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Hi, I have been searching for answers regarding allocated utility billing because there seems to be some discrepancies regarding both my allocated water and electricity bills. I have been in the office to speak with the people there but they were unable to assist me.
The manager at this apartment complex is overcharging the residents and I think it qualifies as fraud. She deducts payment from your rent if you are late paying your allocated utility bills then you are expected to pay double. We are never given a disconnection notice if we are late just a notice with the amount needed to pay to avoid eviction. I was a few days late on my water bill which came out to about $80. I received an eviction notice stating that I had to pay a total of $500 due to paying my water bill late. They deducted the $80 from my rent payment which inturn made my rent payment late. I had no idea I was accruing late rental charges because of this. I asked them to show me proof in the lease that this practice is legal but they stumbled around the question. The lady in the office never came back with an answer.
I went back in the next day and showed them proof of all payments. They then said they would accept $50 to avoid an eviction. They also threaten with a lien if you do not pay the late charges because of the late fee that was deducted from the rent. I honestly feel that this is a tactic they use to try to get more money out of the residents living here. Most of the residents here have moved out because of the enormous amount of charges we are receiving. I looked in the lease and could not find where it is legal to deduct allocated water and utility charges from rent payments. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Do you mean that you pay a fixed amount per month for water/electric?
Well let's just say that is what you mean:
Why is is separate from your rent? Usually when you see advertising for an apt where utilities are included it's advertised as "$600 month/utilities included".
I can't imagine that it's legal to double a utility bill if it's paid late ANYWHERE. Your rent check is supposed to pay your monthly rent bill - not have anything deducted from it for any reason which in turn, as you said,
Quote:
They deducted the $80 from my rent payment which inturn made my rent payment late. I had no idea I was accruing late rental charges because of this.
That's ridiculous.
I don't know what kind of a lien they could threaten you with - you don't own the apt & your security deposit (at the end of your lease) can be used to deduct late fees not paid, damages to the apt., etc. Best they could do is take you to small claims if you end up owning them more than your security deposit covers when you move out.
I think OP is saying the LL gets the bill from the utility company, then tells the tenant what they owe. Which that in itself is weird to me. I've never paid my LL for my utilities unless it was a set amount. For example, water is included in my rent and if I paid the rent minus the water fee, I'd get late charges.
But the way OP explained it is that LL gets the bill, tells tenant, tenant is late on water bill so LL uses rent money for water then says OP is late on rent and starts charging late fees on the rent for however long until they feel like giving the tenant an eviction notice.
I would seek legal counsel, OP. I completely agree with what Sawdustmaker said.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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There are many ways to charge utilities when not individually metered. The most common is dividing the house meter bill by the number of tenants and billing each for their share. It's not fair if there are more people in one unit than another but they do it anyway. I would have to see the lease to know whether it provides for taking the utilities owed out of the rent check, making the rent late or not. If they are billed separately, I would always write "rent" on the rent check, and "utilities" on that one. There are good tenant lawyers but they cost money. Look for a local (city/county) tenant or non-profit support agency. Such as this:
I think OP is saying the LL gets the bill from the utility company, then tells the tenant what they owe. Which that in itself is weird to me. I've never paid my LL for my utilities unless it was a set amount. For example, water is included in my rent and if I paid the rent minus the water fee, I'd get late charges.
But the way OP explained it is that LL gets the bill, tells tenant, tenant is late on water bill so LL uses rent money for water then says OP is late on rent and starts charging late fees on the rent for however long until they feel like giving the tenant an eviction notice.
I would seek legal counsel, OP. I completely agree with what Sawdustmaker said.
That's how I have to do it with my tenants but only for water/sewer.
The city will not let tenants have a water/sewer bill in their name - has to be in the LL's name so I get the bills.
It's a quarterly bill, so not a huge deal - as far a paperwork/notifying tenants, etc. goes. If they forget, I remind them. I don't take it out of their rent and then charge them a late fee for not paying the rent in full. I also don't charge them a late fee for forgetting to include the difference.
I guess it works a little differently depending on the state you live in and how your LL is charged for it or how your LL chooses to deal with it.
