Questions about water bills for chalets?

Questioner

I am on the board of the foundation that is responsible for managing the shared facilities of a chalet park (with residential destination). The residents are usually also the owners of their chalet. The water supply in the park is centrally regulated. In concrete terms, this means that there is a central meter at the beginning of the park and that the management foundation advances the costs of the water consumption of the joint residents to the water company. The individual chalets each have a separate water meter and are expected to report their water level to the park management every year (if not, the management makes an estimate). The management foundation then invoices the costs of the water consumption per chalet to the residents. Now, the following is happening with one chalet. The owner of this chalet does not live there himself, but rents it out to someone else. This tenant received the water bill this year, but did not pay it; this despite two payment reminders. As far as I know, nothing specific has been arranged about service costs in the rental agreement between the owner of this chalet and its tenant. Can we, as the board of the management foundation, now hold the owner of the chalet liable for paying the bill for water consumption?

Lawyer

Yes.

Lawyer

That is indeed possible. The agreement between the foundation and the owner is leading, after all, that is where the payment obligation to the foundation comes from. The owner will then probably have a claim on his tenant, but your foundation is not involved in that.

Questioner

@Marc van Rosmalen: thanks for your extensive answer. As far as I can tell, there is no formal agreement between the owner and the management foundation. What is the situation in that case? To give you a good understanding of the situation: I have recently become the treasurer of the foundation, my predecessor has since left. In this case, I am dealing with an 'inheritance' from my predecessor. Thanks in advance for your response!

Lawyer

Well, that is a question I cannot answer. You indicate that the foundation manages the facilities and settles with the owners of the chalets. That must be recorded somewhere, possibly in the agreement between the chalet owner and the park owner? Of course, a lot can be inferred from habit, but then we will have to look at how this settlement has taken place in recent years and specifically at comparable situations with tenants versus owners.