My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Ohio
Hi,
I have an unique situation now. I signed a sublease on 20th May, 2015 through the apartment management for an apartment which was previously being rented by a Chinese guy. He left the apartment without paying his utility bills, which none of us (me and the apartment management) was unaware of until I received the bill from the energy company yesterday. The bill shows that he didn't pay the last month bill of $82.88 and so the utility company added that previous balance plus $10 late fee to my new bill of this month.
Now, during the lease signing I asked the management to stop the service under the previous tenant's name and start the new service under my name on 20th May onward. But, I was told that they just need to switch the name and nothing needs to be stopped or started.
No, when I received this bill I contacted the utility company and told them that I was not responsible for the previous balance as I only had the keys from 20th May onward. So, they need to contact the previous tenant regarding his dues. But the utility company told me that as the apartment management did not stop and start a new service under my name they would consider that I'm liable of the previous outstanding bill.
So, then I contacted the apartment management and asked them to fix this. At this point, the management first told me that they actually tried to save my money as the utility company would have charged me $150 as deposit, so that's why they just switched the name instead of stopping and starting new service. Then I replied them that I would have preferred to pay $150 as deposit because that's refundable and I'll have it back from the utility company when I'm no longer a customer (in fact that happened to me before). Then, after a while the management replied me that there is nothing they can do as I "released" the previous guy from lease by signing the sublease and so any previous balance would be my responsibility. They advised me to contact the previous tenant to pay for his dues. However, I was told that he left the country as sometime ago when we tried to contact him for some reason there was no response and he told one of the apartment person that he was leaving the country.
Then I went through the lease documents and I see that there are sections where it's stated that resident has to pay the utility bills.
Now, here are my questions:
1. How come I was a "resident" when I was NOT on the lease prior to 20th May? If I was NOT a resident for the time period, the disputed bill is concerned, why should I even bother?
2. Both utility company and the apartment management are asking me to try to get a hold of the previous tenant. So, if I have an account (say, for cable) and I don't pay the bills, then is it not the responsibility of the company to go after me? So, why are they asking ME to do their part of work?
3. The management kept saying that the financial responsibility would be solely mine in case of any prior dues. Why? Didn't they also sign the sublease with me to "release" him from the lease?
4. Now, the apartment management accepted the fact that they "switched" the names on 20th May. That means I never signed any documents for this utility, it was the apartment management who hooked me up, right? So, if that's the case, why should I be even bothered for this bill? I'm not saying I won't pay the utility, I always have been paying and I will, but why should I be charged for somebody else's portion of bill?
Any insights would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance for reading!

