Utilities for my rental property

[Dmitriy Fomichenko]

On one of my rentals, previous tenant left balance on the water bill. Now that I have new tenant, the city said the bill would have to be in my name. Because of the balance the old tenant left, their policy would not allow the service to be switched to new tenant. I now have new tenant for over two year, they get a copy water and sanitation bill from me, go to the city and make the payment. That is the set up. However, while they pay their rent on time, they are constantly late on the water/trash bill. We had a serious discussion few months ago and they did catch up. They were current for few months but not for too long. They are back in the same place now. I just received a disconnect notice from the city, they are two months late again! It is very frustrating to me as landlord! I don't really have the time to deal with this minor but annoying issue. They are otherwise decent tenants. Sometime I just want to get them out so that I don't have to deal with this issue anymore. But when I imagine that I would have to go through the process of re-leasing the property again... I don't want to kick them out. There must be some solution to this situation. I want to ask for help/suggestions from some of the experienced landlords and property managers out there in PB community. Any suggestion you can provide on how to deal with this situation will be greatly appreciated!

[Pam R.]

Hi Dmitriy - You're in a tough spot.

It is possible you will get a better response if they pay you the water bill directly. I have a duplex where the tenants get the monthly water bill from a metering service, and the tenant sends the payment to me. I pay the city quarterly. I've never had a problem with getting the water bill paid to me, and I've had multiple tenants. It's been late a couple of times over the years, and I just send an e-mail to the tenant and they pay me. It's more difficult to avoid me than some nameless, faceless public utility - which is exactly what your tenants are doing.

Where my property is located, unpaid water bills result in a lien against the property itself. So landlords generally don't put the water bill in a tenants name.

We're also required by state statute to "Supply running water" to the property. By my interpretation (I'm not a lawyer), I can't allow the service to be disconnected. Does California have a similar statute?

You say they've lived there two years - that is enough data to calculate their average water bill, build that into the rent with the stipulation that the payments vs usage will be reconciled every 6 months.