An Opposition senator embroiled in a rental dispute yesterday claimed she had no idea her tenant was paying the neighbour's utility bills as well as his own.

Stuart Anderson lived with his family in a Riddles Bay home owned by Senator Jeanne Atherden and her husband Maxim.

He said his electricity bill plummeted after his neighbour who was also lived in property owned by the Atherdens moved out.

Mr. Anderson said he was told by Belco that the house he was renting shared a meter with the cottage his neighbour had lived in, and he had been paying for his neighbour's electricity and water.

The businessman is now suing for his rental deposit and the value of the electricity $17,050.

Mrs. Atherden is counter-suing for $18,981.70 in lost rent and damage to the home.

The United Bermuda Party chairman told the court said she had no idea the Andersons were paying the cottage's bills.

"My reaction was I was dumbfounded," she said. "As soon as we heard, we arranged to have a meter installed immediately.

"We also said that once we were able to determine the amount of electricity the cottage used, we would reimburse them."

Mrs. Atherden said she told the Andersons she and her husband would reimburse them for water bought, and would set up a water allowance for the future.

Mr. Anderson's lawyer, Christopher Swan, repeatedly asked Mrs. Atherden if she thought it would be reasonable as an accountant, a property manager and as someone who lived in the house that she would have known there was only one Belco meter.

"I think it reasonable that it could be deemed an oversight," she responded.

"I lived there for years. The cottage was just sort of an appendage. It was just there.

"It never crossed our minds. It was so small that you don't think about it. The electricity was $80 or so on a bill that was $800 or $900 a month."

As a property manager for several rental properties, she said she received around 20 bills a month from her various properties.

Following his discovery on August 31, 2009, Mr. Anderson sent the Atherdens a letter stating his plans to move out by October 31 before the lease terminated in June of this year.

In the letter, he said that he would not seek the value of the electricity and water as long as he would be able to get his deposit back.

Mrs. Atherden said that by moving out early he had breached the lease agreement.

She told Magistrates' Court that she started to look for new tenants for the home after they noticed the Andersons moving their belongings out and it was clear they intended to breach the lease.

New tenants moved in on December 15, but Mrs. Atherden said because the rental market was weaker the new tenants were asked to pay $1,850 per month less than the Andersons had been paying.

She estimated she and her husband lost $16,055 by having the home empty for a month-and-a-half. She said she lost a further $12,733.12 because of the reduction in rent.

Mrs. Atherden further claimed she and her husband had to pay $584.40 in repairs after the Andersons moved out.

Plumbers determined that the line between the water heater and the washer was "blocked, disrupted or did not exist".

"We knew nothing of it," said Mrs. Atherden. "We didn't understand why it had occurred. It left us with no opportunity to solve it. We concluded that the problem must have happened when the Andersons lived in the house."

Magistrate Juan Wolffe ordered both parties to return to put forward their final submissions on August 23.