Utility issues.

[badmomma]

It is common for a tenant to pay rent and utilities seperately. This is often a good thing as the rent itself is normally lower. There can however be issues related to having these seperate from the rent.

Case in point a young lady who lives in the building that my daughter resides in has had her electricity shut off. It seems that she thought that the landlord was paying the electric bill and the landlord thought she was paying it.

The problem here is that a previous tenant moved and left the electricity in her own name. She however has not been paying the bill. I have no idea where the bill has been going.

The electric company turned the electricity off two days ago and has yet to turn it back on. She will loose all of the food in her refridgerator and has had to stay elsewhere. She has a small son and is due for her next child any time now.

These things should be discussed when you move into a building so that you know who is paying what and when. I feel for her and all who suffer these things but it is important to discuss everything up front so that you don't end up in positions such as this.

[homealone]

Your right. All of this should have been discussed with the landlord prior to moving in so that there would be no surprises such as this, after moving in.

Not to mention that this should have also been stated in the rental agreement/contract between the landlord and the tenant.

I also faced this same problem many years ago when I was renting a small apartment. Though it was in my contract with the landlord that the utility bills were to be paid by the landlord.

I ended up losing all the groceries that I had in my fridge because it took the electric company almost a week to turn the power back on.

Thankfully I am a reciept saver, because my landlord asked me to estimate how much it would cost me to replace everything that I had lost, due to his mistake. I copied the reciepts because just before this happened I had gone shopping and I handed him the copies.

All of the money was returned to me to replace groceries lost, and the electric bill was paid by the landlord from then on. Then again I did have a very nice landlord.

Everyone who rents a home or is thinking of renting a home, should befriend their landlord to be and really sit down and discuss everything possible, prior to moving in. Contracts are a great idea and in my opinion they are a must.

[badmomma]

It was in her lease agreement also. Both parties assumed that the other was paying the bill.

I think that the landlord should call the utility companies prior to renting any unit to ensure that things are not running in a previous tenants name.

I also think that the previous tenant should be held accountable for the inconvience to both the landlord and the new tenant. How did they get the electricity turned on elsewhere?