Rental House

[momm2500]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

kid is renting a house with 5 other college kids. they are all to split the utlilities. we have asked the landlord for a copy of the utility bills and we get....."oh i am dividing them 6 ways" do we have a right to a copy of the bills?

 

[Mrs. D]

What are the terms of the lease? That the bills stay in LL's name and he splits them up?

Does LL live in the house?

 

[momm2500]

landlord has all utilities in his name and NO he does not reside there. it does not say anything in the lease. I just have a feeling that he is charging me more than what I am to actually pay or he is being billed. when you are told that the heating, cable and electric bill is (my portion) $200 a month for 1 person, and you question.....there is something not right.

 

[Zigner]

landlord has all utilities in his name and NO he does not reside there. it does not say anything in the lease. I just have a feeling that he is charging me more than what I am to actually pay or he is being billed. when you are told that the heating, cable and electric bill is (my portion) $200 a month for 1 person, and you question.....there is something not right.

6 college kids together in a house and you think they are frugal with the utilities?

 

[Mrs. D]

Since there is nothing in the lease agreement about who has utilities in their name or how they are worked out, I would have your son (yes, your son, this is his apartment and HIS bill) write the LL and request copies of the bills (for all months until now, and each month until the lease is up). If he refuses, I would respond by requesting to have utilities put in a resident's name.

While college kids are hardly frugal (ESPECIALLY when someone else is paying the bills for them) $1200 a month for bills is astronomical!!! Cable/Internet might be $100-$120 (unless they have multiple digital cable boxes), leaving almost $1100 for light/heat!

 

[momm2500]

Thank you very much. That is what I intended on doing and you will be surprised that when all of the kids actually work and have to pay these bills themselves....they realize that it does get costly. The funny thing is my son said to all of them when the heat first got put on, that it is not to go above 65 and if he caught anyone putting it higher, he would personally go by them a blanket! at this point, no one has put it above 65.

 

[Zigner]

I know two couples in 2-3 bedroom houses (2 adults/2 younger kids) who have utility bills approaching/exceeding $1,000/month (electric alone).

 

[Mrs. D]

I know two couples in 2-3 bedroom houses (2 adults/2 younger kids) who have utility bills approaching/exceeding $1,000/month (electric alone).

And I know a couple with a kid who are hardly frugal with their heat/electric (as in every time I go to their house there are 6 or 7 incandescent light bulbs running 24 hours a day, and who cook every day with their electric oven and stove, and who never turn the heat down below 70, and who have a heated water bed, electric dryer, electric water heater, etc.), whose bills are about $300-350 a month.

And I have a friend who leaves all the lights on in her house about 16 hours a day, and 5 lights 24 hours a day, as well as using a window air conditioner on full blast all summer, whose electric bills never creep above $50 a month.

And I have shared an apartment with some rather wasteful people who would regularly do things like turn off the cable box and leave the actual TV on all night, and run the AC with the windows open, and our bills rarely touched $100/month (all electric, including heat/hot water, w/a washer/dryer in-unit).

And I have shared an apartment where our thermostat was on a wall that led to an exterior hallway, so that if anyone left the door open (daily occurrence) our heat would run constantly, and where my roommate kept a window AC on full-blast every day that it was above 65, and another roommate refused to shut off the lights, and did I mention we were all home almost all day b/c we were in school? And our gas/electric bills ranged from $140-$250 combined...IN MASSACHUSETTS (very, very high utility rates).

And the best one, we got our neighbor's electric bill when we first moved in. They were running 3-5 electric space heaters about 12 hours a day (w/the space heaters in lieu of central heat, that means everything was electric, incl. water heater and washer/dryer). The bill was $600 for 45 days.

I'm not saying there are people who couldn't run up that kind of bill, but the fact that I have seen people be incredibly wasteful and not even approach that level of bills makes it suspect. Even more suspect is the fact that the LL is refusing to fork over copies of the bills.