Tenant rights and safety.

Tenant's rights: water shutoff?

• I have owned a house for 2 years and bought the place when a tenant was in the middle of the lease, which carried over. In the lease it is written in that the tenant is responsible for the water, the previous owner hand wrote this in on a page of the lease along with everything else that the owner and tenant is responsible for...it is not typed like everything else so it honestly may have a hard time standing. After the lease I started the tenant on month-to-month without a current lease. Today I get a call that there's no water...not sure what the cause I called the emergency water line and they said that there hasn't been any account sense '06 and also said that no one from the department has been out to the house. I assume the water has been turned off because of no payment recently and the man on the phone just didn't have a record of someone going out there. The amount due on the water account has to be at least $1,000. The tenant says they thought I was to pay for the water all along. I am aware the water will be a lien on the property if not paid. What should I do? Should I pay what I know the water department will want so the tenant has water? Should I not have the water turned on? What can happen if no one turns the water on and the tenant doesn't have water?

• Answer:

  So many questions. The bottom line is that you need to have the water turned on, pay the outstanding bill and then decide whether or not to sue the tenant for the money. A lease, and all of its clauses, can be handwritten in crayon on toilet paper and still be valid.