Tenants rights?

Anybody here familar with tenants rights? (actual experience, in legal profession, etc...)

My GF has an 800 sq ft apartment. Neighbors electric bills are around $75-85 a month; GF's is about $400 a month!!! Others with 2000-2500 sq ft homes are only getting $200-250 bills! Somehting ain't right. The meter has been checked up on side & down the other. She does not go overboard with her energy use; keeps the thremo at about 76-79. Very likely cause of the problem is that the A/C guy for the management company identified that the thremo is WAY off...about 8-10 degrees! If it is set for 78 it is actually maintaining about 69-70; this makes a HUGE difference.

We need to get someone to show us how to lean on the apartment management to get them to fork up for a big chunk of the over done bill.

Point: the property entirely belongs to them. I am sure we can get the electric company to calculate about what the bill WOULD have been if the thermo was actually maintaining what it was set to; we want this difference paid by the management. Reason, they have an obligation to provide properly working items in the apartment (Ex: if THEIR plumbing causes a flood, they don't make the tenant pay for it!). THEIR themo is defective, thus THEY should foot a good part of the bill!

Ideas, thoughts, advice?

 

My guess is she's paying for something else hooked up to her electric. The electric company can run tests to see what's zapping it. Whatever it is I think the best you can expect is that it get fixed and she'd be on your own with the high bills.

 

How long has this been going on? If it is only 1-2 months then you might have a claim if and only if she contacted(with documentation) the landlord about the problem. If this has gone longer than that, well, you are probably out of luck.

As a point of reference, before I moved to a 1br in the French Quarter, I lived in an 1800sq ft house in New Orleans(read: HOT weather). The energy bill for this past July was $450. Keep in mind the geographical location and the size. And we kept our temp. at 72 degrees. Even if her thermostat is off, it would be obvious if the house were at 70 degrees. 68-70 is very cool for a house and 90% of people walking in would be able to tell.

 

$400 is 800 SF is not right. Even in Texas in the summer with leaking windows and poor insulation. Sounds like the dopers next door are tapping into her fuse box to supply their grow room.

 

The delta in energy costs is huge between her and her neighbor. I would guess that they dont have AC, and if they do, it is running off her breaker panel.

As for the mgmt company covering part of the bill - maybe its just me and maybe this will be an unpopular opinion, but how could she "not notice" the AC temp is off 8-10 degrees? And if she can't tell the difference between 68 and 78, how is that the management co's fault? I mean, if the gas gauge is off on my car and I fill it up and drive 300 miles and it's still on full, is it Ford's fault that I kept driving and got stranded in the middle of nowhere?

Not trying to sound rude but it sort of seems like one of those "I spilled hot coffee on myself, it must be your fault" kind of things. But if the other guys are paying <$100 and she's getting dinged for >$400, there's no way they are using any AC or both AC's are on her breaker. Have her turn off everything (not at the breaker panel, I mean turn off all lights, TV, network routers, alarm clocks, lights, etc) then go check the meter to see if its still spinning. If it is, something else is sucking power.

 

I appreciate the advice. John, sorry about the Guido comment; I was just joking around about kind of asking "does anyone have an 'intimidating' or 'guaranteed to work' method of handling something like this". No, we are not into into "beating people up to get our way". I assure you it was just a simple jest.

It is just very frustrating to her (& myself). The only feedback that we are getting is "Yep, that's REAL high, now just pay the bill."

At first we thought the meter was off; she requested, and got, them to come re-read the meter; all good (supposedly) there. Then we figured that it was us (I am over there a lot) using too much electricity; we cut down where ever we felt it might help (she does tend to enjoy the lamps on frequently). I coaxed her to cut back and the bill went UP! A few extra small lamps on all the time will not account for a $300+ higher bill.

The electric company directed us to do a "self-test" to see what was sucking up all the juice by shutting down all the breakers and turning them back on one at a time to see what caused the meter to surge the most. The normally expected high energy use items did as they usually would (clothes dryer, oven..electric..A/C, etc...) The checked, supossedly, to make sure that another unit was not tapped into her meter; supossedly her unit is alone on the meter.

The neighbors say that they keep their thermo right around where she keeps hers. The apartments are very nice and very new (2-4 years old...tops). Can't just be an old and inefficient A/C unit.

Noticing the difference in temp? I guess one could if you go in & out a lot, but she mostly works from home visiting clients only as needed. This has been going on, to this extent, for a few months, but she figured that it was only between her & the electric company so she did not immeadiatly notify the landlord. When she did, they kind of dismissed it as between her & the electric company.

This is not a "Hot coffee at McDonalds" type of deal. If she really is using THAT much juice, no problem, the bill will be paid. If that is the case, she simply wants to know WHERE all the power is going so she can curb the use of whatever item is the problem. If the cause is indeed beyond her control (defective thermo using WAY to much electricity or ???) then she feels that she should not have to burden the excessive cost caused by someone else's equipment.

 

Oh yeah, we also thought, at first, that "WOW, the cost of energy is REALLY going HIGH". But when it started to exceed the payment on her BMW, well then, that's just getting to be BS.

The electric company tried to offer some LAME suggestions of how she could conserve energy (kind of a "band-aid on a bullet would" thing) like turning off lights (see above post), checking door & window seals (the apartments are new and sealed well), setting the thermo reasonably (she does), etc... Still no concrete ideas of how the heck her bill is getting so high.

I just figure that a tenants rights organization might help or ???

 

This scenario is highly likely too.

 

I would seriously investigate. I have a 1200 SF apartment in Texas. It has cathedral ceilings (two story) with an upstairs loft. The AC unit is the same small unit all the other small apartments have. The AC unit is too small for this apartment and can't cool it that great in the summer, so it literally runs 24/7. I leave a lot of lights on, washer/dryer, etc. On my worst months (summer), my bill is $300. If her bill is $400, something is seriously wrong. It's not a broken thermostat or whatever. Something (or someone) is using her electricity.
Like was said before. TURN OFF everything. Don't forget to unplug the fridge. Go look at the meter. If it's still spinning. You got a leech.

 

As a land lord I can tell you this

1) Inform the land lord ASAP. If you have not done this any bills are your problem. ESP if this has been going on for months.

2) Call the power company and have THEM come out. If it is a drain or a draw on your box only they or an electrician can trace it down.

Thats all you can do in the short term.

I would argue that you would have felt the differance. I st my temp at 71 - 72. At 75 I get really warm.