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A few days ago, I got a little notice on my door from my apartment complex. It said something to the effect of the complex was requiring tenants to get their utilities registered in their names. This seemed odd to me, as our utilities are already registered in our names, or more specifically, in my name.
So this morning I called the front office to inquire about this odd message. I told the girl who answered (a lovely young lady who I have worked with at a local restaurant in the past) that our utilities were already in our name, at which point she explained: the notice was not about the utilities we were paying (electricity, water, and cable), but rather, it referred to the sewer and garbage services. While the complex had been paying those fees in the past (past being at least the last five plus years I've lived here), the head office of the corporation that owns this place had decided to transfer the responsibility for the aforementioned sewer and garbage services to the resident.
Really? Really....?
That seemed a bit, well, shady, greedy, fucked up, and potentially even illegal. I wondered aloud to the front office lady if such a thing might be, oh, I don't know, a violation of our current lease. She did not know if it was, but at my request, agreed to get a copy of our lease to me this very day. (I thought I might have a copy of it somewhere, but I wasn't immediately sure where, and hell, why not have an extra copy?) She also informed me that the person I needed to speak to, her boss and the complex manager, would be out of town until Tuesday.
Well, tonight when I got home from work, the lease was indeed waiting for me. Some of you may remember the lease...the monstrosity I told you about months ago that had over 30 pages and required my roommates' and my signatures and/or initials in well over 40 different places. The same lease that prohibited tenants from backing into parking spots, as this was a sign of gang presence, or some such cockamamie bullshit. (That particular policy has since been abandoned completely.)
I was not looking forward to poring over this behemoth, but finally, I sat down to take a look, fearing it might take me a long time to find what I was looking for.
It took me about a minute.
Scanning the various section titles, on the third page, I found the item I was looking for: "Utilities." The first sentence of this section detailed that the resident would be responsible for the electricity, the water, and the cable bills. And the very next sentence stated that the responsibility for the sewer and garbage service fees would be that of the landlord.
Now I am not a crack lawyer. Nor a lawyer on crack. Nor even a lawyer at all. But I think it is pretty plain that, while the landlord can eventually transfer such fees to the residents, including myself and my roommates, they cannot force us to take over such fees while the current lease is in effect.
Our current lease runs through July, 2011. Those of you with operational calendars will notice that it is currently February, 2011.
I am looking forward to seeing what thehead weasel complex manager has to say about that.
I am going to go out on a limb and guess that he'll do whatweasels managers usually do: pass the buck. I am wagering he will say that the head office decided that this would be The Way Things Will Be, and it was out of his hands. Forcing me to actually call the head office, which I was tempted to do (but did not actually do) in anger regarding the parking restriction mentioned above, and which I was tempted to do (but did not actually do) in amusement from our previous lease having a provision stating that it would be the sole responsibility of the tenants to take care of any necessary snow removal. This for a property in Key West, a subtropical island whose lowest recorded temperature was 41F, and thus, has never seen any snow, ever.
The legality of this attempted end-around are questionable at best.
The ethics are laughable.
The greed of it is alarming. At a time when this complex is using big honking signs desperately trying to attract more residents to fill empty units, in an economy that even in Key West is a bit shaky for many people, this corporation felt it perfectly fine to attempt to increase their profit margin by eliminating an expense they had expressly stated in legal contracts that they would pay.
It's an attempted money grab, pure and simple.
Sadly, the money grab will work, one way or another. Even if I argue my case successfully to the complex manager or the head office, at best I will be receiving a reprieve of said fees until the end of this lease. It would be perfectly legal for them to change future leases to reflect this change in utility fee payment responsibility. Still greedy, still shady, but at least legal.
Of course, my roommates and I are hoping for incompetence on their part, such as a simple reprint of our current lease with simply the relevant dates changed. Probably too much to ask for, as I expect not only the utility fee clause to be changed, but also the rent to be raised, which it was not from our last least to our current one.
