Pennsylvania Attorney Pens Blog;
Offers Sage Advice To Landlords
Landlords with multi-unit properties and prospective residential investors must consider the consequences of "shared" utilities. I've run into this scenario several times over the years, and York (PA) attorney/blogger Joseph N. Gothie puts the matter in perspective in Utility service, foreign loads, and tenants:
"the tenant called the gas company because he was concerned about...the gas furnace malfunctioning. The gas company inspected everything and noted that the furnace was fine, but that one of the radiators was located in the other half of the duplex. The tenant then demanded that the gas service be switched over to the landlord. The gas company... had no choice but to do this.
"[PA] statute provides that from the date of notice to the utility, the landlord is obligated to pay the utility bill and that the service cannot be thereafter metered in the name of any tenant until the foreign load is removed. ..the statute suggests that the utility may only pursue the landlord for the arrears on the utility, not the tenant. Therefore, the landlord was placed on the hook for not only for future gas bills under a yearly lease (preventing him from raising the rent to cover the extra costs at least for a year) but also the tenant's profligate use of the gas in the past. No remedy existed for the landlord against the tenant."As described above, this scenario is generally known as a "foreign load" problem. Tenants hear about this from time to time, and they will look for areas where, if they turn off their fuses/circuit breakers, common area lights (for instance) turn off. Then, they spring it on the landlord."
Other recent articles include: Why lead paint disclosure compliance matters and Some ideas for handling abandoned property.
Cripes. I wonder if they have these types of laws in New York.
Posted by: Grunt | April 25, 2005 at 07:48 PM