When your address doesn’t exist on paper, paying bills can get complicated.
Imagine signing a lease, moving in, and living comfortably for months, only to find out that your utilities were never set up because your address isn’t listed. Would you immediately report the error and risk footing months of unpaid bills? Or would you stay quiet, especially if the electric company itself said you weren’t on the hook?
In today’s story, a group of renters finds themselves in this very predicament. Here’s how they handled it.
Seven months into my apartment lease, I received a letter from the gas company stating that I needed to set up an account and start paying, or else my service would be “interrupted.”
I was very confused. My roommates and I, five people in total, all signed the lease believing all utilities were included. Our lease stated how we could pay utilities “where applicable,” and based on our conversation with the landlord prior to renting, all five of us left the apartment tour interpreting the lease as including utilities.
I truly don’t know whose error that was, but the fact that all five of us believed the same thing makes me think someone on the building side was mistaken (the unit was managed by one firm, owned by another, and I never knew who worked for the landlord and who for the management firm).
The landlord informed them that they had to set up utility accounts.
I sent an email to the landlord asking about this gas notice, and she told me that utilities were never included and that I must set up gas and also electric accounts.
I set up a gas account, and to my surprise, we’ve been charged no back bills at all. Seven months of free gas.
One of my roommates went to do the same with the electric company, and to our surprise, our apartment unit number was not listed on the website. Our building has six units—101, 102, 201, 202 and so on. But for the third floor, only one drop-down option exists: 3. There is no Unit 3.
According to the electric company, their unit didn’t exist.
We call the electric company, who tells us that it’s ultimately not our problem. If the landlord didn’t include our unit number in their paperwork to receive building service, we aren’t responsible for her mistake.
The phone rep from the electric company, perhaps in a risky act of broke college student solidarity, advised us not to contact our landlord since we’re not legally required to inform her of her mistake in setting up electric service.
She is probably paying both electric bills for 301 and 302, thinking it’s the hall lights and laundry machines. It was not our fault; we just did what we were told.
Wow! That’s great news for them!
Let’s see how the people over at Reddit relate to this story.
Here’s a great way around paying for water in St. Louis.
Nice! That’s a great feeling!
This landlord pays for what he uses.
A year of free power is amazing!
That really cut down on expenses!
It’s just too bad the same thing didn’t happen with the gas company.
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.
