Getting utilities shut off every month, need advice.

[Tori Maxell]

Hey everyone. First off, forgive me if I'm posting to the wrong discussion thread. This might end up being quite the long post as well since I want to make sure that I'm detailing everything so it makes sense since the situation is a little weird. At least for me anyway. I also apologize if I tend to jump from problem to problem it's just that originally I was going to just lay out the recent problem. But once I started thinking about this recent problem, all other problems started popping up in my head like "hey remember this?" Or "Hey what about this?".

ANYWAY.

Moved at the beginning of last year. First rental so I was basically new to everything. Had done some research beforehand for basic advice (making sure everything was working, checking what was damaged and what wasn't, etc) prior to signing the lease. Everything seemed in check.

-small studio apartment in a separate building from a main house. It's above the main house's garage (many of the studio apartments in this community have the garage included, mine is not).

-I have a separate lease with separate address. I have nothing to do with the people living in the main house. We share the area the property is on, the trash cans and the mailbox (should've been a red flag right there since how is it possible to receive mail from two different addresses into the same mailbox). That's it. So I guess it's not completely "nothing"...

-My landlord is the main house's landlord too. Unfortunately said landlord lives in China and we have never met said person. His name is on the lease as is his bank info which we use to transfer the rent directly to him. Other than that, there's no other info on the guy so we deal with an inept property manager. More on that in a bit.

-$1100 a month, all utilities included. What is not included is internet and cable. We were told we would have no issue connecting our own internet/cable. Turns out that wasn't the case. Main house has the right to have said thing connected. Not us. "That makes no sense, you have a separate address". I do. Or so I thought. My address is the same as theirs except for "unit Studio" attached to it. I come to find out, after hassling with the internet/cable company, that my address technically doesn't even exist. At all. Can you imagine being told your address is nonexistent from an internet/cable provider.

Luckily the people residing in the main house were kind enough that they allowed us to share internet with them. We paid them a fair amount for our share. Everything was good. Then they moved out...

New neighbors are your typical "sheltered and will not make eye contact cause you may be a murderer or something". At least that's the impression I've gotten.

For example: there was an increasing wasp hive attached to their house that faced our front door. So what would happen? I'd have to rush up my steps to get inside before any wasps would fly to my face. I went ahead and knocked on their door to alert them of this and to tell them I would pay for an exterminator to get rid of it. But I wanted to make sure it was ok to have said exterminator touch their house.

I could tell they were home, their curtains were open, lights on and they were inside the house. Clear as day. Soon as I knocked all their curtains shut closed and their lights, Including the ones outside, turned off. This happened on repeated occasions. Eventually I just had the exterminator get rid of it cause I couldn't take it anymore. Got an idea of how they are now? I could list more issues but this isn't about that.

The reason for this post is because since last year the new neighbors have been late on their utility bills every month (remember I said my rent includes utility, which I come to find out is shared with the main house). So what happens? I get my utilities shut off too. No warning, no calls from the neighbors, nothing. I've paid my rent on time every single month, how is this fair.

They have all of my contact info and I'm constantly sitting on the steps (i don't have a balcony so that's basically the balcony to me) outside getting fresh air. There's no reason for me to not be given a little warning beforehand. I understand times are tough! They're currently very tough for me right now but even with that I've told them that I would be more than happy to help them out. I've constantly offered.

Even if I'm left with zero in my account at the very least I won't be stuck waking up and going to shower before work only to realize the water was cut off. Or same situation but waking up all sweaty because a/c doesn't seem to work only to find out the power was cut off. Last month I lost a good portion of my perishables because the power was cut off for a good two days. Let's say two days and a half since it took a good portion of the third day to get it back on.

This whole "utilities being paid late" has been happening since last December. The previous neighbors had a month where they were late on the utilities but they had the decency to knock on my door and apologize profusely about it.

This should've been the moment where I paid attention to the slowly rising red flags. I don't have much in my name, don't even own a car so I honestly can't just pack up and go rent elsewhere. And like I said I just recently signed a new lease. Stupid. I know. But I didn't have enough to go pay yet another security deposit and at least two months worth of rent prior to moving in somewhere else.

my whole reason for this is to see if there's anything at all that I can do. I've talked to the property manager (he always vanishes, takes days to reply back, not proactive whatsoever) about this and he has even admitted that they are constantly late on their rent and just overall weird people. That he's dying for them to move out already.

Is there anything at all that I can do? Legally? At the moment I've been without running water since 2pm yesterday. It is now 1:30 the following day. Neighbor supposedly paid the bill this morning but nothing has happened. I've called the property manager, I've called the neighbor. No answer whatsoever.

I've searched high and low online to see if there was anyone else in a similar position but couldn't really find anything. Again I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section or if I rambled (hope my rambling makes sense). Constantly stressed over this and don't know of anyone else that knows about this and that's willing to offer some advice. If there isn't anything I can do, well, I guess I'll just have to deal with it. But I'm sure I didn't sign onto having utilities shut down every month just for funsies.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this mess. 

Summary: live in studio apartment that turns out to share the same address as the house its attached to. I have separate lease. My rent includes utilities, very clearly stated on the lease. I pay my rent on time every month. Utilities are to be paid by the people residing in the main house. They have been late on said bills every month since last December so I have had two to three days of being without power or water, sometimes both, every month since then because they can't seem to keep up with the utilities. I have offered to pay at least half of it but they outright refuse or just don't give an answer. Property manager is usually MIA, only way to contact him is through text.