Using my electricity for their purposes

By pat

I rented my apartment for half of April so I could begin moving my things in early and had the utilities put in my name right away. I wasn’t at the apartment much during the half month so when I received my utility bill I was suprised that it was $44. The electricity wasn’t used by me except for the refrigerator during that time and I had the heat set at 60 degrees. I paid it but I thought it as rather high. The next bill I received was for May. I don’t use a lot of electricity because I go to be really early and I leave for work at 430 in the morning. The refrigerator and microwave and TV are about all I use with a lamp. No laundry was washed during this time. I received my bill and the electricity was 106.91. EXCESSIVE for my usage. I talked to my landlord about it and he stated that he pays for everything in the basement. I started to follow the electric usage on the meter and they were using about the same as I was. Got me to thinking so I went to the breaker box and turned off the breaker that was titled ‘basement’ for the 2nd unit. There is a de-humidifier that was running 24/7 and it turned off IMMEDIATLY. HMMM Seems they are using my electricity for their purposes. I unplugged the de-humidifier and plugged it into an extension cord and plugged it into one of their outlets. I left the breaker off.

I had to leave for awhile so when I returned my landlady was waiting for me. Oh by the way, there are 2 light switches and the lights that are wired to their breaker box were turned off with pull cords. Now the lights on my box don’t have pull cords and have outlet plugs on them. The de-humidifier was off – you can hear it in the stairwell.  I went to work today and checked the meter. Amazing! Not a full kilowatt hour was used but when I came home from work and checked it 2 kilowatt hours had been used. HMMMM I went to the basement and the de-humidifier is plugged into my electricity again. Landlady must have turned it on for a while using MY ELECTRICITY again. At 4:50, being home for and hour and a half, I went to check the meter. I had the TV on and I washed a load of laundry. NOT 1 KILOWATT HOUR WAS USED! Funny that while I was at work I used 2 kilowatt hours and none doing laundry after being home and hour and a half.

I know I can’t withhold the rent but what recourse do I have to make them stop using my electricity and get my money back for what they stole from me?

I can’t afford to move because I’m losing 20% of my pay for the next 3 months.

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