Well, he’s given me a check for the deposit. If it bounces, which honestly wouldn’t surprise me, I’ll be looking into small claims court.
Actually, the way I understand it, that is exactly what banks do when they extend credit. The interest rate they give you is based on whether people who fit your financial profile have paid their debts or not. If you have a low income, or are a student, expect to pay 10 or even 20 percent more for a loan than someone with an established credit history and a steady job. They charge more for the credit because other people with similar credit histories have defaulted on loans and credit cards in the past. The worst credit card percentage rate I’ve ever seen (on one of the cards I was stupid enough to get stuck with as a student) was 36 percent. Not a typo, thirty-six percent APR!
Hedge your bets and present it at the ex-landlord’s bank.
Other than that, what an anti-climax. Now you’ve got to go through all the drudgery of un-girding your loins.
No, it’s not. There’s not a bank in the world (to the best of my knowledge) that actually adds $40,000 debt to the principle on your loan because someone else didn’t pay it.
Let me explain the point I was trying to make. The bit about making you personally responsible for someone else’s utilities is like a bank deciding to make you personally responsible for a total stranger’s loan. In other words, you walk into the bank, ask for a loan, and they whip out another loan file and tell you, “You will personally pay your loan AND this dude’s too!”
Thank you!
Why are there so many companies that do that kind of thing? Insurance and utilities are the ones I’ve had this kind of run-in with, but really, it seems like many of them make more money from people’s timidity or misinformation than from their theoretical business.
[full disclosure] For the 13 months civilian life I had between my Army service and my Navy service, I actually worked at a credit bureau, though not as a collector. The main thing I remember from that place is the business doesn’t care who pays, as long as someone pays the bill.
Of course, if they’re going after you, they had better have a legal reason to be going after you in particular to pay the thing.
You’re right, of course. Legally, it’s not a gray area. Legally, those poor people were not responsible for the previous tenant’s bill. But it’s a good movie quote. 
These companies don’t give a crap who pays, so long as someone does. And the sheep follow along and pay it because they are brow-beaten into it and have no idea how to get out of it. This lady at least asked for help and I was glad to be there for her. I abhor seeing companies try to pull one over on people. I tend to be quite the Pit Bull when riled.
About the utility going after whoever they could to get the money…
Several years ago I lived with a couple of roommates. They were a couple and had one bedroom, I had the other. We shared expenses and bills, I paid half… they paid half. I didn’t mind because I made more money than both of them combined and they were friends. Eventually, I ended up paying 60 or 70% of everything in order to keep the rent paid and the power on. I got sick of this and told them one month that I wasn’t going to cover their part of the bills anymore.
Well, they lied to the landlord and had me evicted (I really don’t know what they were thinking of here), so I moved in with one of their ex girlfriends (it had the intended effect). But before I moved out, I transferred all the utility bills out of my name and into theirs and made sure my name was off the lease.
About 3 months later, I got a call from the electric company trying to get me to pay their delinquent gas/electric bill. I told the person that I didn’t live there and that my name wasn’t on the account… but he said that my name used to be on the account. I told him that if he wanted me to pay a bill that was not mine, he’d better get the company lawyers working, because I wasn’t about to pay willingly.
I never heard from them on the matter again.
This is news to me.
It’s fairly common; without water and power, it’s a little tricky to get the unit cleaned and ready to re-occupy.
I’ve no idea about the legality of the thing. It seems pretty fishy to me, and I know they didn’t used to do it that way.
But then again, it’s their hookup. How are you going to force them to turn it on if they refuse? (Yeah, I know, you could hire a lawyer, blah blah blah. And while you’re paying the attorney fees, you’re still not making any rent because you can’t get the place cleaned.)
[QUOTE=SusanStoHelit
And for those that don’t know, landlords and property managers usually have agreements with local utilites such that when a tenant calls to turn off service the utility automatically switches it back into the landlord’s name. That’s why when you go to see vacant apartments the water and electricity still work.[/QUOTE]
I’ve worked in rental property management for twenty years, and I’ve never heard of this! What would stop a dishonest tenant from cancelling service and having it revert to the landlord and then not moving out? We’ve had tenants who use extension cords to run their electricity from the common areas (hallways) that we pay for!
Our local Public Service Electric & Gas company goes out to collect and turns off the services if someone is living there. If the unit is vacant, the account goes into “unknown” status, the services stay on and the company tries to track down the owner.
When they move in they sign a paper that says that if they switch it back to us while they are in posession we will pay it and charge them for it plus a $20/month “courtesy fee”.
Most of our tenants are college students. Not sophisticated enough to think about running cords etc.
Plus it’s a small college town. There are only so many property management companies in town and we all talk to each other. We actually had very few tenant problems, but then we always got relatively huge security deposits and never took HUD or Section 8 tenants.
Absolutely nothing. One or two of my mother’s tenants tried this stunt, but it didn’t work. When the local utilities called her to verify the change in service, she refused to allow it and had a come-to-Jesus talk with them.
Robin