My jurisdiction is: Washington State
I live in a duplex in Washington state. The owners are private landlords who have never rented property before. This has caused for some unconfusing and difficult rules made by them, but both myself and the person who lives in the other duplex have always abided, never been late on rent, etc. Both of our original leases are up and we are now month to month. he has lived in his duplex for 2 1/2 years, I have lived in mine for 1 1/2 years.
When we both signed our leases, the responsibility to pay electricty was our own, and it was up to us to cordinate that with the electric company, which we have and each receive our own bills. However, the bill for Water, Sewer and Garbage go to their address, and in the lease it does say that the tenants will be responsible for payment of this, however it does not specify how or when.
There have been several instances when I have asked my landlords (and my neighbor has also) about if we were responsible for paying them back for these utilities, and if so, how much and when, however everytime the question was asked, the answer was always "Oh, we will deal with that later". A couple days ago, our landlord showed up at each of our doors (unannounced) and showed us all of the bills since the respective dates we moved in and is now requiring that we pay this all back to them within 2 months. In my neighbors case this is over 2/12 years of bills totaling over $2000, mine is over $1000. They gave a reason that they are now needing the money, however this does not seem fair to us.
My questions are this: Are there any statute of limitations regarding landlords requesting re-payment for utility bills that they have already paid? -Especially if they never provided us with an estimate or a bill until now? And if we were to give our notice, and move, without paying the utility bills in question, could they withhold our deposits or possibly hold us financially responsible for these? We both understand that this was agreed upon in our lease, however there were no specifications as to the how and when.
I would really appreciate some insight on what our rights and responsibilities are in this situation. Thank you.
I live in a duplex in Washington state. The owners are private landlords who have never rented property before. This has caused for some unconfusing and difficult rules made by them, but both myself and the person who lives in the other duplex have always abided, never been late on rent, etc. Both of our original leases are up and we are now month to month. he has lived in his duplex for 2 1/2 years, I have lived in mine for 1 1/2 years.
When we both signed our leases, the responsibility to pay electricty was our own, and it was up to us to cordinate that with the electric company, which we have and each receive our own bills. However, the bill for Water, Sewer and Garbage go to their address, and in the lease it does say that the tenants will be responsible for payment of this, however it does not specify how or when.
There have been several instances when I have asked my landlords (and my neighbor has also) about if we were responsible for paying them back for these utilities, and if so, how much and when, however everytime the question was asked, the answer was always "Oh, we will deal with that later". A couple days ago, our landlord showed up at each of our doors (unannounced) and showed us all of the bills since the respective dates we moved in and is now requiring that we pay this all back to them within 2 months. In my neighbors case this is over 2/12 years of bills totaling over $2000, mine is over $1000. They gave a reason that they are now needing the money, however this does not seem fair to us.
My questions are this: Are there any statute of limitations regarding landlords requesting re-payment for utility bills that they have already paid? -Especially if they never provided us with an estimate or a bill until now? And if we were to give our notice, and move, without paying the utility bills in question, could they withhold our deposits or possibly hold us financially responsible for these? We both understand that this was agreed upon in our lease, however there were no specifications as to the how and when.
I would really appreciate some insight on what our rights and responsibilities are in this situation. Thank you.
