Can Anybody Help Me With An Electrical Usage Question (ex. Pge Meter, Bill, Etc.)?
I started renting a place with my husband and 3 year old 5 months ago.
We were told we would be paying for electrical, and I have no problem with that.
But I do have a problem, and here it is:
My husband and I both work full time, and our Daughter goes to school.
We are not home all day, and when we get home, which is around 6pm, we start a fire, and NEVER use the heater.
We don’t go all crazy and turn the lights on and leave them on, we only use the one we need to get by. My daughter will go play in her room, and we will usually watch Tv in the living room.
We are usually in bed by 10pm, or earlier, except on weekends it may be a little later.
Our first bill for PGE was reasonable: $87.
The next month….$163
Next month $170
THIS month $201!!!!!!
Now I have NEVER paid so much for electric in my life.
The place we rented before we had 2 refrigerators running, didn’t have a fireplace so had to have heaters on, etc. The bills never exceeded $115.
I keep asking my landlord how it can be so high, and this is his answer:
He has 3 houses running on 1 meter.
He says that it is high because he has to pay penalties because of that. (I was never told I would have to pay for his penalties because he won’t bring it up to code.)
He also has his other renter doing the bill splits, he is the one “reading” the meter usage. (How does he do that, because I want to know so I can understand how it is so high.)
This is also the person that I have been told by the landlords son that he runs 4 computers all day long, and yet his bill is lower than ours…
It just seems fishy.
Any ideas what could be happening??
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January 15, 2010 @ 9:53 am
You are getting screwed. Unless it is in your lease, I think you are not required to split your electricity between three. I would ask that the three panels be split into three meters. It is pretty clear that you are not paying just your share of the electricity. Unless it is in your contract you probably have a right to take him to small claims court and get the “penalties” he has passed on because of his irresponsibility. You are paying a split bill, if the electricity of all three places is going through one meter, there is absolutely no way to tell which tenant is using which portion of the total electricity. Therefore, if anything it should be based on a per person or hours home. In any event if you did not sign something agreeing to pay a split portion or if this was not brought up in advance of signing a lease, I believe you have some rights against this and should seek remuneration.
January 15, 2010 @ 4:29 pm
You don’t have to read the meter – the electric company does that for you. All you need is to see a copy of the electric bill. Then figure out your share according the terms of your lease. If your lease doesn’t speak to dividing the bill, then there is not much you can do other than get an explanation of the formula being used to allocate the cost, and then argue your case if it’s not equitable.
This is a little strange. You might also see if it’s legal where you are to resell electricity. Usually where there are multiple tenants on one meter, the utility cost is included in the rent and everyone pays an equal, level amount.