Had this corporation been at all smart, they would have simply raised rents on future leases to adjust for the garbage and sewer fees. Or even changed future leases to reflect the change in responsibility. But rather than do something smart like that, they have made themselves look like the greedy bastards they are by attempting to violate the terms of their own lease by telling residents they HAVE to start paying such fees immediately. I don't doubt that this will backfire on them, and they will lose some residents who decide there are greener (and less shady) pastures elsewhere.
So this morning I called the front office to inquire about this odd message. I told the girl who answered (a lovely young lady who I have worked with at a local restaurant in the past) that our utilities were already in our name, at which point she explained: the notice was not about the utilities we were paying (electricity, water, and cable), but rather, it referred to the sewer and garbage services. While the complex had been paying those fees in the past (past being at least the last five plus years I've lived here), the head office of the corporation that owns this place had decided to transfer the responsibility for the aforementioned sewer and garbage services to the resident.
Really? Really....?
That seemed a bit, well, shady, greedy, fucked up, and potentially even illegal. I wondered aloud to the front office lady if such a thing might be, oh, I don't know, a violation of our current lease. She did not know if it was, but at my request, agreed to get a copy of our lease to me this very day. (I thought I might have a copy of it somewhere, but I wasn't immediately sure where, and hell, why not have an extra copy?) She also informed me that the person I needed to speak to, her boss and the complex manager, would be out of town until Tuesday.
Well, tonight when I got home from work, the lease was indeed waiting for me. Some of you may remember the lease...the monstrosity I told you about months ago that had over 30 pages and required my roommates' and my signatures and/or initials in well over 40 different places. The same lease that prohibited tenants from backing into parking spots, as this was a sign of gang presence, or some such cockamamie bullshit. (That particular policy has since been abandoned completely.)
I was not looking forward to poring over this behemoth, but finally, I sat down to take a look, fearing it might take me a long time to find what I was looking for.
It took me about a minute.
Scanning the various section titles, on the third page, I found the item I was looking for: "Utilities." The first sentence of this section detailed that the resident would be responsible for the electricity, the water, and the cable bills. And the very next sentence stated that the responsibility for the sewer and garbage service fees would be that of the landlord.
Now I am not a crack lawyer. Nor a lawyer on crack. Nor even a lawyer at all. But I think it is pretty plain that, while the landlord can eventually transfer such fees to the residents, including myself and my roommates, they cannot force us to take over such fees while the current lease is in effect.
Our current lease runs through July, 2011. Those of you with operational calendars will notice that it is currently February, 2011.
I am looking forward to seeing what the
I am going to go out on a limb and guess that he'll do what
The legality of this attempted end-around are questionable at best.
The ethics are laughable.
The greed of it is alarming. At a time when this complex is using big honking signs desperately trying to attract more residents to fill empty units, in an economy that even in Key West is a bit shaky for many people, this corporation felt it perfectly fine to attempt to increase their profit margin by eliminating an expense they had expressly stated in legal contracts that they would pay.
It's an attempted money grab, pure and simple.
Sadly, the money grab will work, one way or another. Even if I argue my case successfully to the complex manager or the head office, at best I will be receiving a reprieve of said fees until the end of this lease. It would be perfectly legal for them to change future leases to reflect this change in utility fee payment responsibility. Still greedy, still shady, but at least legal.
Of course, my roommates and I are hoping for incompetence on their part, such as a simple reprint of our current lease with simply the relevant dates changed. Probably too much to ask for, as I expect not only the utility fee clause to be changed, but also the rent to be raised, which it was not from our last least to our current one.
Had this corporation been at all smart, they would have simply raised rents on future leases to adjust for the garbage and sewer fees. Or even changed future leases to reflect the change in responsibility. But rather than do something smart like that, they have made themselves look like the greedy bastards they are by attempting to violate the terms of their own lease by telling residents they HAVE to start paying such fees immediately. I don't doubt that this will backfire on them, and they will lose some residents who decide there are greener (and less shady) pastures elsewhere.
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