Tenants won't pay water bill

[Mark Kvam]

I am looking at purchasing a small 22 unit MHP mostly owner occupied.  The seller sub metered the water about a year ago but has tenants who have yet paid their bill.  When I purchase I will expect that all tenants pay their bill.  Can I legally shut off their water until it is paid?  What other avenues are typically done?  Tenants are currently month to month but I would expect to have all on new lease agreement when I take over.  Any help here?

[Deanna G.]

Hello Mark,

I had a similar issue with one of my tenants about 9 months ago.  The only difference, my tenant wasn't paying her water bill and the city was sending me her bill expecting me to pay it.  I told them I wasn't going to pay for it, because I didn't use the water.  The city insisted the owner is responsible.  So I asked for one year history of my tenant's bill.  She would only pay when she received a disconnect notice, which was every 3 months.  I then asked what her average bill was before the penalties.  Her water bill averaged $65.00 per month.  I increased her rent by $75.00 and gave her two months notice that her rent was going up and  (I explained the reason why it was increasing) I would pay for water/sewer/trash bill.  I also added an excessive utility usage clause stating that if the water bill exceeded $66.00 she was responsible for the overages.  This was a tenant I inherited from a previous landlord.  She is on MTM, and I was happy about that, because I was able to change her lease with out waiting one year.

Hope that helps