Ever heard of this? Budget buster?

[dakcp2001]

I live in an aparment that I recently moved into. The electric is handled by the complex. They have one meter for the ENTIRE HUGE complex & then they divy up the bill by 1 or 2 bedroom apartments. Our portion has consistantly been triple that of my former home, which was significantly bigger than this tiny apartment. People have no incentive to conserve and those that are hogging up all the electricity are running up the bills for everyone. Do I have any recourse? What can I do? It seems so unfair, since we do conserve. Is there someone I can complain to? Is there anyway to make get meters at least for our individual buildings? I also suspect we are all funding the electric for the offices, clubhouses, and staff quarters, but no one will confirm or deny that. The bill is out of hand, and out of my control.

 

[RadioFanatic]

sorry to be a debbie downer, but I think if you signed a contract with those conditions, you are stuck. Can you complain to mangement? yes, but whether they do anything is another story. sounds like time to move. good luck.

 

[luvmy3]

Was this stated in your lease agreement? If so I don't think there is much you can do. Personally, I would have never agreed to move there under those conditions, either include H&HW in my rent, or bill me seperately for what I use, there would be no dividing it equally among all the tenants for me.

 

[scrapquitler]

I think that Radio Fanatic is right, if you signed the lease with that provision in the lease, you are stuck.

 

[dakcp2001]

I called the Public Utitilites Commision, they said as residents we have to all get together and agree to have individual meters put on the buildings. They said we do have a right to do this, but it seems like it is going to take a lot of work. I am going to go to the next "town hall" meeting and see if I can get this ball rolling. They said in the meantime if I can get everyone in MY building (that is 6 apartments) to agree we can have our own meter done in just our building. They also warned me that the complex is going to dissuade us from doing this but that it is well within our rights. So at this point, all I care about is MY building. I am going to draft a letter to neighbors and see if they are on board with this plan.

BTW my lease agreement said about 50 a month for electric in a 2br, it has been between 100-125 a month.

 

[NotUrsula]

You did sign the contract, so if the company wants to hold you to it, they can.

However, you might want to stroll around and see if you can find what's drawing so much juice. One possibility that would be easy to find is grow lights. Those are huge power hogs (and if you find them in the basement you might be dealing with a hobby that isn't exactly legal.) If you determine that someone is running very power-intensive equipment, then there is a case for having management ask that tenant pay a greater share.

Another really large power draw is a pool heater. If your complex has a heated pool, that's probably your culprit.

 

[npmommie]

I called the Public Utitilites Commision, they said as residents we have to all get together and agree to have individual meters put on the buildings. They said we do have a right to do this, but it seems like it is going to take a lot of work. I am going to go to the next "town hall" meeting and see if I can get this ball rolling. They said in the meantime if I can get everyone in MY building (that is 6 apartments) to agree we can have our own meter done in just our building. They also warned me that the complex is going to dissuade us from doing this but that it is well within our rights. So at this point, all I care about is MY building. I am going to draft a letter to neighbors and see if they are on board with this plan.

BTW my lease agreement said about 50 a month for electric in a 2br, it has been between 100-125 a month.

our bill is usually 100-125 a month for a whole house!!

 

[Disneychix]

Have you gone to the landlords? Have you addressed your concerns with them? Is it just a certain time of the year (ac/electric heat) that the bills get that high?

 

[dakcp2001]

Have you gone to the landlords? Have you addressed your concerns with them? Is it just a certain time of the year (ac/electric heat) that the bills get that high?

I have only lived here a few months, I called the complex they informed me that they have no control over how much people use and people seem to be using more than normal over the last few months.

 

[Disneychix]

Maybe you can ask the complex owners to send out a notice about the electric usage and ways to conserve energy? Obviously this isn't a long-term fix but maybe will help get the message out.

 

[canadianjovigirl]

Does the building have electric heat that is pushing the costs higher now that the weather has changed???

 

[pjm-guy]

I called the Public Utitilites Commision, they said as residents we have to all get together and agree to have individual meters put on the buildings. They said we do have a right to do this, but it seems like it is going to take a lot of work. I am going to go to the next "town hall" meeting and see if I can get this ball rolling. They said in the meantime if I can get everyone in MY building (that is 6 apartments) to agree we can have our own meter done in just our building. They also warned me that the complex is going to dissuade us from doing this but that it is well within our rights. So at this point, all I care about is MY building. I am going to draft a letter to neighbors and see if they are on board with this plan.

BTW my lease agreement said about 50 a month for electric in a 2br, it has been between 100-125 a month.

I work for a company that does energy audits for buldings exactly like yours and it bears noting that it will be up to the owner to have the sub-meters installed at a hefty price which means it won't likely happen. Separating the building wiring from the resident wiring is not a "cost-saver" so it's highly unlikely they would agree to do it.

