Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

My name is Lisa and I live on a boat in a marina in Sausalito Ca. Rather than fix the electrical meters when they slowly stop working, 40 our of 60 boats have now been placed on an "avgering " system that is different for each boat. In addition recently he has charged all boats a one time fee of 159% of their avgerge to make up for his assessment of short falls on collecting PG&E fees. This month he has added the additional fees on his master bills by dividing by all boats.

Is it legal to "avgerage" each boat on an individual basis and charge additonal fees.

Thank you.


Asked on 4/02/10, 8:24 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

It is going to depend on the terms of your lease. There is nothing per se illegal about single-meter utilities in a rental situation. Commercial leases in multi-tenant buildings do that all the time. Can you imagine the nightmare of separately metering the BofA building, or a high-rise apartment building? Whether this particular plan is legal will depend on the terms of your lease and the details of how he is implementing it. If he has actually incurred unbilled electrical usage charges, the "catch up" is probably legal as well. To be sure, however, I would need to review the lease and get all the details of the situation.

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Answered on 4/09/10, 8:51 am


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