deposit on electric/gas bill

[Marionnette]

my roomate told me we pay electric and cable/internet/phone. water, heat, and everything else was covered by my landlord included in the rent. its a two family unit and the washer/dryer is in their basement that we do not have permission to go into or use. thus why we shouldnt pay for the gas for it. that is also where i was told the hot water heater(s) would be and the lines to the meter. gas has never been discussed, if i want to be strict, i can tell my roomate we agreed to electric when i moved in, pay for half of that and leave her to figure out gas. the fact of the matter is i told her after not getting a bill for almost two months she should call and check up on it and she never did. now we have this big bill and a week to pay or they shut off the electric. my half of just electric will leave her with $300 to pay with the deposit and since rent is due i can almost gurantee she doesn't have the money and is going to expect me to somehow help her out.

Unless your apartment is heated with electric heaters or you're paying for oil, that's where most of your gas costs are. Not the gas range.

 

[ericamcl]

shes only 20 and left college a few months ago so she is just switching bills into her name from her parents name, so thus he has no credit b/c this is the first time bills are in her name. i know its not personal, i dont blame them for wanting deposit, but 3 months seems excessive, they told me they just lowered the standard, they used to charge a flat 260 or 520 deposit, at least ours is a bit lower b/c its based on past usage at the unit. she will just have to suck it up, its part of being an adult and she needs to learn i guess.

will they let her do the deposit in installments?
my sister had to pay a deposit to the local gas & electric company and she just paid an extra $75.00 a month for 4 months to pay the $300.00 deposit that they required....just a thought.

 

[Sagginit]

will they let her do the deposit in installments?
my sister had to pay a deposit to the local gas & electric company and she just paid an extra $75.00 a month for 4 months to pay the $300.00 deposit that they required....just a thought.

that is what i was hoping. i wasn't able to negotiate the deposit b/c it is in her name, under her social, so they could not discuss it with me. they said that she could call and negotiate but would give me not further information. i can not co-sign as a roomate which i thought was odd, so there is no room to negotiate based on that. im worried based on how unhelpful the credit dept. was when i called that they just wont work with her.

 

[RangerPooh]

I remember having to put down a utility deposit in my name and was charged what the previous renters average bill was, almost $200 for a 1 bedroom apt! They PG&E would not budge on the amount, but did allow for it to be paid over 3 months. This helped, and it was nice for the bill to go down by month 4. I've lived in a number of communities/states over the last 10+ years and have always had to pay a deposit for cable, utilities, etc. Some companies were much higher than others. I've just asked that if they can't be reduced to spread them out without being penalized.

 

[Cruise]

To the OP, don't pay half the deposit. When it gets refunded, it won't be refunded in your name. The check will go to your roommate.

This.

Stuff happens. And if you two end of bad terms for whatever reason, you'd have no recourse short of small claims court to get your money back.

 

[SandrA9810]

Living in Kissimmee, we had to put a deposit down for the utilities, and the deposit on the apartment was based on the credit score. It could be as low as their "advertised" price of maybe a few hundred dollars or as high as one month's rent.

The utilities, electric and water, were one deposit with KUA. It could be the minimum, which was like 125$, but I think based on past usage. If you had a clean record for 12 or 18 months prior there was no deposit. And interest was earned. If you canceled service before 2 years, they'd put your last bill against the deposit, before giving you the rest.

I think it would be best to not give her half the deposit, she puts it all down, she gets to keep it all. It'd probably be up to 30 days after move out before she gets it back. But if she's having a hard time coming up with the rent already, it's probably going to be a bumpy road.
The only upside to changing the utilities to your name, is if you plan on staying in that general area for a long time, that was you can build your own good customer standings with them. When my aunt moved to a new city and had to change companies, she either had to provide a good customer history with the previous company or pay a deposit with the new company. It is one of those things that do not show up on your credit report, unless you leave with a balance and it's sent to collections. So it's not really helping your roommate out.

One of the first apartments I lived in, the water/electric lines were all tied together. We had the choice to pay a lower rent and part of the utilities or all together for one price. I'm glad we went with the one price, because I don't think we would've gotten accurately charged by the landlord for usage.

 

[nordkin]

But when I am renting an apartment I can shop around -- some apartments charge a smaller deposit. For example, I chose a place that only had a $250 deposit as opposed to one months rent. And to my knowledge, they charge everyone the same deposit. I never heard of them saying "hey you have a great credit score, you don't need to pay a deposit." I can't shop around because we have only one electric company.

I don't like how their "credit criteria" is secret, they don't publicize how they decide who needs to make a payment. I would not be surprised if they profile...what I don't like is how they waive the deposit for some people because they have "better credit." Treat everyone fairly. I had to pay a $200 electric deposit, despite never having any late payments on my credit report. And then after I kept making on time payments they told me I don't get the deposit back until 3 years have passed. What-ever. After cancelling my services they took a full 35 days to issue a refund check when I needed that money (I was moving). The electric company is the entity I hate the most.

35 days for a deposit refund is not bad considering they had to take a final reading at the place you were moving from, generate a bill, mail it to you, and then wait for you to pay the final bill. Why would they refund your deposit before you paid your final bill? It is not up to the electric company to refund your deposit so you have the money to move. By the way, electricity is not a necessity. Many people believe it is, but it is a convenience. You do not need electricity to survive.

I may be bias because I work for an electric company and supervise the people who turn accounts off for non-payment. I see our company writing off millions of dollars each year in bad debt from those who do not pay their bill. We have become more agressive with deposits and are seeing a positive result in bad debt write offs due to having deposits to cover some of it.

