Electric Meter Issue - Can I break the lease?

[rzack]

We were renting in a duplex house which has two electric meters. On the four month we moved, our electric bills ridiciliously high. But we still pay it. For four months with only 2 of us who also working, it cost us almost $1000 for 4 months. I wrote letters to landlord about the issue. No reply.

When our next door neighbor moved out, a new tenant came in. Suddently we stopped receiving bill and I called the electric company. They said, our account was closed, but we still have electricity. Guess what? The new bills were under the new neigbor's name. Again I wrote letters to landlord, no reply. Energy company said that our house only showed one unit and one meter. So all these times, we paid for both units.

Being responsible we talked to the neighbor and the had a meeting with the landlord which promised to take care all the bills and we pay directly to him by split into two.

Our landlord accidently switch off our electricity for two days instead of switch the other unit to change bills to his name. The landlord only transfer the neigbor's bill to his name. But we still got ours. Which was not in the agreement. It was also agreed that we split all bills including mine (at the last 2 months stayed there we got two bills). The neigbor broke the lease only after 2 months and promised to pay her portion directly to us. Again, landlord broke promises by asking us to pay our own bill, but paid for our neigbor.

Getting tired of this (almost 8 months), we broke the lease by asking back the deposit. My question is, if they take us to court, do we have chance to win? I keep all the letter that I wrote to the landlord. Also, can we demand on our deposit?

Thanks.

 

[BL]

When the Elect . Co. stated they property is showing only as one meter , what did the code inspectors order the owner/LL to do about it ?

Why wait for the LL to take you to court . If you have proof you've been paying double , and the LL knew about it , gather all your proofs and sue the LL .

 

[rzack]

The told us when we called why we did not get the bills. They said it stated that we moved out (the same date the old tenant of the next door moved out). We never called to stop the service because we never move out.

Then we asked them to send somebody to check, and they said the problem solved. But our bills stated the next door meter number and keep changing from month to month which make us very confuse.

Yes, I have the proof that I paid double, I keep all the letters (which submitted by hand to the landlord office to the receptionist), all the confusing electric bills.

The landlord doesn't say they won't pay back the deposit or want to take us to court. Just in case, so we can prepare. Obviously the landlord knew that he is wrong, but we really want back our deposit. But in the agreement said, if we break the lease we won't get back the deposit. But it is not our fault that we want to move out, the issue is too much to handle and giving us so much stress.

 

[Kazzie]

If and when your landlord doesn't return your deposit, take him to small claims court. Sounds like your landlord is in breach of your lease but not correcting the problem in a timely manner. Do you have anything in writing from the electric company stating what the problem was? If not, you might want to see if they'd send you something in writing explaining what was causing the problem. But I believe you'd be all set in regards to getting your deposit back.

This is just my opinion and not legal advice.