Landlord access to utility (electric) bill... (apartment, lease, tenant, creditor)
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Lets assume we are talking about a property where each unit is individually metered and the tenant pays the electric bill directly to the utility company.
In such a set up, would the property manager have access to the monthly utility bill and be able to tell what the usage/charges are for the month?
Generally speaking there is no special privacy assumed when ot comes to utility bills, and some utility providers have technology to let the landlord monitor usage.
If that is not in place, or there Are prohibitions in the local ordinance over who can ge the info, special permissions might be needed...
Lets assume we are talking about a property where each unit is individually metered and the tenant pays the electric bill directly to the utility company.
In such a set up, would the property manager have access to the monthly utility bill and be able to tell what the usage/charges are for the month?
LOL....I manage a property and I can guess why you are asking this question, but I won't put it out there. If you are paying your own utility bill, there isn't a reason why the LL would monitor or even care what your useage is. I can access my tenants bills only because the utility company allows anyone to access any property's useage bill for the previous 12 months, such as in the sale of a house. But I doubt the LL would monitor it, unless you gave her a reason. ;-)
Why exactly does it matter if they have access to it unless you're growing pot or something else illegal? If its their property they should have access to things like that.
LoL..i think the last two posters got it completely wrong. I don't grow pot in my apartment..lol.
I'm actually hoping they have access to such information.
Here's the short of the story:
I sublet a place from someone and now, almost a full month after I vacated the place, she sends me a text saying I owe $XXX for the electric bill. We agreed to keep the utilities in her name and I agreed that I would pay all charges incurred while I was there. I have no problem paying the bill but its several times MORE than I expected it to be, which seems odd because I worked 10 hours shifts and was only there to sleep and cook, never used the AC and was very conservative with usage. The bill was multiple times higher than what she quoted me as the highest bill she ever paid at the place (in the coldest of winter with 2 people staying there).
The problem is, when I asked her to see the bill she refused. Also the utility co. won't let me pay it w/out the acct number and last 4 digits of SSN. She expects me to blindly hand her $XXX w/out seeing the bill. I don't want to be a jerk about it because I absolutely WILL take full responsibility for paying the bill and I would NEVER flake out on an agreement to pay...that would be just wrong. But I also don't want to be taken advantage of (I have a suspicion in the back of my mind that she may be trying to get me to pay some back-owed charges on her bill). I was hoping I could talk to the LL and figure out exactly how much is owed for the month I stayed there and pay ONLY that.
How have you been paying in the past? Does she just tell you the amount due? Do you get a bill mailed to your address in her name?
It sounds like she is trying to scam you but you'd probably have to sit down with the power comapny and get monthly charges to settle the dispute.
I only stayed at that place for a month (well, 1.5 months, but the lease was for 1 month; I moved in mid-May and left June 30th..long story..lol). She told me the bills were sent through the mail to the apartment but I never got a bill the entire time I was staying there. I know the bills are on a monthly schedule that may not start or end at the beginning of the month, but over the course of 1.5 months you would expect at least one bill to show up. I constantly called and text her about the bill and she always said the same thing: "The bill hasn't showed up yet."
I really don't like to assume the worst in people, especially her, because she was always really nice, cordial and polite with me. She was very accommodating and let me move in a bit before the lease (that being said, I would even be glad to pay May's electric bill as well, but that would still not justify the extremely high bill).
The one thing that triggered my suspicion is that, before move-in, she told me she was having problems with debt and creditors and a few of her debts had been sent to collections. That was her whole reason for wanting to sublease it: she wanted to move back in with her parents and use the money she would have spent on rent to pay on some old debts. I just hope she isn't trying to unfairly squeeze more money from me than I owe.
Unless she is willing to show you the bill, I wouldn't pay anything. I know in a situation like this figuring your usage would be guesswork at best. If you were there from mid May until the end of June, your usage could cover three billing cycles, depending on when her "month" starts at the pwoer company.
Did the landlord know you were staying there instead of her? What about phone, water, cable or internet bills?
Unless she is willing to show you the bill, I wouldn't pay anything. I know in a situation like this figuring your usage would be guesswork at best. If you were there from mid May until the end of June, your usage could cover three billing cycles, depending on when her "month" starts at the pwoer company.
Did the landlord know you were staying there instead of her? What about phone, water, cable or internet bills?
Yes the landlord knew I was occupying the unit. I had to sign a sublease agreement (and pay the fee) through them. There was no phone in the unit (used a cell) but water, trash/recycling, cable and internet were included in the rent.
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Depends...
