Landlord given surprise utility bill

NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) -- A local landlord is looking for answers. She received a call from a collections agency for an unpaid utility bill from one of her apartments, but her tenants are supposed to pay those bills. So why is she stuck with the bill?

If you've ever received a call from a collections agency, it's usually after you've received several late notices from the creditor. But one landlord says that it was news to her.

Lucille Santoro and her family have owned this apartment building for the past 33 years, and she says she's never had any issues. That is, until several months ago.

Santoro was furious, since this call was the first time she ever heard there was a problem.

Worried about her credit, she asked the collections agency to send her the bill. It showed an unpaid balance of $57.27 for apartment 6, though no dates for the time the service was provided, just the amount owed.

She contacted the utility company, who just kept referring her back to the collections agency, who in turn kept telling her that the debt was hers.

The only thing Lucille could assume was that the bill belonged to her previous tenant, who she evicted over a year ago for nonpayment of rent.

Call 12 For Action contacted the utility company. After a few hours, we were given the dates the service was provided and told that it was a time that the apartment was vacant. Santoro now questions why this information was never provided to her and wonders why she never received a past-due bill from the utility company.

"I was totally unaware of it," she added. "Especially since I have documentation from when the property was vacant, I'm responsible for those bills and I paid them!"

Lucille says now that she has the dates, she will go back and review her documents, but she's still furious that it took a call from Call 12 For Action to get all of the details.

According to the Public Utilities Commission, if a tenant does not pay a utility bill, the landlord is not responsible to pay it, the landlord is only responsible to pay utilities on a vacant apartment.