Forum Archive

Hi,

I have finally found a rental apartment, but the landlord is including some unusual lease provisions in the rider. The most worrisome of these is a provision regarding the water bill. The apartment building contains 5 apartments, all two or three bedrooms, with W/D hook ups and dishwashers. The tenant must agree to assume 1/5 of the amount of any water bill exceeding $400 per quarter.

Are there any landlords of multi-family dwellings out there that have an opinion on whether the building is likely to exceed $400 per quarter in water bills? And by how much? I don’t want to make a big deal of this if it isn’t likely to be a problem, but we will already be paying our own heat/hot water, so I need to keep the bills under control.

Many thanks.