Curmudgeon’s Weblog

Well, it happened again. I received a call yesterday about a landlord who — after evicting his tenant — was stuck with an unpaid $800 water bill. The village has turned off the water and threatened to record a lien against the property.

While these stories are interesting, there is not much help for a landlord with such a problem.

As is often the case, prevention is the answer. My single-family home lease has a Rider with the following language:

Tenant is responsible for water, sewer and garbage services, and will promptly reimburse landlord for these services upon receipt of invoices for same. If landlord is not promptly repaid, then rents received will be applied first to unpaid water, sewer and garbage services.

This language allows me to apply rental payments toward the unpaid water bill.I keep the water and sewer utilities in my own name, with invoices mailed to my home or business address. If the tenant does not reimburse me for the water, sewer or garbage disbursement, their next rent payment will be applied to that reimbursement. Then they have unpaid rent, which is grounds for eviction (try evicting for an unpaid water bill, and you’ll discover my approach is much easier).