Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
Hi I have a Tenants rights question.
We rent a house with an in law unit attached on the side.
The pge is in our name and we pay 70 percent of the PG&e, in law unit pays 30 percent. This agreement was created by the landlord in our initial lease and they have no interest in changing it. How legal is it that we are paying 70 percent of the pge when next door uses more pge than we do and we end up paying for it?
Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
If there was no deception involved in your agreeing to the split, then you made a binding agreement. In-law units are always smaller than the main house so it would be reasonable for the landlord to assume that you would use more electricity than the other unit so you should pay a higher amount. Unless the units are separately metered, how do you know what percentage each uses. If they are separately metered and you are on a month to month lease, or the other tenant is, ask the landlord out of fairness to have each pay their own electricity; listen to what reasons he gives against that and politely rebut them.
It is legal because you agreed to it, and there is no law against such an agreement. The agreement could have been you pay all utilities for both units so the landlord can rent the inlaw as "all utilities paid."
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