Can a rental contract be enforced if the existence or authenticity of the contract can't be proven?
I'm at the end of my hot water rental contract, so this is more to satisfy my own curiosity rather than trying to get out of a contract.
Here's the situation:
- Purchased a house in 2021, purchase agreement stipulated that we would assume the previous owners' hot water tank rental agreement. We were OK with that.
- After purchase, we signed the contract assumption form. This form indicated that the tank was installed in April 2016 and had a term of 120 months. So the contract should be over by April 2026. Again, we're fine with that, it's only 20 bucks a month anyway.
- I asked the company several times to send us the rental contract. However they were very evasive: they insisted that they could not send the original contract "for privacy reasons" since it had the previous owner's name and signature on it, so they said they could only send the terms and conditions associated with the original contract. But they never sent me this either, despite me requesting it several times.
- So, as of March 2026, the contract should be done, but they are still charging me; I called them and again was given evasive answers about the actual contract end date, fees, and so on, which is what led me to make this post.
My question is, is the "contract" even valid if they refuse to produce it? The onus is on them to prove that it exists, and not me - right?
As an example of what I mean, since they claim they can "only send the associated terms and conditions and not the contract itself", what stops them from forging a T&C document that is completely different from the original contract, for instance, with a termination fee of $420,069? I would have no way to authenticate that the original owners agreed to a termination fee in the dubious amount of $420,069.
Am I in the legal right to refuse to pay any fees or return the tank until the original contract itself is produced?