sharing utilities with another tenant

[jasamsa]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California: we moved in a house in june 2015 on December, the owners decided to remodel a small building in the back that they turned it into a studio. the owners told us the lady & her two kids would pay 1/3 but when she moved in, we found out that it was a family of 5 - two adults and three children. they just had a baby recently. we didn't sign any contract neither did the neighbors, the owner just told her to pay 1/3 of the utilities, we don't know how much she's wasting. we do have a four-bedroom house but we don't use the two rooms or the living room it's just four adults. We ask the neighbor to pay more but she refused claiming that she doesn't use a lot of electricity and she doesn't eat in the house as much. The landlord refuses to separate the electricity and gas and we recently brought it up to the landlord and she threatened to bring her lawyer and evict us from the property. We also ask the landlords to fix our lights in February but they never did. so this month we went to buy them ourself and deduct it from the rent and three months ago we asked the landlords to send a air-conditioned handyman to replace our swamp cooler filter, they never did. I just like to know some options on my problem I'm having with my landlord. ( sorry for any errors that I made on my spelling)

 

[FarmerJ]

Normally in your state when a landlord is going to require a tenant to pay the charges on a mater that will be shared it has to be disclosed In writing in the lease . You didn't mention if you are in a fixed term lease or are on a month to month lease ? Second question if you were in a written lease when you moved in, was any part of the property excluded from your use in writing in that lease ? 3rd question Have you ever considered calling your city to learn if the landlord had a building permit to make that other building into a residential unit ? I suggest you call your city to learn if this property is zoned for two units or a single family house. If you have repairs that the LL refuses to make that are electrical or mechanical or structural call your city building inspectors offices. (do you have copies of every gas and electric bill since you moved in handy ?

 

[jasamsa]

We are on a month-to-month lease, when we sign the contract no one live back there it was just a little storage office for her husband.

 

[jasamsa]

Yes, we have all the utility bills.

 

[FarmerJ]

Did your first lease say in writing to you that the space the landlord had reserved for her/ & husbands use was connected to your utility meters / shared meters even though you were to pay the bills ?

 

[jasamsa]

We just signed one lease and that was back in 2015 and that was for the first house in the front. The only thing that was on our lease back in 2015 was for how many people were in the house and pets, the price of the house per month and the deposits and if we're late for our rent it would be $75. She didn't mention anything about the back storage office because it was abandoned and people broke into it. she didn't fix it until 6 months later. I don't even think the back house has permits because the guy that fixed it was an unlicensed contractor. She did mention later that the electricity and gas are connected to the the back. When the lady in the back moved in on March 2016, she signed her separate contract with them for the back house.
We did ask the landlord, if she signed a contract for that lady to pay 1/3 but she said no. she just told her to pay 1/3. The landlord did write a letter that she's raising the rent in August for $100 more.

 

[FarmerJ]

So do you show the tenant in the back your bill statements or do you just tell them ? OK so going back to when I asked > Second question if you were in a written lease when you moved in, was any part of the property excluded from your use in writing in that lease ?< there is a reason I am asking !

 

[HRZ]

LEts try this backwards....you have no contract to supply any utilities to unit in rear ...and without debate as to if other unit is Code legal....why not just shut off utilities to places other than your unit ? SUre to get some swift attention?

 

[FarmerJ]

There are things you can do to stop them from using your water electric and gas , Im not thrilled at the idea of you shutting those things off BUT if you call your city inspections desk and tell them what your LL did with that building and that your LL as far as you know did not hire licensed plumber or electricians to connect it to your meters . WHY do that because even if you were to give proper notice and move out you will need a letter from city inspector to have with you for court if the landlady tries to sue you. See what you want the city inspector to note is that this other building is connected to your water ( if you pay water & sewer ) elect & gas meters , the ideal thing would be that your city condemns that structure and forces them out of it. In a court If it was me id be very tempted to ask the court to award to me a partial refund of rent too, SEE the deal is when you rent what is supposed to be a single family residence unless the lease excludes some area from your use then every building ,garage , shed , every inch of grass is for your use , your paying for it and when your LL fixed up that building and installed someone else in it with out your lease excluding it from your use then it doesn't matter how bad of condition it was in it was still part of what you rented and in court if it was me I would sue for half of the utilities I was being billed for and at least a 15 %refund of every months rent you paid while someone else lived in that structure since your LL breached your lease by denying you full use of the property. only because I wasn't getting full use of every inch of space I was paying for. AND yes you could still move with proper notice but if your city does a decent job with how they handle what the LL did they will order them out of that other building and it will be quieter for a while. DO make some extra copies of your original lease and store them in a safe place away from the home.