Q: I'm renting a place in a large home in Minneapolis where there are other residents also renting a specific unit in the home. Each of us was always billed separately for gas for our specific unit, and then we each would pay our own bill.
Beginning in November 2022, without notice from our landlord, all the residents started being charged for gas for all the common areas in the home. First of all, there is nothing in the lease agreement that specifies the landlord can assess us for "house" utilities.
Wouldn't the total gas charge for common areas, which includes the office and the garage, need to be on a single meter that requires notice of costs and specifics of how each tenant is charged? If so, can we be reimbursed for all past charges we paid until the time the property owner complies with the legal requirement?
A: In Minnesota, there can be no changes made to a lease by the landlord or the tenant while the current lease is still running, unless both parties agree to it. Then, once the current lease ends, your landlord can propose changes to how gas charges or other utilities are paid, with appropriate notice of 30 or 60 days, depending on what your lease states.
If a tenant objects to the terms in the new lease, then they can vacate the property. You didn't mention if your lease terminated in November 2022, which would allow your landlord to change the terms of your lease if they gave you proper notice.
In addition to waiting until the lease ends and giving proper notice of this change in utility billing, your landlord must also follow specific restrictions regarding a shared meter. If your lease ended in November and you weren't given a new lease to sign, then you are considered to be on a month-to-month lease, and your landlord still needs to give you appropriate notice of the change for how the gas bill should be paid going forward.
The single-meter law in Minnesota doesn't prevent a landlord from portioning out a utility service payment among units for those common areas, and either including utility costs in a unit's rent or billing for utility charges separate from rent, but there are conditions the landlord must follow.
The first condition is to include giving prospective tenants notice of the total utility cost for the building for each month of the most recent year. The landlord must also put in writing how they will fairly split the bill, how often the tenants will be billed for each utility and must include a lease provision stating that, if a tenant requests it, the landlord must provide a copy of the actual utility bill for the building along with each apportioned utility bill.