Tenant Suffers Service Shutoff As Landlord In F'closure Pockets Rent, Stiffs City On Water Bill; Lack Of Running H2O May Lead To Health Dept. Boot

In West Jordan, Utah, the Deseret News reports:

• If you rent your home and your landlord stops paying the mortgage and the water bill, you just might get a rude surprise, rather than a fair warning. That's the predicament facing renter Annette Bell. "With no funds available, what do I do?" she said.
• The West Jordan woman is discovering the mortgage crisis not only affects homeowners, it also creates crises for renters who may be victims of the cascading financial problems of their landlords.
• She discovered her landlord is headed toward foreclosure. Her water was shut off two weeks ago, and she's scrambling to figure out her rights. "I'm not the homeowner, and the water has already been shut off," she said Friday. "So, they won't make payment arrangements with me."
• A neighbor lets Annette Bell fill water containers so she can manually flush toilets and wash. "As far as moving, that's not an option right now because I don't have the funds to do so," she said.

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• When the city shut off the water early this month, she found out that her landlord, who lives out of state, had not paid the water bill in nearly a year. [...] West Jordan officials said they only contract with the owners, not renters, on residential water bills.

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• The health department could also force Bell out of the house any day, because it has no running water, and the department considers that an unsanitary, unlivable situation.

For the story, see West Jordan renter without water and options after landlord stopped paying bill.