Is a tenant entitled to see the breakdown of their monthly charges?
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Is a tenant entitled to see the breakdown of their monthly charges?
My apartment complex is now charging $5.95 to get a paper bill and $1.03 to get the bill electronically. The issue is that each monthly rental bill varies due to tacked on water charges, cable, parking, pest, trash, etc. Otherwise, you must show up to the office between 9 am and 4 pm to ask about your bill, wait for 20 minutes and pay by check, which is difficult for some of us working. Also, the office copy of the bill is not detailed so you do not know how the charges are broken out. So you are forced to pay the additional fees, overpay or guess. If you guess wrong and underpay, you are not notified until after the due date. In which case, you are then hit with late charges starting at $20 per day. Is this legal?
Asked on October 4, 2011 under Real Estate Law, Texas
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
To answer your question, you need to carefully read your lease in that its sets forth the obligations owed by you to the landlord and vice versa in the absence of conflciting state law.
Look carefully regarding any provisions in your written lease (assuming you have one) concerning the breakdown of monthly charges that you have written about and see if there is anything written to assist in answering your question. If not, you should write your landlord concerning the difficulties that you and the other tenants are facing as to the lack of detail in the monthly invoices for water, cable, parking and the like seeking greater itemization so as to not have to show up at the office to make further inquiries about it in that has become a waste of time for all.
Keep a copy of the letter and see what the response is.
Your question does not seem to be really a question as to where the charges for late payments are legal, but rather you are dealing with a poor business process.
However, the $20.00 per day late charge may be an unenforceable penalty in violation of public policy of your state in that most late charges are for 10% of the late amount based upon a 30 day cycle.
Good luck.
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