Final answer:
The buyer owes $22.823 for the water and sewer services leading up to the August 30 closing. This is calculated by determining the daily rate from the August/September bill and multiplying it by the numbers of days the buyer owned the property before closing.
Step-by-step explanation:
If water and sewer services are paid in arrears, this means that the payment is for the services used in the previous period. In the question provided, the bill for August/September is due on October 1. Given an August 30 closing, we need to prorate the cost the buyer owes for the water and sewer services used from the date of the last bill up to the closing date.
First, we need to calculate the daily rate for the service. The billing period covers August and September; assuming August has 31 days and September has 30 days, the total billing period has 61 days. Therefore, the daily rate is $48.01 divided by 61 days, which equals approximately $0.787 per day.
The buyer is responsible for the period from August 1 to August 30 (30 days). Multiplying 30 days by the daily rate ($0.787), we get approximately $23.61. However, due to August having 31 days, we would subtract one more day's worth from the total, leaving the buyer to owe roughly $22.823 for water and sewer services up to the closing date. Therefore, the answer would be option 2: $22.823.
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