What qualifies as a utility- tenant arguing this point

[Katie Jewell]

I have a question regarding a tenant. He is one of our tenants in a new duplex. The agreement between him, the old owners, and ourselves was that he would split the water bill with the other tenant and that was written into the lease. The lease actually says he will pay all utilities and then detailed the split of the water bill. The old owners just kept referring to the “water” bill. Well we got the first bill from the utility department of the city and it is four items: water, sewer, storm, and refuse. I got the following text from him today after he and I discussed that I would bill him monthly and send him a picture of the bill. I paid my portion the water bill last night. I believe I'm only responsible for water and utilities under the lease. I think you might have accidentally included the trash and storm fees in there as well, which is not required payment under the less. The bill gives a breakdown of each portion, but aggregates the total amount due. Half of water and sewer (calculated from meter reading "actual use") came to $28.82. Please let me know if you disagree. Thank you. Well I do disagree with him, but I am wondering if you have any advice or insight into a way to say it. I was thinking of saying, “your lease says “All utilities” and this comes from the utilities department. I understood that to mean everything on the bill.” Do you have any thoughts or ideas? My recent thought was the last owner wrote the lease and kept referring to a $120 a month water bill and then that is what they wrote into the lease. So my thinking is they meant that entire bill and not just the water. They referred to it that way with us as well.

[Nathan Gesner]

Trash is definitely a utility, which is why it's included on a utility bill from a utility provider. The definition of "utility" is a "service provided by a public utility."

It's not unusual to refer to a cluster of services under one name, in this case "water bill" even though it encompasses a couple other services. I think you may be anticipating a fight even though the tenant apparently asked you if you disagree. Give him the benefit of the doubt and clarify: