What right do I have regarding renting and paying utilities?

Question

I moved into a house that was converted to an upstairs/downstairs duplex and I live alone downstairs. A couple lives upstairs. When signing the lease, I agreed to pay one third of the gas, electric and water because the house had only one meter. Later, I found out that the couple above has a dishwasher, regular sized fridge and a gas fireplace. I have a small apartment fridge, no dishwasher and a no fireplace. I asked the owners (landlords, as well), if I could get a separate meter, but they said no. I signed an agreement to pay one third, but that third was not fully disclosed. Outside of refusing to pay my share, what recourse do I have?

one third of an equal share is fair....do the math.

Answer 1

It is likely pretty fare, in your favor if anything. It does not take twice the power to heat their unit as it does yours, yet they are paying 2/3 of that bill. The same goes for the refrigerator, it does not use twice the power as yours. They do have a dishwasher, but I doubt even it uses twice as much hot water as you you use washing dishes by hand.

Answer 2

This kind of stuff will make your crazy. Trying to make everything cut exactly to your % to maintain your feeling of fairness is unreasonable and wasted energy. Plus it just makes you feel bad about them. They arent trying to get over on you.

If you're going to complain about it, it will come down to a
how often they use the fireplace
how often the dishwasher is run
whether you wash your dishes under running water as opposed to bath method
how long of a shower/bath you take
how late you stay up at night with lights on or computers plugged in or music on

They attempted to make it equitable. Their calculation sounds reasonable in spite of your problem with their 'extras'.

I know of no law where they have to disclose anything to you with regard to what they charge for rent and utilities beyond disclosing what the actual bill comes to.
It obviously cost them more to have someone living there then if they were by themselves. 1/3 more is probably a break for you.
Also most utility companies charge on a funky tiered system.
A residence is alloted a certain amount based on their location. If you go over by a small % your are charged a higher rate on those units ..... if you go over by a large % you are charged another higher amount.........on up to 5 or 6 tiers of pricing. Its not just on a unit measurement at a certain price....not simple. You added useage may actually be costing them more than 1/3 more.
It is true they cannot have a meter installed unless the county will assign a seperate address to the unit and they pay a whole lot in connection and new meter installation fees.

Your recourse is to drive yourself nuts trying to determine just exactly what % based on the gas and electric calculations...evaluating the useage of every appliance and every persons habits and fight with them about 'fairness' and pay the bill anyway....because they can evict you if you dont.

When the lease comes up they could choose to charge you nothing for utilities and raise the rent by $150 a month and be within their right to do so. They own the place. I think they are being completely fair.

You have a right to live in a place free of health and safety issues....you dont have the right to determine how they run their rental business.

If you really feel it is 'unfair'.......I would not approach them with attitude like you're getting ripped off.
You would probably do better if you said
'I was hoping we could talk about the utilities. I understand that your unit is quite different from mine in that it has a gas fireplace, dishwasher and larger fridge and such......I know you said we can't get a meter so we can know exactly what I use in electricity but I suspect its probably less than a third just based on the differences in ammenities for the two units.
When we originally made the agreement I'm sure you guys assigned 1/3 in good faith and in the interest of simplicity, but I would like to ask you to consider a 1/3 - $25 a month based on the difference in the units.......does that sound reasonable to you?"
They would probably not feel that you are being accusatory or unreasonable with that tone.

I have a tenant that is on our meter. I build it into rent so there is no issue or quibbling.......simpler.

Good Luck

Answer 3

You pay 1/3. that is fair. Upper pays 2/3. Now if there was no upper, you would still only be paying 1/3, not all of the bill, but yet you would be the only one using the utilities. So if fair is fair, then I could forget about your lease and charge you full utilities if there is no upper, not 1/3 as stated in your lease.
Grow up and pay your portion. And quit worrying about your neighbors bills.

Answer 4

I agree, if you were paying half that would not be fair but 1/3 is not a bad deal. Next time live in a regular apartment with the same rights as every body else and you won't have a problem.

Answer 5

You should have checked this out beore you signed up to pay one third. This couple is actually paying 2/3 which is the majority of the bill anyway so it sounds like a fair arrangement.

Answer 6

You have no recourse whatsoever, and that includes NOT paying your share. You signed a legal agreement to pay one third of the utilities, and you didn't put any sort of maximum on that when you signed the agreement.

The time for you to investigate and complain about this scenario was BEFORE you put your name on the dotted line.

Answer 7

The problem is that you signed the lease so you have no rights. If it comes to signing a new lease when your lease is up, then you can negotiate a different payment...until then you are stuck