700$ Water bill not paid by tenant

[Gp G.]

Hi,

Seems the tenant left on a water tap or shower in the townhome for a few days in August 2025. This townhome has HOA which outsourced water meter reading etc. to a third party company. This third party company charged about 700$ to tenant (as tenant direct withdrawal from bank stopped working some reason probably tenant closed that bank account) which tenant did not pay for one particular month like August 2025. I paid that 700$ from my pocket about 3 months ago as HOA company was moved from old company to new company at that time (that is the time when I came to know this past 700$ water balance). I decided to pay thinking the new HOA transition may take time and tenant water may shut off and i can easily reimburse from this long term tenant. But even after following up for 3 months by the property manager she is not paying it. I am switching my property manager starting 04012026 end of current tenant lease to new property manager. I have all these moving parts. How do I make sure this tenant pays the pending water bill of 700$. So far this tenant pays rent on time and long term for multiple years. Third party confirms that there are no issues with the water meter or reading as this much spike of water bill never happened any other months as usual water bill around 50$ at maximum. New property manager in process of reaching to tenant to renew the lease now. Old property manager says no more use in contacting the tenant as she is not lifting the phone, responding to them and suggesting to deduct from the security deposit at the end of the lease. How do I go about solving this issue? Please advise

Thanks,

GP

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Gp G., A couple thoughts:

1. When a utility bill can impact your ownership of the property keep it in your name so that payment is always within your control! This is usually only the case when the utility is provided by the municipality or in your case HOA.

2. If #1 is the case and the bill is a fixed price, bake the cost into the rent. 

3. If #1 and the bill is variable based on usage, write the lease so that each bill is billed back to the tenant and due with the next rent payment. 

4. Most leases state that any monies due the landlord are either "payable BEFORE rent" or "payable AS rent". This would include things like late fee, billed back utility payments, damages, etc. That means that when they don't pay those things you treat it as "unpaid rent" and take the same actions to move to evict them. 

So, your PM should have given them their pay or quit notice or whatever notice your state requires and moved to evict.