What to do if we share our electric with our landlord and he claims that we are having been using more than the agreed upon amount of utilities?
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What to do if we share our electric with our landlord and he claims that we are having been using more than the agreed upon amount of utilities?
We share our electric with our landlord. We have been paying between 150 and $200 every month for about the last 9 months. Our landlord recently came up to us stating that the amount that we have been paying is not enough to cover the bill. He claims that we have accrued about $480 in back payments. Is it fair for him to ask for this amount even if we had a greed upon amount? Is there any way of determining if we do owe amount since we share electric? We are on a month-to-month lease. We fear by confronting our landlord that he may terminate our lease, however, we don’t want advantage taken of.
Asked on May 11, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Pennsylvania
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
With respect to the electrical use issue concerning the rental that you have, I suggest that you carefully read it in that its terms and conditions control the obligations owed to you by the landlord and vice versa.
If the amount that you are to pay is fixed by the lease, then that is your obligation to your landlord regardless of the claim for the extra $480.00.
In order to try and resolve the situation you are writing about, I suggest that you ask your landlord for a copy of the electrical bill to review and go over with him or her to try and resolve the matter.
You are correct that since you are on a month-to-month lease, the landlord could give you a 30 day notice to terminate it based upon the conflict over the electrical bill that you have written about.
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