My landlord is overcharging on my Utilities.
I live in a small poolhouse that my landlord's family turned into a studio. Approximate size is 25 feet by 25 feet. I have been living there since early 2001. To this day, my landlord has never given me a copy of her electric/gas bill and she has never given me a copy of the water bill. She charges me $25.00 a month for water and when I first moved in it was only $10.00 a month. So, I know she is overcharging there too. What she does is write on a small envelope, what my share of the electric and water is, she puts the month and year on there and claims that is my bill. I live right next door to her, my roof is connected to her roof, and there is only 1 meter which is on her house. When she gets her electric/gas bill she charges me 1/3 of the bill. She says she has always done that to everyone who has rented the apartment. In June 2003, she told me that my share of the electric/gas was $125.00, which was impossible because for that month, I was only home a few days. Then the following year in July, she charged me another ridiculous amount and again for that month I was only home a few days. I approached her with this, and she said that she would not give me a copy of the bill because it is "my bill". Then she goes into this whole speech about how she thought we were friends and that she feels bad that I don't apparently trust her. We are not friends. I have called the electric company about this. I told them my situation and they said that since I am not on the account they couldn't give me the exact amount. What they did say is that the amount that she is claiming her bill to be is nowhere near what it actually is. Based on the small size of my apartment, I should only be charged a very small amount, not what she is charging me. I only use 1 lamp, do not have air conditioning, and don't use the television or computer much and don’t use any other electronics. I have asked her to put in a meter for my apartment and she said that if we did that she would have to raise the rent. Why would she have to raise the rent? Because she would be losing all the money she is overcharging. She is also stealing from my security deposit. She said that for every year I am there, she will take out $100.00 for wear and tear and when I move out, she will give me the balance of that. I talked to the Housing Authoirty about all of this and they told me that to just play dumb, and when I move out, take her to small claims court. Has anyone else had this type of experience with their landlord?