To the OP, I would not pay half the deposit. I would put the account in my name. If she has bad credit there is a very good chance you will give her your part of the bill and she will not pay the bill. I see it all the time when we go out to turn someone off for non-payment and the roommate says but I have been paying my part of the bill. I would protect myself and put it in my name. I am also surprised the electric company even talked to you about the account since your name is not on it. That is against federal law. Good luck.

 

[SandrA9810]

35 days for a deposit refund is not bad considering they had to take a final reading at the place you were moving from, generate a bill, mail it to you, and then wait for you to pay the final bill. Why would they refund your deposit before you paid your final bill? It is not up to the electric company to refund your deposit so you have the money to move. By the way, electricity is not a necessity. Many people believe it is, but it is a convenience. You do not need electricity to survive.

While it is a luxury for most people... It's a trip and a half to see people flipping out for generators with a hurricane approaching. Lets spend a 1,000$ on a generator to save 100-200$ worth of food in the fridge. Plus most people die from the fumes of improper usage than the actual storm itself.

Any case, it is mandatory that it's turned on prior to a complex allowing occupancy in the apartment. Learned that the hard way on our move from Hollywood to Orlando. We got there shortly before 5pm, well maybe around 4pm. Had to go through the whole nine yards with the office of signing papers, looking over the apartment and all that. Since this was supposed to be a one day move, we didn't have the money or accommodations for staying some place else that night. They refused to let us have the keys to the apartment prior to having a turn on letter from the utility company. By the time they told us this, OUC was already closed for the day. So we had a spend the night (beginning of Jan) in the truck, with our pets as well. Talk about freezing our butts off. On top of that we were already tired from packing the UHual and driving.

 

[MPwifey]

My DH is military and it is horrible what some places will charge you. The highest so far has been 350.00 and the lowest- 35.00. I just got a check from the electric company saying we have a good history with them after 13 months of payment with our deposit back. The bad part about it being in your roomates name is whenever you have a place of your own, you might be in a place that charges you a deposit regardless of your credit score, but of a utilities history as they call it. I hope things get resolved for you.

 

[TheRatPack]

Our power company required a deposit or a letter from our previous power company with our last 12 bills/payments or so listed. Pretty standard where we live to give deposits to utility companies....and it's not just for first time renters...etc. Luckily we moved to a smaller city and so the phone and water didn't require a deposit, but again our power did. We chose to go to our previous power company and get a letter, since we'd paid on time and not had a disconnect....saved us 250.00 if I remember correctly.

 

[kelly1218]

Unless your apartment is heated with electric heaters or you're paying for oil, that's where most of your gas costs are. Not the gas range.

It shouldn't be... The OP Said

water, heat, and everything else was covered by my landlord included in the rent

is covered...right in the post you quoted.

A gas stove shouldn't cost that much to run.

 

[Marionnette]

my roomate told me we pay electric and cable/internet/phone. water, heat, and everything else was covered by my landlord included in the rent.

The whole quote.

I misread the sentence because I missed the period in there. Capitalization goes a long way towards aiding reader comprehension.

Nevermind.

 

[dfchelbay]

i just got my first electric/gas bill and they want a deposit that will cover 3-4 months! i thought this was excessive so i called customer service. the bill is in my roomates name (i took the cable bill in my name) and they tell me its based 100% on her credit. they couldn't discuss lowering it b/c i had to give her social number which i dont have, but they told me i could switch it to my name to potentially get the deposit off. i know i have good credit and they will most likely drop the deposit if it is in my name, but i also dont want all the bills on record in my name. they told me they may negotiate with her and drop it a bit. has anyone done that? and since this is a direct result of her bad credit, should i still have to give her half the deposit? it would be the nice thing to do but i dont really have the money to spare. i get paid bi-weekly and im trying to get myself on a schedule where i save my first pay check for the bills due the first few days of the next month. this is never going to happen if she keeps costing me like this.

I really don't see the point. If the bill is not paid, the electricity gets shut off. Why they need 3-4 months is pure greed. Should you fail to pay the bill, they will not return that money to you. I'm sure they will tell you you owe shut off fees, re-connect fees, etc. They will find some way to not return any of your deposit back to you. After thirty days of non-payment, you're shut off, so why do they need 3-4 months?

 

[kelly1218]

I really don't see the point. If the bill is not paid, the electricity gets shut off. Why they need 3-4 months is pure greed. Should you fail to pay the bill, they will not return that money to you. I'm sure they will tell you you owe shut off fees, re-connect fees, etc. They will find some way to not return any of your deposit back to you. After thirty days of non-payment, you're shut off, so why do they need 3-4 months?

In PA...they can not shut off your gas/electric from November to March because of the cold winters. I found that out when I forgot to send the check one month ...I got a really nasty phone call from PECO. The woman finally did apologize when I did an immediate check by phone ( and she looked up my previous history of paying every month on time )..... she then explained why they are so 'aggressive' with non payments during those months. Some people take advantage of that fact. Sad,but true.

 

[Marionnette]

I really don't see the point. If the bill is not paid, the electricity gets shut off. Why they need 3-4 months is pure greed. Should you fail to pay the bill, they will not return that money to you. I'm sure they will tell you you owe shut off fees, re-connect fees, etc. They will find some way to not return any of your deposit back to you. After thirty days of non-payment, you're shut off, so why do they need 3-4 months?

It's because in some states, the utilities are not allowed to do shut offs during the winter months. So even if someone does not pay for the month, their gas cannot, by law, be shut off. They can continue to heat their home and not pay for it. The utility company will do a shut off at the curb on the first day they are allowed to do it if there is no attempt to make payment. But their hands are tied until then. So they require a 3-4 month deposit from people they consider to be a high risk.