The manager at this apartment complex is overcharging the residents and I think it qualifies as fraud. She deducts payment from your rent if you are late paying your allocated utility bills then you are expected to pay double.
I think you're correct. I might call the State's Attorney General office. That doesn't sound right at all.
The water and the electricity are not included in the rent. It is billed directly from Minol USA but the payments are paid to the front office. Each bill actually depends on usage for that month and the amount of tenants living in the apartments. It is allocated water and electricity so it is divided up among the tenants. My water is usually around $90 and my electricity around $130 monthly.
If we are even a day late after the due date they deduct the amount owed from your rent payment which then puts you in arrears in paying your rent. They don't even let you know until they threaten you with an eviction notice or lien. By that time your late payments have added up to ridiculous amounts. And if you cannot pay they WILL go into your apartment and take your valuables when you are not home.
My last bill was $80.00 for the water. I paid it a few days late with the late payment already added on which came out to $90.00. But then the apartment complex turns around and charges you more late fees. In total I was told that I owed $500 in rent and late fees because of paying my water late. I was completely in shock and noticed that more tenants are in the same situation.
I did get in contact with the billing company and they referred me to the Public Utility Commission. They sent me some forms to read over and informed me that I should file a dispute. In reading over the forms it looks to me as if they are committing fraud.
$500 is ridiculous, first off. I seriously doubt they would win that in court if it went to that. And I have no idea what they think they could lien.
However, pretty much everything else you said they did, I agree with.
If we have a tenant who can't have service in their name due to the city's policy, we bill them back the amount. In my area, there are 2 sewer companies, and 1 city that does not allow tenants to have service in their name. Fortunately, all 3 are set amounts, so we just add the amount to the rent each month. But in the past, City of Meridian didn't allow it, and they were not a fixed rate, so we had to notify the tenant each month of the amount due.
We have right in our lease that any money outstanding (security deposit, utilities, late fees, legal fees, bounced check fees, tenant caused repairs, etc) will be held out first from any money paid, and if not enough was paid to cover the outstanding fees and rent, late fees will apply. This is not an uncommon clause. Our attorney actually advised us to put it in our lease, and said it is completely legal (at least in my state).
So in the situation you described, we also would have held the $80 from your first payment, which would have made the rent late, but would have only charged a lesser late fee, since it was mostly paid. Probably $5/day (we are usually $10/day late fee), or even waived completely if paid quickly. If we don't hold it out from the rent, we found that tenants would just ignore it. Before we added that clause, we had a tenant who didn't reimburse us for his utilities for like 6 months. Even though he owed like $450 in utilities, we couldn't evict, because it wasn't rent. With the clause, that $450 outstanding is now rent, since the utilities were paid first, so we can evict for non-payment.
So I don't disagree with the practice in theory, since I have the same, and any landlord who has to do this, should handle it this way, but your lease or your state law would have to say it is allowed, although it may say something as generic as that any payments are applied to the oldest debt first, which in this case would likely be the utilities. It may not even be in the "rental" section of your state law, but rather just a general business practice.
If we are even a day late after the due date they deduct the amount owed from your rent payment which then puts you in arrears in paying your rent. They don't even let you know until they threaten you with an eviction notice or lien. By that time your late payments have added up to ridiculous amounts. And if you cannot pay they WILL go into your apartment and take your valuables when you are not home.
I did get in contact with the billing company and they referred me to the Public Utility Commission. They sent me some forms to read over and informed me that I should file a dispute. In reading over the forms it looks to me as if they are committing fraud.
I don't think $500 is right, by any means, but in what way is it fraud? Fraud would be if they are telling you that the city is now charging them $500, when they really aren't. This isn't fraud in any way that I can see, it is just predatory and most likely illegal. Not the general practice (unless forbidden by your state), but the amount, definitely.
But the part I bolded is illegal everywhere that I have ever heard of. That is theft, pure and simple, and you should call the police if they do so.
It is THEFT if the landlord enters your apartment and takes items in order to get you to pay any bill, whether rent or water.
I would absolutely file a complaint with the PUC and with the attorney general's office in your state.
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