Water Bill Problem Keeping Me from Selling

[Alanna Moorer]

Hello everyone. I'm in desperate need of advice and I'm hoping one of the seasoned professionals reading this can help me. 

in 2013, I became an "accidental landlord," meaning I was never able to sell my old house so I began renting it out. I hired a property management company to handle all the details. I'm not really knowledgeable about the laws and regulations for landlords/property management, so I hired a professional (or so I thought). 

Fast forward to 2018. Somehow the most recent tenant finds my direct contact information and sends me a very long list of complaints about the property manager and the property. One of the things she brings to my attention is a water bill in the neighborhood of $6K!! She also said that the property manager said that he "would take care of it."

Tenants are supposed to be responsible for paying utilities so I have no idea of the type of arrangement the property manager worked out with the tenants for the water bill. No arrangements of any kind were discussed with me. I did some digging and found out that the bill is still listed in a tenant's name from 2014 (this person has long since moved out). 

So I'm left with a few questions:

1. How were the water bills paid? My research shows that a payment of at least 10% of the monthly balance was paid each billing cycle.

2. Who was paying them?

3. If this is something the property manager arranged, is this legal without my consent?

I called the utility company and they are unwilling to give me any information about the account, despite the fact that my name is on the account as the property owner. I'd like to seel the property fairly soon, but this bill is attached and must be paid in full before I can sell it.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Or have any advice about what my next steps should be?