Too often tenants leave an unpaid water bill behind when they leave one of Tony Guardado’s rental units in Stark County.
Ohio law says Guardado is responsible for the bill because he owns the rental property and it allows government utility departments to assess the overdue charges as a lien if he doesn’t pay it.
“Holding the property owner responsible for a resident’s public utility really is an unfair practice and policy,” said Guardado, a member of the Stark County Real Estate Investors Association who estimated that tenants leave him stuck with an unpaid water bill roughly 90% of the time.
He said housing providers already are struggling to keep their rent affordable with higher property taxes, rental registration fees, supplies and maintenance costs.
“We shouldn’t have to absorb the burden of unpaid utilities on top of that,” he said.
Guardado and other landlords in Stark County and across Ohio are asking state lawmakers to pass House Bill 93 , which would shift the burden for paying utility bills — such as water, sewer and trash — from landowners to tenants.