Is There a Lawyer in the House?

[MorningStar]

I'm going to a free legal clinic next week, but I'm dying of curiosity here. I get to talk to a volunteer lawyer for 30 minutes.

So our landlord gave us 30 days notice that they would now start charging us for water/sewer/garbage and they would be using a billing company. That's their right. They followed the law there and we had the choice to move.

After less than 6 months of paying this bill (which they divide per building according to how many people are living in your apartment), we got a letter on June 6th that they stopped using the billing company on June 1st and were now billing us directly. I didn't care until I read the next part.

They bill us in advance. So we will be paying our bill from May in the month of June, but they also expect us to pay the June bill by the end of this month and the July bill in advance. If the full amount isn't included in our rent check, they won't accept the check.

So rather than $80, we will be paying about $280 with the next pay period (their estimate for our bill is over $90 even though we have never paid over $82 for our bill). It seems to me that if they are now counting this bill as rent, this counts as a rent increase, and they have given us less than 30 days notice.

Our manager is way upset and so are the managers at the company's other complexes. They tried to talk them out of it and now they have to deal with the angry/upset/worried tenants and they don't have a good answer for us. Corporate offered no sympathy or any kind of compromise for this situation. Oh, but they do appreciate us.

So, anyone with legal expertise, what do you think the lawyer will say?

[jennvan]

You need to check out your tenant laws for your state. Usually you can find them on a state website or do a google search for your state tenant laws. It should spell out there exactly what type of notice they have to give you for things as well as if they must have a new lease or can use an addendum for changes to the lease. It should also stipulate what can and can't be considered "rent" which can be different in various states. I am not a lawyer but I did take my management company to small claims court when they tried to take a ton of money out of my deposit for ridiculous things that were totally against the law. Oh and I won against them too. :)

[Just_A_Guy]

As Jennvan says, this kind of thing varies state to state. Quite honestly, usually the disputed amounts from the renter's perspective in landlord/tenant disputes don't make it worth your while to retain a lawyer; but if you can get free assistance at a clinic then by all means follow up on it!

It sounds to me like your primary beef is that they gave you a couple weeks' notice of the change, rather than thirty days' notice. I don't know what a court would really do with that. The more interesting question, I think, is specifically what part of your contract allows landlord to effectively raise your rent (or change the utility arrangement) before the end of the contract term. I mean, what's the point of signing a one-year lease (or whatever it is in your case) if you can change it whenever you darned well feel like it?

Will one or two late payments, while you get the required sum together, get reported to the credit reporting bureaus?

If you're paying utilities a month in advance, then that means when you move out they aren't going to come after you for last month's utilities--right?

This isn't legal advice, just food for thought. I'm not licensed anywhere but Utah; and even if you're in Utah I don't practice landlord/tenant law.

Edited June 13, 2012 by Just_A_Guy

[MorningStar]

If you don't pay the full amount on time, they give you a 3 day notice to pay or vacate. The concern is that a lot of people here can't gather another couple hundred dollars without planning for it. The letter refers to it as "additional rent", but I think they believe they are OK because they are just changing the billing cycle. With our last complex, they billed us the following month and we received a bill after we moved. I have read our tenant laws over and over, but I can't find anything about this specific situation. I think if they are going to count this utility as rent now, it should technically count as a rent increase and they should have provided 30 days notice so we have time to decide if we're going to move out. They paid the utilities here for 14 years. I don't see why they can't cover it temporarily while they transition into charging us in advance. Everyone's estimated bill is higher than what they have been paying and they say they are basing it on a year of utility bills. We have been paying it less than 6 months and our bill has never been that high.

They should have offered at least a compromise or included, "Please contact us if this isn't possible for you and we'll work out a payment plan." Something! If they were going to start billing us on June 1st directly, they should have sent us notice on May 1st - not 5 days after June started.

It's totally worth it to me to take them to small claims if that's what it comes to. My hot button is landlords taking advantage of renters.

[Yehshen]

I will ditto what JustAGuy said: This isn't legal advice, just food for thought. I'm not licensed anywhere but Utah; and even if you're in Utah I don't practice landlord/tenant law.

__________________

Well, except I'm not in Utah, but rather in one of the other 49 states.

Everything depends: on the landlord tenant statutes, on exactly what the lease says, and even the custom in your area. And it doesn't take much to run up a legal bill that exceeds the cost of your dispute.

You might consider asking the legal clinic what happens if you pay the bill by check and write on the back of the check "Paid under dispute." Ask the legal clinic if that preserves your rights... it might or might not.

You might also consider complaining to your local government, particularly if you have an elected representative. They get calls like this all the time, and I bet this problem is bugging more people than just you. You might also want to check your local consumer affairs office or Attorney General's Office for alternative dispute resolution services. (I wouldn't bother with the Better Business Bureau, though. Their effectiveness is generally limited to the businesses who belong).

Finally, this should have been first, I assume you have already tried to work this out with the business? I mean, by formal letter directed to the company president, and not just a phone call to the office help? If you do that, make sure you stress your timely rental payments and that you are good tenants (if true).

[MorningStar]

I haven't written corporate a letter yet. Our complex managers tried to talk them out of the decision and they refused to listen. We're also on a month to month lease and they can ask us to move out with 30 days notice for no reason, so I'm going to consult the lawyer first and maybe they can help me write the letter. I also have concerns that they will try to gouge us upon move out.

I went to our Attorney General site and they say they don't handle tenant issues, but they did give a link to resources that could help. That's how I found the free Neighborhood Legal Clinics. It might be an option to write "paid under dispute" and then take them to small claims after we move out and they have already determined any damages we are responsible for.

[MorningStar]

I saw the lawyer tonight. She couldn't believe how stupid our landlord was and said this is indeed a rent increase without proper notice. She said to start with a letter from all of the tenants and if that doesn't work, get the money back in small claims court. If I win, the other tenants will know they can win too. They will have to reimburse us and cover our filing fees. Hope it's worth it to them!