Assuming that the owners did go for the separation, once those sub-meters are installed, presuming your building is set up for individual service feeders (do you have your own dedicated electric panel in your apartment?), they would then bear the cost of preparing and send every resident a bill. Then they'd alos be responsible for collections.

If you wanted to go with direct electric utility feeds and your own utility meter, again there would be a separation of wiring cost that the residents will have to bear since the building already receives power. it's a double edged sword really and not easy to accomplish. Try to rally as many residents as you can for the next board/co-op meeting to see what the ownership is willing to do.

Please PM me if you have any direct questions, I'd be happy to offer any assistance I can. I am a licensed electrical engineer and can help guide you through the process or provide back-up information if needed.

 

[RitaE]

I'm not sure who you would check with but I'm pretty sure the apartment housing code here requires either utilities included in the rent or individual metering.



But no - that sucks. I'd either get it fixed or be out of there at the end of the lease.

 

[vicki_c]

I called the Public Utitilites Commision, they said as residents we have to all get together and agree to have individual meters put on the buildings. They said we do have a right to do this, but it seems like it is going to take a lot of work. I am going to go to the next "town hall" meeting and see if I can get this ball rolling. They said in the meantime if I can get everyone in MY building (that is 6 apartments) to agree we can have our own meter done in just our building. They also warned me that the complex is going to dissuade us from doing this but that it is well within our rights. So at this point, all I care about is MY building. I am going to draft a letter to neighbors and see if they are on board with this plan.

BTW my lease agreement said about 50 a month for electric in a 2br, it has been between 100-125 a month.

Well if I'm the girl in 1A growing a stash in my apartment or the guy in 2C with 9 tropical fish tanks (assuming electric is at play here), there is no way I am going to agree to your plan. Or the person who likes to really crank their heat and walk around in shorts. I think it would be a losing battle in an apartment complex that is not already sub-metered. And I was also thinking about who would pay for that - just because the PUC said you have a "right" to do it or request it, doesn't mean the landlord has to pay for it. As the poster above stated, that could be quite expensive, so who is going to pay for it?

I think you just need to bite the bullet and find another place to live when your lease is up - either with heat included (that was my favorite type of apartment when I lived in one!) or individually metered.

 

[Halbleib1]

It depends on the state that you live in. Some states it would be illegal for the landlord to work the billing this way. Lease or no lease they have to abide by the state law. Find out what your state law is and go from there.

 

[ctinct]

Wow, I've never heard of this. Certainly no incentive for high electricity users to conserve, since they are being sort of subsidized. I don't think I would have moved in under those terms.

But...here's a thought. Can you request to see the bill for the complex? Not saying this is what happening, but if the landlord pads each bill just a bit, what a nice little windfall for him/her/corporation.

 

[pjm-guy]

As previous posters have noted, this will depend on in which state you live, but here in NJ & PA, if the landlord of a building sells power by metering and billing for actual usage to the residents it must be under a regulated tariff rate. So if you were "sub-metered" then the bill really would be not much different than having a direct utility account. However, when it's under the other scenario where usage is not measured, you're really at the mercy of the owner as to how you are billed. In many cases it is based on $/square foot of space or by the number of bedrooms. You have to realize that you're paying a portion of the common area usage (hallways/lobby light, heat, A/C, etc.) in addition to what you pay for your apartment.

I would check with your state's PUC to see if there are regulations on billing. In reality, the owner does not have to LOSE money on the bill, but I wouldn't expect that they are allowed to profit from it either, so you may be paying more than you're required.

Really the only way to get those folks who crank the heat and leave the apartment to cut their usage is to have them billed and accountable for every kWh used. Good luck!

 

[Mary•Poppins]

Wow, I've never heard of this. Certainly no incentive for high electricity users to conserve, since they are being sort of subsidized. I don't think I would have moved in under those terms.

But...here's a thought. Can you request to see the bill for the complex? Not saying this is what happening, but if the landlord pads each bill just a bit, what a nice little windfall for him/her/corporation.

I had a friend that had to pay her own gas in the apartment she rented. It was unbelievably high. When a friend looked closer at her lines, he noticed that they had one meter that was also connected to the landlords office space in the front of the building! She ended up moving out of that apartment.

 

[ChisJo]

We live in an apartment condo that is 2 bedrooms, and is 1100 sq ft...I couldn't imagine how angry I would be if our utilities were over $100! We are under $50 a month, and that to me is too high. We have our own meter, and couldn't imagine how frustrating it would be to have to have it divied up, especially if you are on a budget. However, I don't imagine it would be easy to have individual meters installed. Depending on the units you live in, it probably wouldn't be cost effective to have them installed. Who would pay for that?

 

[MAH4546]

You agreed to move into a building with shared utilities. Who on earth do you think you are to waltz into a meeting an propose that it change because you are annoyed by it?

When I was in school, I always took "shared" metered buildings because I liked to run the A/C constantly, and it made my utility bill cheaper.

You should have thought things through before you decided to move into a building that shares the utility bills among units.