Legal advice dealing with an apartment complex?

ok, so here's my situation. i would really appreciate any advice/feedback. Its kind of a long story, but I will try and make it short for you. I've lived in my apartment for 6 months. This isn't my first apartment, its my third actually. Anyway, my electric bill has been RIDICULOUS! Its a one bedroom apartment under 700 square feet. The bill has been around $250-$300 a month since I moved in. I have NEVER had a bill so high in my other apartments. So I called the electric company and they came out and did 3 tests on the meter, and found nothing wrong. They've been trying to find the problem for over a month now. After a breaker test, they narrowed it down to an electrical problem in my kitchen. Probably the fridge. Now I have to get an electrician to come out to check it. Its probably a short. SO my question is, if this does indeed turn out to be the problem, am I entitled to any reimbursement from the complex? Its been this way since I moved in.Legal advice dealing with an apartment complex?
You need to read your rental agreement form.





If the fridge has been in the apartment for a while, most companies will replace it, free of charge. However, if it's an older building, someone could be stealing your electricity.





But read your agreement about appliances and talk directly to the property mgmt. company. If your current on-site manager knew about this and didn't bother to say anything, he may not tell the powers that be higher up.


So, directly call your mgmt. company and let them know what's going on. Make sure you have all receipts, all service papers, etc. They probably won't reimburse you, but you may get a new fridge out of it !





Good luck !Legal advice dealing with an apartment complex?
Ok, so here's my answer. No, you're not entitled to reimbursement from the landlord until such time as he's given notice of the problem and a chance to fix it. If he fails to get it fixed in a reasonable time, he may be liable for the added electrical costs after that time. He didn't get your money, the utility did, so he's not ';reimbursing'; anything to you. Besides, I seriously doubt that a short would have caused you to run up an electrical bill. The only way that might happen is if your furnace never shut off (you'd notice that!) or if the fridge never stopped cooling (you'd notice that, too, all the food would freeze) or if the A/C never shut off (ditto).





One thing you can do is to shut off every single electric device you have, and see if the meter is running, and if so, how fast. It shouldn't run at all. Then, one by one, turn on each appliance and see how it affects the meter. This might help you to pin down the problem.





Electrical bills for almost everyone have been soaring in the last two years due to ';deregulation'; and your problem could be part of this.
Read the lease first. You can always ask (nicely) they probably didn't know about it! I'll bet they don't pay the utilities or this wouldn't have come up. So how would they have known that there was a problem? You just happen to be smart enough to know better and no one else said a word! Good Luck