all utility bills and this has been the case since we started living there. One of the roommates got another job, however, when he paid me for the three utility bills he prorated them to not include the dates of his traveling for his job. However, all of his stuff was in his room, in the kitchen, in the main living room with storage in the garage and elsewhere in the house. He made this decision without discussion with me or our other roommate.

    In Seattle there are three utility bills one would acquire living here:

    1. Seattle Public Utilities (Provides Water, Garbage, and Sewer)
    2. Puget Sound Energy (Provides Heat)
    3. Seattle City Light (Provides electricity)

    Under Seattle Munciplal Code 21.49.100 d – Seattle City Light specifically states that residents are equally responsible for the bill regardless of their name being on the SCL account.

    I have researched and found nothing online available to address my specific issue so if anyone has any comments or experience with this please let me know.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    1,995

    Default Re: Wa State Utility Bill Question Re Roommate

    I am a LL, and I have some experience advising tenants in case of splitting bills, and what you describe is not uncommon.

    What people don't seem to understand is that utility bills generally consists of two components, and how it's implemented is dependent on the utility. One component is providing the water, electric or gas, and it would be described in cubic ft, kilometers etc. The other component has to do with the infrastructure itself, and there is usually a fixed charge even if EVERYONE is gone. You would have to analyze the bill to see how these two components are broken up.

    One time, I was on business trips 6 months out of the year, lived with my parents, and share the utility bills with them, and when I started with "I'm not paying for water and electric when I was working in Thailand for the last three months", my father got after me and told me the utility here does not care if I was in Thailand, but the pipes, electric cables in the ground depreciate none the less, and he's charged for it.

    Another way to argue the case is the remaining roommates are looking for a reliable party to share the bills with, and not sharing with someone who is hardly ever there, and you have no desire to split hairs on every bill, how many days he is in town, and you were never told of the extensive planned absences, and which runs up your fixed costs. If he is leaving, I would simply bring this to small claims, and see how a judge would like counting days that he's there and not there.

    I went to small claims in a case where someone try something similar on me, and the judge did his rough justice, and spilt the bill evenly, saying that he's got a full load of cases, and can't waste time on something so idiotic.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Wa State Utility Bill Question Re Roommate

    Thank you for the information. Everyone has already moved out of the house and there are no current tenants; I was the last to leave. We’re now in the process of settling the balances and I have a feeling that this will head to small claims court in the end.

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