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In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Chris Magno wrote:
> welcome to home ownership.
>
> :(
>
> if the previous owners were ... ummmm....
>
> remiss in paying the bills, then their is a good chance that utilities will
> ask for a "security deposit"
>
> they can legally ask for "..... a reasonable amount" end QUOTE!!!
I don't know how the laws differ between the US and Canada, but here (at
least in Michigan) the home is considered to accrue the bills if they aren't
paid. What this means is that if you buy a house and the previous owners left
unpaid utilities, you are required to pay them up front if you are the new
owner. The previous owners are still legally responsible to cover their own
bills, so if they ever get tracked down and forced to pay up, you'll get your
money returned (again, sans interest), but if they vanished into thin air,
you're out of luck. Well, unless you were really thrilled with the idea of
having a house with no water, electricity, gas, or trash pickup...
Also, if you rent and the previous tenant leaves unpaid utilities, you are
required to prove that you did not live there (i.e. show them a copy of your new
lease) during the period in which the unpaid bill was accrued. Once you do
that, the landlord gets stuck with the bill until the previous tenant can be
tracked down and shaken upside-down for loose change. I had my gas turned off
because of this in a really freaky situation. I live on the second floor of a
home-conversion apartment, and the only gas appliance I have is the furnace.
The hot-water heater is hooked up to the first-floor gas meter, along with the
first-floor furnace, which meant that the first-floor tenant was paying to heat
water for the second-floor tenant. This was discovered shortly before I moved
in, so my lease was the first one where gas was included and my rent was simply
adjusted to compensate (which works out great for me at tax time). However, the
previous tenant never paid her gas bill off, so about six months after I moved
in they left me a note hanging from my door saying that they'd shut off my gas
because of unpaid bills. Obviously, since I'd never even received a gas bill, I
was a bit stunned by this. It took about half a year before I could finally get
the gas turned back on (fortunately they shut it off during late Spring).
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: HEY ...Lucy
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| (...) welcome to home ownership. :( if the previous owners were ... ummmm.... remiss in paying the bills, then their is a good chance that utilities will ask for a "security deposit" they can legally ask for "..... a reasonable amount" end QUOTE!!! (...) (21 years ago, 21-Aug-03, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
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