Common Utilities
All tenants are entitled to know what utitlies they are going to be held accountable for during their tenancy. This should be negociated before the tenant moves in and begins paying for utilities. It is illegal for a landlord to not disclose to a tenant in writing that the tenant will be paying for utilities that they do not use. In Napa this would include: a landlord not informing a tenant that the tenant is paying for their neighbor/house mate's utilities, OR that the tenant is paying for the electric costs to run pumps on an adjacent vineyard, OR the landlord does not inform the tenant of the correct percentage of the shared utiltiy bill that they will be paying for, as a few examples. Ultimately a landlord and tenant should reach a mutual written agreement regarding how much utilities a tenant is to pay during their tenancy.
1940.9.
(a) If the landlord does not provide separate gas and electric meters for each tenant's dwelling unit so that each tenant's meter measures only the electric or gas service to that tenant's dwelling unit and the landlord or his or her agent has knowledge that gas or electric service provided through a tenant's meter serves an area outside the tenant's dwelling unit, the landlord, prior to the inception of the tenancy or upon discovery, shall explicitly disclose that condition to the tenant and shall do either of the following:
(1) Execute a mutual written agreement with the tenant for payment by the tenant of the cost of the gas or electric service provided through the tenant's meter to serve areas outside the tenant's dwelling unit.
(2) Make other arrangements, as are mutually agreed in writing, for payment for the gas or electric service provided through the tenant's meter to serve areas outside the tenant's dwelling unit. These arrangements may include, but are not limited to, the landlord becoming the customer of record for the tenant's meter, or the landlord separately metering and becoming the customer of record for the area outside the tenant's dwelling unit.
(b) If a landlord fails to comply with subdivision (a), the aggrieved tenant may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction. The remedies the court may order shall include, but are not limited to, the following:
(1) Requiring the landlord to be made the customer of record with the utility for the tenant's meter.
(2) Ordering the landlord to reimburse the tenant for payments made by the tenant to the utility for service to areas outside of the tenant's dwelling unit. Payments to be reimbursed pursuant to this paragraph shall commence from the date the obligation to disclose arose under subdivision (a).
(c) Nothing in this section limits any remedies available to a landlord or tenant under other provisions of this chapter, the rental agreement, or applicable statutory or common law.
(1941.) Section Nineteen Hundred and Forty-one. The lessor of a building intended for the occupation of human beings must, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, put it into a condition fit for such occupation, and repair all subsequent dilapidations thereof, which render it untenantable, except such as are mentioned in section nineteen hundred and twenty-nine.
