Tenant rental question

Question

We are always behind on one of our utility payments. But we always catch up with a large payment. We are current with our utility bill right now. Our apartment manager wants to penalize us by increasing our rent to 40.00 and tacking on an additional 75.00 for a period of six months. She said if we pay our utility each month on time for six months she will reduce the rent back by 75.00. Well if we are having a hard time paying the utility bill each month how does she think we are going to pay all the additional rent her penalty and our utility bill? Is there anything we could do?

Answer 1

cut back on frivilous stuff like hbo,etc and pay your utilities,or get a second job

Answer 2

If you have a lease she can't just raise the rent (or charge other fees) like this (unless there is some condition or this in your lease, which is very unlikely).  If you are on a month to month lease I assume she can do this with the proper notice (essentially this is like temporarily raising your rent).  Of course if you have no lease and you don't like this you can just leave (with the proper notice) as well.