Landlords/Tenants

We understand that utility services for rental properties can sometimes get complicated. LCA tries to make it easy by giving customers choices regarding who should receive the water / sewer bill. We are happy to bill tenants directly, as long as their payment history is good. However, we reserve the right to bill either the tenant or the landlord for water / sewer services, depending on payment history.

Billing Guidelines

Here are some guidelines LCA will follow when working with landlords and tenants for water / sewer billing:

  • When a new tenant moves in, both the landlord and tenant must jointly complete a Tenant Authorization Form to document your understanding of your respective roles, responsibilities, and fees. We hope this will help to avoid any further complications addressed by the other guidelines listed below. Download the Tenant Authorization Form.
  • Services will be terminated for unpaid water / sewer bills, regardless of tenant / landlord billing responsibility. We will do our best to notify all parties of this action prior to service termination.
  • When a tenant moves out, the tenant’s final bill with all remaining charges will be billed to the landlord. This bill must be paid before we will begin billing for a new tenant.
  • Landlord’s water / sewer bill must be paid in full before we can begin billing a tenant for utility services.
  • FINAL bills related to transfer of service must be paid by check, cash, or money order. Online and phone system payments for these types of bills are not accepted.
  • If a tenant moves out / in and LCA is not notified before the next regular quarterly bill is issued, we will not recalculate the prior bill. The current bill should be paid in full, and we will issue the final bill as of the date of the last regular bill.
  • If a landlord has a credit balance on their water/sewer account at the time service is transferred to be billed in the tenant’s name, that credit is the property of the landlord but will be refunded only upon request. All other credits will remain on the landlord’s account to be applied to future bills including unpaid tenant bills.
  • The New Customer Fee ($15) will be assessed every time billing responsibility changes, if a final bill is issued. This is a required fee that covers the cost of a technician visiting the property to take a final water meter reading, and to process and mail a final bill.
  • Because water and sewer utility service is tied to the property and cannot move from the property (unlike cable or cell phone service), LCA reserves the right to place a property lien for unpaid bills, in addition to pursuing service termination. As a result, it is important the landlords receive notice when their tenants become delinquent on their water / sewer bill. LCA sends duplicate copies of all past-due notices to both tenants and landlords.

Any questions about our billing procedures for landlords / tenants? 
Please Contact Us!