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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    22

    Angry Water and Sewage Bill

    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Pa.

    Good Morning,

    I am the owner of a small commercial building that i lease to small business. The last tennant owed the utility companies a large sum of money. She is no where around to serve the papers to. The new tennant is running into resistance from the local water and sewage boro. The boro tells her they can not turn on the water until the bill of $352 is paid. The boro tells us as the owner of the property, we are responsible for the bill.

    Is this true? They never notified us on any past due bill but now want to charge us for the total. Our name was never on the contract with them nor did we ever give them the ok to turn the water on. This was all done by the prior tennant.

    Can the boro do this?

    Thanks
    Frank

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

    Default Re: Water and Sewage Bill

    The short answer is "YES, they can do this".

    I had a residential rental where all the tenants pay the water and sewer, and arranged to have the tenants billed. Some years back, after staying nine months, a tenant of mine moved, I found out they moved out of state without paying the water, electric, or the phone bills.

    As water was a municipal utility, the law in the county calls for the owners to either pay the bill, and if not, then it is added to the property tax, and then liens placed on the property if not paid. I also owned rentals in NYC where a few years ago, the municipality sent out notifications requesting the owners signature agreeing that from there on in, all owners are responsible for the water and sewer regardless of who the bills are issued to and held responsible for it if not paid. It's been always so, but many owners were not clear on this point, lawsuits filed, thus the notification.

    So where I am, and all the counties around me, owners are held responsible for bills on municipal run utilities, even if the bills are issued to the tenant. What I do now is I pay the bill, turn around and bill the tenant, and the tenant is subject to eviction if not paid, as it becomes part of the rental charges per the lease.

    In my case, I paid the past due water bill and I had no time to go after the tenants who moved to FL. For a while, I had to sign affadavitts to the electric and phone companies for all my new tenants that they are my true tenants and not in any way related to the tenant who moved and skipped. Apparently many scammers who skipped out on bills simply opened up new accounts under false names claiming to be new tenants.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    22

    Default Re: Water and Sewage Bill

    Ok, if the boro holds me responsible for the prior tennants water bill, didn't they have an obligation to me to notify me when the bill is past due? I had no way of knowing the situation. The original arrangements were made with the boro and the tennant. How fair is it to let the bill run up into hundreds of dollars without notfication? $352 is not just a few months late! Had I been notified after just a few months, I could have applied pressure to the tennant to pay. Seems like the boro failed to notify me, let the bill run up in the hundreds, and now demand I pay the entire bill. Whats up with that???

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    1,995

    Default Re: Water and Sewage Bill

    +
    Quote Quoting frankc
    View Post
    Ok, if the boro holds me responsible for the prior tennants water bill, didn't they have an obligation to me to notify me when the bill is past due? I had no way of knowing the situation. The original arrangements were made with the boro and the tennant. How fair is it to let the bill run up into hundreds of dollars without notfication? $352 is not just a few months late! Had I been notified after just a few months, I could have applied pressure to the tennant to pay. Seems like the boro failed to notify me, let the bill run up in the hundreds, and now demand I pay the entire bill. Whats up with that???
    I had the same discussion with the town, and their position at the time is if I go ahead and have the tenant be billed directly, and pay directly, it is my responsibility to find out if the bills are paid. Understand that adding requirements can also run up charges.

    I'm in NYC, and for a typical 2 family, the water and sewer for a 3 month period runs $200 to $300 dollars, so it does not look like that large of a bill to me, though it may be so in PA. One of the things I was told is that in NYC, they ran into the same arguments with owners that you raised which is why they sent an agreement to all property owners to sign saying owners are responisble if the tenant does not pay. At the time, there were no procedures in place to notify owners if the tenants didn't pay.

    My suggestion to you is if it is a municiple utility, get after your representative, and have their billings modified so owners also get a copy, or notiification of non payment. I work at a senior facility, and we help our clients file with the local utilities so they'll issue third party notifications, which is common with seniors. Now, the law had to be changed because utilities were sayng they are not legally allowed to send communications to other parties other than the "bill to" party due to privacy issues. They may or may not have such a procedure where you are, so check to see if they have third party notification.

    In my case, I found it simpler to pay it, then bill the tenant rather than getting into an argument with the town. Interestingly, the town now notifies owners when the utility sends them a notice after water bills are not paid, and would be transferred to my tax bill if not paid in 30 days. I dropped the ball on the water bill last year and I got the notice. This didn't happen years back, so that could their new way of notifying owners.

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