I'll try to answer everything without missing anyones questions, but DS is crying so I have to be super fast!

The property is a house, so the meter isn't shared with any other properties. We don't have water saving fittings as far as I know. I can't find a full copy of my entire lease document....... but I do have the renewal notice. There was a box ticked saying 'rent remains unchanged' and there was no mention of any water bills. I also did not receive any separate letter advising me of the change.

Am I mistaken though, in thinking that changes can only be made at the beginning of a new lease???? In which case, they should have told me about this in May? I have had a change-over in property manager though.... the lady who used to take care of us no longer works there, and I have some random new woman who isn't familiar with us at all.

I might just add that yes, she DID take the landlords side, and started trying to get me to have sympathy for them, saying it's not fair for them to pay our water bill. Ok, fair enough, but he's been doing it all this time, why the sudden change? I told her my only issue is with not being told in advance, and the expectation for us to pay almost immediately.

She's going to look through our full document today and get back to me. As far as I'm concerned, if there's no mention of us paying for water, they can shove this bill up their derierres. Fair enough if they want to change the deal, but they need to submit that to us IN WRITING, and wait for my agreement. When that happens, and ONLY when that happens, I'll be responsible for any water usage charges in future.

Also, I won't be paying any bills that aren't in my name, or addressed to me. I haven't even seen the entire invoice. They've sent me the back half of it and it says clearly at the top 'THIS IS NOT AN INVOICE'.

I'm going to go and have a little sook...... I'm really getting tired of things like this happening to us. We can never get ahead financially because every cent we save is ALWAYS eaten up by things like this. I wouldn't feel half as bad if this was due to my own stupidity or poor planning. But when people start springing stuff like this on you, it's sucky. Come on universe, I've had a really hard year! Give me a break and stop throwing stupid little problems like this my way. I've got bigger fish to fry!