Q: Moved out in May and got my deposit back in July. I recently received a bill for utilities. Can they bill MONTHS after?

A: Well, yes, a landlord can bring claims against you for up to one year after the claim arose. That said, however, it sounds as if you may have multiple claims against the landlord. First, they were obligated to either refund or provide a written accounting for why they were keeping your security deposit within 31 days of your restoring possession to them. If they were late, you are entitled to recover twice the amount not timely refunded or accounted for, plus your court costs and attorney's fees. Then there is the issue regarding the utilities. There are some rather technical requirements regarding a landlord billing a tenant for utilities - disclosures in the lease; perhaps monthly disclosures with the bills; billing you within 30 days of the landlord getting the bill from the service provider; it certainly is not lawful to tell you that you are being billed based on your own actual usage and then bill you differently, especially if you are being billed for something that may benefit others, etc. Utility billing violations are assessed penalties against the landlord in terms of month's rent, perhaps multiple month's rent. So all in all, it certainly sounds as if the landlord may well owe you much more than anything you might owe him. The only way to know is to take your lease, the utility billings, copies of all communications with the landlord, and any accounting for or refund of your security deposit to a landlord-tenant attorney for a complete review. If after doing a comprehensive review, the attorney believes you have a solid case, it is the sort of case that many attorneys would consider taking on a contingency, meaning you would not owe the attorney anything for his fees beyond the initial evaluation interview. Rather, he would rely upon collecting his fees from the landlord upon settling the case or prevailing at trial. Usually these things are rather cut and dried - either he accounted for or refunded the security deposit within 31 days or he did not. And while the landlord frequently screams and yells and stomps around proclaiming he will never pay, once he figures out that he has to pay your attorney's fees on top of everything else, he normally then is rather anxious to settle and get this over with before he has to keep paying ever escalating fees. It pressures a landlord to pay up and settle rapidly rather than fighting it out in court - which is something he may well do if you simply sue him yourself, without an attorney. Regardless, check it all out with a landlord-tenant attorney to learn your rights and possible claims. Do not let yourself be bullied by the landlord! Good luck.