Tax Trash Fee, Water bill and more (rental, tenants)

[Redheadednut]

Hello all. New to the forums!

A few questions, but first a real quick background. My fiance and I rent the top floor of a ranchplex in NE Philly. The landlords son, girlfriend and son live in the downstairs portion. They also do not pay any rent at all and I'm not sure on the water bill. The landlords have a management company take care of the rent, maintance, etc.

The current lease, which is up the end of July, states we pay half of the water bill. (question about this coming shortly) We received a call from the management and were told that they were raising our rent $25 a month due to the trash tax fee of $300.00. I asked him is this just for the trash tax fee and not an annual rent increase and he stated yes. I told him the $25 additional a month comes to $300.00 and that if that is what the bill is, why are we paying for two floors for trash removal. He stated we were not. I said, yes, apparently we are if your charging us the full $300 and this increase is only due to the trash tax fee. I said, if the bill states that it is $300, we will only pay $150 of that bill. Not the full amount. He calls me back and states that they owners will take $15.00 a month instead. I said, that is still $30 more than what the bill is for. His answer was, this is a more rounded number. Then he proceeds to tell me that I'm making a bigger deal out of this and needs to meet with us immediately to sign a new lease. I said, we will only pay $150 and nothing more and I want a copy of the bill.

Upon further researching, I found the tax bill for this property would only be $150. Which means we would only be responsible for $75.00. I sent him this info from the city of philadelphia and now he is not returning calls or emails about this and he cancled our meeting for tonight. When I last spoke to him, he stated the lease needed to say rental fee increase, not due to the trash tax fee.

My questions:

1.) What is the rule/law on the water bill for the property? Do the tenants pay only the usage or the whole bill?
2.) Is it discrimnation to have only one tenant paying rent and paying for the entire trash tax fee?
3.) Is it illegal for him to have us pay the trash tax fee or is it the responiblity of the landlord?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[RockJock1729]

I'm not a lawyer, just a long-time renter, currently in PA. But to answer your questions, IME:

1.) That's something to be negotiated between you and the landlord. Each place does it differently. Some places build it into the rent, some charge an allocated (average) amount, some meter each unit separately.

2.) It's not discrimination. The landlord is letting his son's family stay there free. He can do that; it's his place. It's bad business, but perfectly legal.

3.) If he can get you to agree to pay the whole amount, it's legal. Again, it's bad business to stick you with the entire fee, but it's legal if you agree to pay it. But if he's not charging his son's family rent, I'd bet he's not charging them for the trash either. And he wants to push that cost off on someone so he doesn't have to pay it.

Your negotiation skills are definitely better than your landlord's.