Unusual Question, Need A Pro..

yata

Found this board while searching google on "meter tampering" anyway .. to make along story short. I rent an apartment in a house and suspect I am footing the bill for the ENTIRE 2500 sq ft dwelling.
I rent in NY , I rent a small 550 sq feet of this house, washer, electric dryer and stove. Nothing fancy 10 year old fridge. Normal basic use.
My bills in April and May (when I frist moved in) were about 40 - 70 . My landlord moved in his half in June, my bill for June was a whopping $185.00 !! And it has been steeping high since the day the landord moved in his portion of the house.
When I shut down the main on my breaker, the meter did stop spinning. Is it possible that they can be tapping into my electric through the dividing wall or something ? Whatever it is they may or may not be stealing from me they are getting it from my meter. There are 2 other meters on the house, including one for the garage. The bill is in his name so I reimburse him monthly in my rent and am furnished a copy of the bill. According to an electric usage calc I used at LIPA My energy costs for my size space and my appliances should average $685.00 PER YEAR. But is coming out above average at a cost of $998.00 per year.
Any suggestions on what I can do (withour killing myself) to determine whether I am nuts or not.
Would be GREATLY appreciated !! Thanks. Mike
Power company will not get involved because accounts not in my name. Any ideas on how to see if they are using my juice that I pay for ??

Teetorbilt

Did you keep your old bills? You may want to review them. Also what are you using for heat?

My bill breaks down like this:
1st 750 KWH = lowest rate
Over 750 KWH = higher rate
Fuel surcharge, added on when the price of oil went up

Aaannnnddd, I doubt if you have this one, Hurricane repair fund.

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You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

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mdshunk

I say shut off your main every time you're not home. That ought to get them barking if you're both on the same meter. In most states, two tennants or a tennant and owner loads on the same meter is flatly illegal.

yata

I do have my bills copies of the ones in his name, since April when I moved in ... I use oil for heat
What does "owners load mean" ? I am referring to the post from MDSHUNK

K2

I've seen this by accident in multi units more than once. I like md's suggestion, maybe for a long weekend. You could also try disconnecting, or turning off everything in your unit and see if the meter is still spinning.<P>
I've also seen the meters with the wrong addresses marked. That'll start a little trouble when your neighbor doesn't pay his bill.

yata

yes, we unplugged everything , ever socket/plug in the partment was empty, turned off the breaker for the stove and fridge. Meter is still running .. slowly though,, I will wait until they are home and their lights, tv and etc are on, we will see if its spins faster.
As far as the actual meter billing goes, the meter # on my billl matches the meter we are questioning , so its the right meter, just a tad of possible funny electrical work .

Glasshousebltr

MD's right, shut her down and he'll squawk if he's pulling from your service.

However, he could be a true jack leg and pull his panel from your meter base without using your disconnect. In that case, shut your main down for awhile, then come back later and see if the meter's spinning. If it is, he's jacking you, call in for a faulty meter and show the power guy. Let him catch the heat from another direction.......eviction can hurt.

Bob

Sorry, ya hit me typing.

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Bob

yata

What does that mean ? "pull his panel from your meter base" ?? If he does that wouldnt he have to know what he's doing???

Let me tell you about these people they are CHEAPER THAN CHEAP, they brag about seeing 7 movies for FREE because they "didnt like them", the return food to Trader Joes because if they dont like how it tastes they can bring it back and get their cash back... When I say CHEAP I mean cheap.

mdshunk

Bob's suggesting that he may have his unit tapped into the meter at a point physically before your main disconnect. In that case, turning of your main would still leave his unit powered. Turning off your main while he's home would be the test. Wait until dark, turn off the main, and take a peek next door to see if he's in the dark too. If you have a common wall, it would be funny to listen on the wall when you dump the main and see what they're saying over there.

Speedy Petey

Yata,
I think with this much suspicion a call to the POCO is all you need. In NY a shared meter is a serious issue and if a complait is filed they will investigate.
I just recently had to separate one (1) 60 watt stairwell light because it was on a tennants meter and he complained about it.


I also have one thing to say: You have a Trader Joe's locally?? NO FAIR!
I have to wait to go to LI to shop there.

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mdshunk

By the way, an "owner load" are things like parking lot lights, common hallway lights, common stairway lights, basement and attic lights, common furnace power, common water heater power, shared laundry room power, etc. Owner loads must either be on a seperate "owner meter" OR on the actual owner's meter for his unit if he happens to live in the building. This is why you'll often see a 4 unit apartment building with 5 meters, or a two unit duplex with 3 meters. The owner loads are to be seperated off onto it's own meter. This is law in most of the land. When I do a service upgrade for an apartment building, I always install the extra owner meter, even if it doesn't have an associated panel and load assigned to it yet. If so, this "gang" of the meter is just blank plated, but it's there so that if they want to get legal at some point, they're all set up for it.

While I've never had to seperate off a single 60 watt lamp like Speedy had to, I have seperated off other extreme things. One building owner installed a small coin laundry in his building. You had to put in quarters to wash and dry your clothes. He was making money on the deal. He had 3 washers and 3 dryers. They were all tapped, fairly equally, out of all the tennants panels. Big-time no no. He wanted his cake and eat it too. Make the tennants pay for the laundry room power amd make those same tannants pay even more to use those facilities. Sheesh.

yata

I did call my power company today (LIPA) which by the way they are trained to be power hitlers... basically stated that they cannot issue an investigation on a meter thats not in my name. Because the bills come in his name, he gives me a copy and I reimburse him every month. So as far as that goes I'm screwed.
Yes Trader Joes is 20 minutes from us here on Long Island. I barely go though. I cant afford it after my electric bills

K2

For the test i suggested leave all the breakers on. He could be tapping off that frig circuit and maybe the range too, (hopefully not the range for probably some other reasons too). Of course the frig cycles on and off so if he was running his frig on your dime it might not show for and hour or so. The smoke detectors would be hard to disconnect but they would probably turn the meter really really slow. I've done this test on a couple of my places and have seen the meter running very very slowly in reverse. Not quite sure what that was all about.