Who should pay the IWK bill for a tenanted house?

[Hai]

The owner or the tenant? What's the common practice here?

[chewie]

should be tenant...but also depends how u work it out with ur tenant or owner lorr

[tryagain]

It should be mentioned in the tenancy agreement. IWK should be tenant but I have seen many many cases it end not paid by the tenant.

[charis14]

Agree that the tenant should normally be liable - similar to usage of water & electricity. However, owners remain the ultimate 'guarantor' by virtue of the account being in their name. Syabas & TNB also have additional weapon - may refuse connection even if unsettled account was not in owner's name.

[ahbitchew]

It should be the landlord ! coz unlike Tenaga or Telecom services which is user pay system, IWK bill is akin to quit rent which is payable irrespective whether the place is tenanted or not.
Then again we have some penny wise landlord, who has already charged a hefty sum for the rental, tried to increased the rental indirectly by asking the tenant to bear the IWK bill thereby destroying whatever goodwill one might have with the landlord ....
my approach : build in the IWK expenses in the asking rental, then graciouly infomed the tenant that the landlord will bear the cost of IWK bill, now everybody are happy !

[geordie]

In all of the standard Tenancy Agreement (TA) drawn up by our agent, IWK is to be borned by our tenants. A good agent would advise his or her prospective client of all the bills to be undertaken by them in a standard TA. So far, we never had any tenants protesting over it. And our tenants are required to produce receipts for IWK (amongst others) prior to getting their deposit back upon handing over at the end of the tenancy agreement.

[kwchang]

It is an understanding with the tenant that he should pay for his own refuse - do note that IndahWaters clean the sewers and the bill from them is for their service - hence the tenant who use your premises use the sewerage system and thus should pay. Just like the tenant using the elactricity and water as mentioned earlier in this thread

[Hai]

kwchang is right. It is a half-yearly service that should be paid by the person occupying the house regardless the person is owner or tenant. Anyway if the tenant does not pay the bill, the tenant will feel nothing as the service will not be cut off like water and electricity. Only the owner will face the lawsuit.

ahbitchew is also right. The bill should be integrated in the rental to avoid any argument.

It is amazing that some of my friends do not even know what IWK is. I repeat with 'Indah Water' and they still do not know it. Sweat...