Missing Lease in Phila, PA

Missing Lease in Phila, PA

josephgigi@hotmail.com (Gigi Joseph K)	3/22/2004 11:01:08 AM
We just bought a rental property w/ 2units. Previous owner used to pay all utilities and the utilites are not seperated either. Current lease does not state who pay the utitilities. We are ready to seperate all the utilities and make tenant responsible for their own utilities. Current lease does not expire until Nov 2004 and tenants refuse to pay utilities. What are my options to make tenant pay for the utilities? We do not have the signed pages of the current leases either. We only have the first page of each lease.Does this pose a problem in the interim? Is it possible to get new leases signed atleast for the remainder of the term? Only on person's name appear in each lease. But there at least two adults living in each unit. Is not having the names of all occupants in the lease itself a cause for eviction or making the tenant sign a new lease? I appreciate all your help and thanks in avance.



horrigan@aol.com (Horrigan)	3/23/2004 8:56:09 AM
We do not have the signed pages of the current leases either. We only have the first page of each lease.Does this pose a problem in the interim? That is kind of odd that the old landlord didn't have all pages of his lease. Unless you can dig up a signed lease which states otherwise, you're gonna have to assume that the tenants are indeed not to supposed to pay (directly) for utilities. Even if the written lease DOES state otherwise, the fact still reamins that the landlord has been paying the utilities. I would go ahead, split off the utilities now, but don't expect the tenant to pay for their unit's utilities until the new lease goes into effect. In fact, you might want to consider keeping them on under the old arrangement even after November 2004, if they are good tenants, if you're going to have a hard time replacing them, etc., etc. *** Tim Horrigan <horrigan@aol.com> ***



Stan Brown	3/23/2004 8:56:32 AM
"Gigi Joseph K" <josephgigi@hotmail.com> wrote in misc.legal.moderated: We just bought a rental property w/ 2units. Previous owner used to pay all utilities and the utilites are not seperated either. Current lease does not state who pay the utitilities. We are ready to seperate all the utilities and make tenant responsible for their own utilities. Current lease does not expire until Nov 2004 and tenants refuse to pay utilities. What are my options to make tenant pay for the utilities? (1) Find a written lease that says tenant pays for utilities. (That's unlikely to exist, since the utilities are not separate now.) (2) Separate the utilities now, but continue paying all of them until the lease expires. You cannot legally start to charge tenants for utilities during the lease, since that would amount to a rent increase. You can put a clause in a new lease that they pay for their own, effective with the end of the old and start of the new lease. But please wipe those dollar signs out of your eyes. If you stop paying for utilities, that amounts to a hefty rent increase, perhaps $100 a month. If you keep collecting the same rent figure -- let alone try to raise the rent -- you may have two empty units. So you might want to think about _lowering_ the rent when the new lease starts, by perhaps half the anticipated cost of utilities. Then you get some more money but you don't look quite so grasping and heartless. Obviously the state of the rental market in your area would also be a factor in how you set the new rent. If you don't think there would be any problem finding new tenants, then by all means go for the big bucks. But you absolutely can't do that until the current lease expires, unless you can find some document in which tenants agreed to pay a share of utilities on top of their rent. -- If you e-mail me from a fake address, your fingers will drop off. I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice. When you read anything legal on the net, always verify it on your own, in light of your particular circumstances. You may also need to consult a lawyer. Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com

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