Tenant Troubles: Is My Building's High Water Bill My Problem?

This tenant's water/landlord issues brings back memories. In 1997 I received a letter from my landlord claiming that there had been spike in water consumption in my 8 unit building. When I asked them if they had taken into account the fact that a few of the apartments had more than one person living in them, and the landlord has once left the toilet running in the locked utility closet for more than one week, they clammed up.

Dave, you are so awesome. I almost want to have a tenant issue just so I can ask you for advice! Your column makes me so, so grateful for the landlords I have: they are attentive to problems and quick to fix things.

This column is such a valuable resource! It is one of my favorite things in the Appeal.

if the water bill jumped up 6x with no change in water usage, it could be that there was an error when the water department did the last reading. that happened to me a couple of years ago.

Isn't there a pass-through for water. I thought it was voted in order to give incentives to tenants to conserve water?

Also, there is nothing illegal with the visit of the landlord, I would believe. The landlord showed up, and asked to enter the premises. Tenant has a right to refuse (due to lack of proper 24h notice), but it looks like they did not.

There is a pass-through for a water bond but in my apartments it's typically around $2 per month.

The landlord also has the right to bill any "penalty" overuse charges that appear on the bill.

The landlord in the case above did not seem to be following proper procedure.