Landlord: "By the way, you owe me $400"

Despite my complaints and my desire to save up a Scumbag Landlord Fund before I potentially move into Boyfriend's Condo, my Landlord is better than a lot of others I've read about. I've pretty much resigned myself to losing my deposit because I used to smoke against his wishes and the explicit notice he added to my lease. But I've lived there for 5 years so the $775 I put down only boils down to about $155 a year lost. And if truth be told, it was my Dad's money anyway.

All in all he's been understanding, tolerant, and very quick whenever there was a problem. My apartment is nice and since I've been there so long my rent is slightly below market for its size.

Yesterday I called my Landlord to let him know my heat wasn't working. Don't worry, dear readers, I rarely sleep at my place anyway and I knew what the problem was. He called back an hour later to say the problem had been solved (amazing, right?) and then he laid this bomb on me:

I owe 4 years of water service in the amount of $400!!!

I would like to claim total ignorance or blame it completely on my Landlord but I simply can't. The first year I moved in he charged me a fee of $100 for water for the year. The next year there was a note on my lease saying I owed $100again but he didn't ask for it. So I didn't pay. The same thing went on for the subsequent years. I think he may have said something once like "you owe me money for this year's water" but it's not like he sent a bill or anything. We communicate only by phone and on the first of every month I post my rent check on my door in an envelope.

I wasn't dodging this expense, really, I just forgot. And I guess he forgot to remind me. My knowledge of the law makes me think he probably couldn't collect all of this money from me in court owing to the Statute of Limitations but I'm not gonna be that guy, you know?

I wanna say Damn the Man and hate on my Landlord like English Major's Money is rightfully doing after being screwed out of her $1800 deposit (yikes girl move upstate!) but really it's just a situation that sucks and is adding to my general frustration today.

He said we can work out a payment plan. Woo-hoo, another payment plan.

Well isn't this depressing? Why don't you check out quite possibly the funniest depictions of landlords ever created to cheer yourself up now?

Gotta love that Pearl.