Dave’s at the S.F. Appeal to answer your landlord tenant questions every Wednesday, so send them to him at tenant@sfappeal.com
I’m a loyal reader and always figured the day I had trouble with my landlord you were gonna be one of the first people I contact. Last Friday night (11:00 p.m.) my girlfriend got a call from the landlord saying our water bill was out of control, and she was going to stop by to see what was going on, and to have my lady call her in the morning.
7:30 a.m. Saturday morning the doorbell rings, next thing you know she’s knockin’ on our door (we’re in an in-law). She proceeds to leave a memo (with copies of both March/May bills) stating we’re responsible for the increase and have to pay the difference with our upstairs neighbors. She says she doesn’t want to raise our rent, but might have to if we don’t conserve. The bill is crazy, $932, usually it’s about $125 (according to her) it says we used over 90,000 gallons of water in the last billing period. There’s NO WAY we used that much water, and if there’s a leak in the house, I haven’t noticed a thing. Oh, and to add to that, in our lease it states we only pay 25% of PG&E, that’s it.
So I did a little research about my rights (along with the ladies who live above us) and everything I’m finding says she can’t do that. We contacted the Water Dept. and have set up a walk through, but the whole thing just doesn’t seem right. There’s no way she can make us pay for a problem we had nothing to do with right? I mean it sucks it’s a huge bill, but it’s not in the lease and it’s not my problem anyway.
I also believe she violated the lease by entering the house with less than 24 hours notice and that her threat to raise the rent was pretty empty. I believe we qualify for the .1% rent increase. Any information on where I should go from here would be greatly appreciated.
Also, if I happen to be wrong about anything could you let me know where I could find more info to help me out in this situation.
