The Dumb One
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Kansas
I made some very bad decisions in order to try and save some money on rent and ended up moving into a house with 2 people I didn't know very well but who had been presented to me as good, honest people. I didn't realize this was their first time moving out of their parents' houses and that they had no previous rental experience.
We decided to split up the legwork of signing up for utilities and "Roommate A" said she would cover the water bill. She decided to move out of the house about six months later. I had to practically chase her down to talk over how we were going to transfer the water bill over to the remaining roommates so that they wouldn't shut our water off and we wouldn't have to pay new startup fees. Long story short, she never officially had her name removed as the primary on the account and while I had the billing information changed, I never officially had my name put on the account. I THOUGHT I had done what I needed to do to have everything switched over, but the bills kept coming in her name and, to be honest, I just didn't think about it that much.
Came a point where the remaining roommate and I were ready to move out of the house. I shut down all the utilities and moved out of state. I got an email a couple days after I moved saying that the water had not been shut off because my name was not on the account and I didn't have authorization to do so (I had sent in a form online). No problem - on the 8th of the month I texted Roommate A to see if she could call and have them shut it off. She said sure, no problem. Never heard anything back from her, so on the 26th I texted again and asked if she had done the deed. She said she had been too busy to call, so I sent her the online form and she filled it out immediately.
A few days later, I get a text message from the water company for our final bill: over $500!!!! Our bills had consistently been running around $55 previously. It was the weekend so I tried to contact the water company and our old rental company to see if a pipe had burst or something crazy had happened. They all agreed: $500 was a LOT for a residential water bill. But the water company wouldn't look into it unless the rental company said a pipe had burst, and the rental company said everything was fine. What the water company DID tell me was that the increase in use of water started on the 15th of the month - a week after we had moved out (I have proof of such in a letter from the rental agency), and a week after I had asked Roommate A to close the account.
So now we're in a standoff as to who is going to pay the $500. She says it's my fault for never transferring the bill over to my name, and I agree that as a good person I should have made absolutely sure everything was kosher. But. Isn't it also her responsibility to make sure that her name was taken off the water bill, even if it meant closing the account?? She never technically had her name taken off the lease either, so I'm pretty sure she technically owes us for a year's worth of rent, too. But I'm not interested in pursuing that.
My concern is that she works as a paralegal or something like that for an attorney's office and she said she's going to talk to them to see if she is even responsible for this. My understanding is that legally, she is. Is that correct?? Thanks.
We decided to split up the legwork of signing up for utilities and "Roommate A" said she would cover the water bill. She decided to move out of the house about six months later. I had to practically chase her down to talk over how we were going to transfer the water bill over to the remaining roommates so that they wouldn't shut our water off and we wouldn't have to pay new startup fees. Long story short, she never officially had her name removed as the primary on the account and while I had the billing information changed, I never officially had my name put on the account. I THOUGHT I had done what I needed to do to have everything switched over, but the bills kept coming in her name and, to be honest, I just didn't think about it that much.
Came a point where the remaining roommate and I were ready to move out of the house. I shut down all the utilities and moved out of state. I got an email a couple days after I moved saying that the water had not been shut off because my name was not on the account and I didn't have authorization to do so (I had sent in a form online). No problem - on the 8th of the month I texted Roommate A to see if she could call and have them shut it off. She said sure, no problem. Never heard anything back from her, so on the 26th I texted again and asked if she had done the deed. She said she had been too busy to call, so I sent her the online form and she filled it out immediately.
A few days later, I get a text message from the water company for our final bill: over $500!!!! Our bills had consistently been running around $55 previously. It was the weekend so I tried to contact the water company and our old rental company to see if a pipe had burst or something crazy had happened. They all agreed: $500 was a LOT for a residential water bill. But the water company wouldn't look into it unless the rental company said a pipe had burst, and the rental company said everything was fine. What the water company DID tell me was that the increase in use of water started on the 15th of the month - a week after we had moved out (I have proof of such in a letter from the rental agency), and a week after I had asked Roommate A to close the account.
So now we're in a standoff as to who is going to pay the $500. She says it's my fault for never transferring the bill over to my name, and I agree that as a good person I should have made absolutely sure everything was kosher. But. Isn't it also her responsibility to make sure that her name was taken off the water bill, even if it meant closing the account?? She never technically had her name taken off the lease either, so I'm pretty sure she technically owes us for a year's worth of rent, too. But I'm not interested in pursuing that.
My concern is that she works as a paralegal or something like that for an attorney's office and she said she's going to talk to them to see if she is even responsible for this. My understanding is that legally, she is. Is that correct?? Thanks.
