Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Washington
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 08-18-2016, 01:39 PM
 
1 posts, read 1,067 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

Me and my husband moved in on the 1st of April to our new home/apartment in Federal Way WA. Before we moved in we arranged our electricity to be turned on the same day we are moving in through Pudget sound. So the first few weeks have been great and we even paid our electric bill through Pudget sound by phone which is convenient for both of us since we both work all week. Couple of weeks went by we stopped receiving bills in the mail from Pudget sound which was odd but instead of Pudget sound billing us our electricity ..there's another company called AUM which handles the apartment billings such as water, sewer and other utility fees including our electric bill plus a recovery charge of $50. I called this company and said ..hey why are you billing me for my electricity when I already made payments through Pudget sound? The response was ask the office because the electricity is still under the apartment not mines ...i said thats impossible because its under my name, my account at pudget sound and i recently made payments and the lady on the phone said you should contact PSE about it or the office...so here I am getting confused called Pudget sound energy and asked about it and their response was my account was taken over by another company, refuse to tell me due to their policy and without my knowledge or consent they canceled my account on the 21st of April and no one bothers to contact me or send me an email or letter stating the reason why they made such a decision without my knowledge. The lady on the phone said someone called from the office saying that they will take over my account and I was furious, mad at how stupid Pudget sound can be..so here i am being very calm and professional as i can be to the apartment office. Talked to the assistant manager and brought it up with the manager ..asked why did you guys called and canceled my account on PSE and why are you charging me with the electricity knowing I made payments through PSE? First they said its not them called PSe or called AUM.. Than asked for proof of payments and the exact date my account got canceled is what i paid for. I went home got everything and I even called Pudget sound again about it and said their fixing it. Gave the office everything they needed and they said if we don't call you than the problem is fixed..So I'm pretty sure every apartments have their own website for their residents and we created our profiles last month and its been 4 months since the incident. So I went on and created our profile for the apartment and saw that they still didn't fix that same problem from april and went back and forth to the office June about it and they said they will fix it that is why we make our rent payments through the office due to the same problem. So here comes July paid our rent and saw that this was still a problem and asked the office again because with Pudget sound I am paying all these months starting from the day I moved in to this day. The assist manager told my husband that she will have it removed from my account if she doesn't get a respond from the manager. So OK things are going smoothly now until yesterday we received a eviction notice on our door saying we have to pay the $115.54 plus an attorney fee of $125 and that our account will be sent out to legal eviction tomorrow at 11am. I was mad as hell went there and had a huge blowout and came to find out that the ones that was suppose to handle everything left and off while the new managers are in trying to force us to pay. Here I am waiting for tomorrow to go to the office again. I need legal advice pls. We are just frustrated and tired..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 08-18-2016, 03:57 PM
 
65 posts, read 68,145 times
Reputation: 96
Err, this forum is for Washington DC, I think that you're looking for the State of Washington, or Seattle. DC is the lawyer capital of the world, so I'm sure that you'll get some good advice.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-19-2016, 01:38 AM
Yac
 
6,051 posts, read 7,737,486 times
Moved from the DC forum.
__________________
Forum Rules
City-Data.com homepage
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-19-2016, 01:50 AM
 
28,115 posts, read 63,743,764 times
Reputation: 23268
Document everything as it sounds like you have.

My own experience is Utilities will not disclose anything unless you are the account holder or transferring service.

I wanted to stop service and had to put the service in name and then cancel it on the spot... crazy how complicated things are and I own the building.

Is there a local consumer reporter you can get involved or the State Real Estate Board or the State Utility Regulators?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-19-2016, 02:05 PM
 
Location: Independent Republic of Ballard
8,075 posts, read 8,389,454 times
Reputation: 6243
Sounds like PSE is double-billing you and the owners. Pay it if it'll stop the eviction, but ask for copies of the bills, then take the copies to PSE along with copies of your paid bills. You might be out the $125 if you ignored a previous demand letter.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-19-2016, 02:12 PM
 
28,115 posts, read 63,743,764 times
Reputation: 23268
PSE auto defaults to me as the owner of record... this happens anytime service if turned off and I imagine with non-payment too.

This month I received a $80 PSE covering dates the new tenants lease period... I called PSE and verified no request for service was received and paid the bill.

I don't want there not to be power... PSE said it would be no problem to adjust the bill to the new party if requested and provide a refund.

I do believe there are special safeguards that can be requested such as a password to change things.

I'm afraid it is one of those things if ignored will only get worse.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-19-2016, 06:20 PM
 
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
13,081 posts, read 7,557,182 times
Reputation: 9830
Record everything.
A wrongful eviction could cost someone a lot of money.

We have Legal Shield for such problems as this.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2016, 11:10 AM
 
Location: Independent Republic of Ballard
8,075 posts, read 8,389,454 times
Reputation: 6243
Okay, looks like your apartment managers are using a third party to manage and bill utilities, American Utility Management, which apparently makes money from dinging tenants with fees/penalties:

https://www.aum-inc.com/

Did they inform you (or your husband) of this? Is their anything in your lease about this?

AUM has a Yelp rating of one star:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/american-ut...nt-los-angeles

American Utility Management Sucks!

Pay the bill and whatever fees/penalties are due, then start looking for a new apartment.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2016, 06:18 PM
 
28,115 posts, read 63,743,764 times
Reputation: 23268
I'm not advising what to do only what I have done.

I've paid bills that I knew were wrong Under Protest and duly noted on the check along with a letter explaining my intention to seek legal remedies... Used wording "So there is NO MISUNDERSTANDING LATER... etc...

Sometimes it was enough to clear the matter... once it wasn't because the company was so bad there was a weekly turnover of staff and no one had a clue... went to court and got a Judgement... no one even showed up.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2022 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Washington

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top