My apartment asks for paying water/sewers separately, does yours? (Sacramento: leasing, month to)

[lilcarp87]

I've been living in an aprtment for years. Firstly, under my old manager, he covered water and sewer included in the rent. After that, the new manager come and started asking for water with $30/person and also telling us to setup an account online thru a website to pay for that.

I don't know if this new manager is trying to pick out our money or not but the bill he sends us clearly states "Bill Not From City of Sacramento." I talk to a person and he said if it is not coming from Sacto, this could be a scam.

The bill also has an PO BOX. An acknowled person told me that I should not pay the bill because of the mail box (PO BOX.)

The new manager also does not release new leases or such. He just gives us a notice that the building LLC now does not cover the water. I doubt about it and smell phishing like:
1) asking people to setup their own account on a website to pay the bill
2) bill from another state
3) PO BOX...
4) A fix price on people water use without odometer

How about your apartment?

[NinaN]

What does your lease say?

[NextStage]

I would start by contacting the Sacramento Renters Helpline: Renters Helpline

This does sound suspiciously like a scam.

[derekjones]

Does your apartment have a leasing office on site that you can go and verify the information?

[lilcarp87]

Originally Posted by NinaN

What does your lease say?

Originally Posted by derekjones

Does your apartment have a leasing office on site that you can go and verify the information?

They do have a basic website for contact, information and photo gallery but it does not say anything about this utility billing contract.

Before they sent us a paper saying this

"Dear Resident, NAME-OF-3rd-Party Billing Service, Inc. will be our utility billing contractor....
Information for mail the payment and a website for it" in brief!!!

They had asked us to bring our SMUD and PG&E comes to them to do some stuff I don't even know!

And if we have questions, we must call the 3rd party (the paper does not say anything to my current apartment infomation.)

[JVinci]

The short answer is yes, a landlord can charge whatever he wants.. as long as it's clearly stated in the lease agreement. Yours says that water and sewer should be included. Is your lease up? Are you month to month? If you are still in a yearly lease agreement, they can't charge you for these additional utilities.

I don't think it sounds fishy, but I do think you need to have a conversation with your landlord. You should only be paying what was agreed upon in the lease agreement.