Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Kansas

I live in the mobile home park Andover Estates. I recieved a notice in the mail about an extra fee we have to pay on the water bill. It says that their water bill was "several times larger than for a comparable period of time the rest of the year". And so they are passing a portion of that bill directly to the tenants. Our lot rent includes water, sewer & trash and they just "restructered" our rent to seperate out the water, sewer & trash which increased our rent by $24 a month! There are NO seperate water meters on each person's property. There is nothing in the paperwork or rental agreement that says they can add special assessments whenever they want. They are saying that there may be another "special assessment fee" next month as well! Now, my questions are: Can they legally add extra charges such as this? And can they just do it any time they want? Is there any kind of recouse on something like this? What happens if I refuse to pay? How can they prove it was me and why should I have to pay for someone else's extra water?

PLEASE HELP ME! I am unemployed and cannot afford these extra payments.


Asked on 1/28/10, 4:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Smith LawSmith

If there are no seperate meters, and utilities are inlcuded with the rent, then you shoudl examine yrou rental agreement and amendments for mention of pro rata contribution for excessive or our of ordinary costs. Also look to se eif the rental agreemtn incorporates rules or conditions posted somewhere. It may be written in language that you did nto understand or had not noticed before because you thought it was boiler plate legalese.

Good luck

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Answered on 2/03/10, 1:49 pm


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