Who is responsible for extremely high water bill?

[Justin Capps]

I manage a duplex where the owner pays for water. I received a call from the water company telling me we may have a leak because of the usage. Upon inspection at the property, we found that no lines busted but that a hose bib on the side of the home was open.

Obviously, tenant claims they aren’t responsible as they don’t pay for water and weren’t home for half of that billing period. They also don’t walk on that side of the home. 

Owner will claim it’s tenant responsibility to maintain a normal living environment. And even if someone else opened up their bib, it’s their responsibility to know. 

[Gerald Barron]

I managed several properties for my father in law where we pay the water. We had almost the exact same thing happen. Outside hose was left partially on but tenants said it wasn’t them and they wouldn’t pay. Fortunately, we have it written in our lease that excessive water usage is the responsibility of the tenants. In the end we sent them a bill for the excess usage (which they didn’t pay). We paid the bill in full and took it out of their security deposit as an past due fee when they left.

[Joel Owens]

Sometimes people steal water from the outside and it is not the tenants fault. That outside valve could also be bad and leak.

Some owners just take out the exterior spigots.

I am not a fan of owner paid utilities especially water. If there is a leak or drip the tenant could care less. You better believe if the tenant pays water then one drop from a sink and they are calling.

[Leonard Lee]

On my duplex, I have in the leases that I pay the first $60.00 then the tenants split 50/50. 

[Justin Capps]

These are actually pretty good tenants that alert us to anything. 

We took over the property a few months ago with someone else’s lease. Unfortunately, that lease isn’t super clear. 

[Anna M.]

Who is responsible for extremely high water bill?  All including property management company.  Split it 3 ways (each duplex 1/3rd and management 1/3rd).  That will trigger more vigilance and ownership going forward.

[Thomas S.]

Responsible party is 100% dependant on wording of lease.

There is no guess work involved.

[Kyle J.]

You can’t just arbitrarily assign responsibility. It’s either spelled out in the lease or it’s not. If the lease says owner pays for water, and it doesn’t specify a limit, then the owner pays the higher bill. 

[Jay Helms]

@Justin Capps - if legal in your area, you should look at implementing a Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS) where the tenants are responsible for utilities. 

[Justin Capps]

@Jay Helms Typically, we will implement a utility system or some owners elect to split the utilities by adding another meter(easily done on duplexes with basements). The problem here was the property was purchased with inherited tenants and an inherited lease. Owner actually split water a month ago anticipating holding the property for a long time. But he is still paying for water until the end of the lease. New lease begins Feb. 1st. Unfortunately, the current lease doesn’t specifically state what happens with overusage. 

So this is a great lesson for buying a property and the due diligence process. 

Joel, these tenants are actually pretty decent people. We had a running toilet two months ago and they called it in instantly. They just didn’t see this as they don’t visit the side of those home. With as cold as it’s been, they run from the front door to the car. 

[Steven Gesis]

Originally posted by @Justin Capps:

I manage a duplex where the owner pays for water. I received a call from the water company telling me we may have a leak because of the usage. Upon inspection at the property, we found that no lines busted but that a hose bib on the side of the home was open.

Obviously, tenant claims they aren’t responsible as they don’t pay for water and weren’t home for half of that billing period. They also don’t walk on that side of the home. 

Owner will claim it’s tenant responsibility to maintain a normal living environment. And even if someone else opened up their bib, it’s their responsibility to know. 

Its fairly simple, what does the lease say, tenant or owner responsible - the risk of owner pay - 

I have been here - it sucks - my policy is to only make an expensive mistake once :)

[Jill F.]

In our area, when you get a crazy high bill from a "leak" or "running toilet" or whatever, you can fill out an affidavit promising that it is fixed and the water company will forgive it.

[Jon A.]

I agree with Jill F.

I recently had a  running toilet that costs a few hundred dollars in a duplex. It was very hard for the tenant to notice such a small leak. Once I produced a receipt for the new toilet parts to the water company they discounted the bill for me and gave me an extension to pay it. 

[Cara Lonsdale]

@Justin Capps usually a lease's pre-written language will cover this type of thing, even without spelling out the water specifically.  For example, in the AZ AAR lease (which is where I am located), this is on line 136 where it states, "Tenant shall immediately notify Landlord of any situation or occurance that requires the Landlord to provide maintenance, make repairs, or otherwise requires Landlord to take action..."

Now, with that said, you mentioned that the Tenants were not negligent people, and you found the hose bib on, which was accessible from the outside (so anyone could have turned it on).  This is a little more difficult because while it IS their responsibility to notify you of issues, if they are not made aware by reasonable presentation, how can they be at fault?  And since THEY don't pay the water bill, they wouldn't know there was a problem with excessive water.

My question is how did they not hear it?  When my hose bib is running, I hear it in the house like a little squeaking.  Also, how did they not see all the water?  Where did all the water go?  If these questions can be answered reasonably, knowing that these are not negligent people, I would lean toward paying the bill as the landlord, and learning to change the language for the next lease term to cap utility expenses paid by the landlord.

IF they noticed the water running down the street, but didn't think to investigate, then I would site the lease language like sampled above and charge them for a portion of the water bill...the overage portion.

[Sam Shueh]

Plug the water bib if they complain about in convenience tell them they need to be responsible for their action.