Who pays sewer charges in PA ?

Question

Is there any law saying that payment of sewer bill is landlord’s responsibility? What everyone is doing ? Do you pay the sewer bills or tenants pay those ?

Marc Winter · Answer

@Marita Jojo, quick answer:  it depends.

In some areas of PA, an unpaid sewer charge will result in a lien on the property.  So let's call that item an owner's obligation.  If that's the case in your municipality, you can have the tenant pay, but remember that if they don't pay the bill, YOU will be on the hook.

In Scranton, the city in its infinite wisdom sold the only performing asset, the Scranton Sewer Authority, to PAWC.  So now the bill for water and sewer are bundled, and the tenant that has their own water meter and account will pay for water and sewer.  No longer able to lien against the property.

Check with your municipality to see who pays, and if unpaid, what will happen?  I mean, they really can't shut off the sewer.  LOL.

John Cassel · Answer

I agree with what @Marc Winter & @Bob Derwin said.  I know in York you can put it in the tenants name but they can put a lien if unpaid and rack up a lot of late fees.  For some of my properties, I just have the property management company bill back for last month's water & sewer.  For heating, electric & trash I have those in the tenants name if they are responsible so it doesn't come back on me/the property.

Hope this helps!

John

Andrew Bosworth · Answer

@Marita Jojo You can always add a utility service fee (or whatever you decide to call it) to the monthly rent.  I recently implemented this to a property where the sewer and trash are included in the RE taxes.  I also pay the water, so by adding a utility fee I lower my utility costs.  The tenants already understood that utilities are based on their usage, not the landlords, so they were fine with the fee.

Bob Derwin · Answer

My rule of thumb is that any bill that can result in a lien on my property, I pay.  For 99% of my properties, that means sewer only.  I have one property where the city handles trash removal, and they have the ability to place a lien on the property, so I pay for trash removal and sewer at that property.

Bill B. · Answer

It might be local. But in Las Vegas the property owner must be billed directly for sewer services. But our leases state the tenant is responsible for all utilities so we simply forward them a copy of the invoice so they can reimburse us.

Who pays sewer charges in PA ?

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