Utility mix up

[Carmen Ohio]

Hello, I live in Ohio.

A little background: I purchased my townhome in May of 2007 - it was new at the time in a new housing division and purchased from the home builder company. One unit contains 8 townhomes that are attached to each other. When I purchased the home, there were no problems with the inspections. Before I go into a lot of detail about the legal advice I'm seeking, I can summarize my problem simply: I have been paying the wrong power bill since May of 2007.

In mid-September of this year I came home from work one day without power. All my neighbors had power. I quickly call the power utility company to find out what was going on - my account was in good standing and power should be supplied to my house. After going through the basic troubleshooting steps with the circuit breaker I went out to where the power meters were outside.

As I mentioned before, one unit contains 8 townhomes. The power meters for the 8 townhomes are grouped together in a common area on the end of the unit. I notice that one of the 8 meters have a lock on the disconnect switch from the power utility company on it and the meter was not moving. It was labeled with a different address of mine. The power meter that is labeled with my address is working and supplying power.

I walked in front of the house of the address that was supposed to be disconnected and lights were on. I concluded that my power was being supplied by the power meter that was disconnected.

I called the power utility company again and told them what I found and they said they were going to send out a service tech. I also asked the customer service agent what the power meter serial number on my account was as I was standing in front of the meters - sure enough it was the one that was labeled with my address. The service tech arrived and removed the lock on the meter disconnect and my power came on. Now the power company is working with me to just re-assign all the meters on the unit to the correct address. The power utility company job is to supply the power to the meters. The home builder job was to run the supply from the meter to the associated home correctly.

This happened at a very bad time - it happened two days before I was leaving the country for three weeks. I had a lot to get done that night to prepare for my trip where power was needed. It was more than a minor inconveinence as far as I'm concerned.

Now I have tried to be green with my electric usage since moving in. The power utility company said they'll go through the historical records for my usage and adjust my account accordingly. Four weeks have passed and I haven't seen anything yet.

What legal actions can I take against the home builder? I expect something as basic as having the power meter assigned to my account to be supplying my home with power. I think it's more than reasonable to have that expectation. If I end up receiving credit back from the utility company, there is a lot of lost potential with the money I've overpaid as I like to invest any spare income I have. If I end up owning more money than I could have adjusted my lifestyle and changed my energy usage habits during the period of time.

Is there any more information I need to give?

[Carmen Ohio]

I also contacted my HOA and they said there is nothing they can do.

I've tried to contact the builder several times without success. Frustrates me enough to want to pursue legal action.

[Zigner]

Why haven't you called the power company back? Your situation is straight-forward. They pull up the records since 2007 for the other unit and compare it to what you've been billed. If you paid more than you should have, you get a refund. If you've paid less, you get billed. To me, a full working week is a reasonable amount of time to wait for this research to be done on their end. Call them and find out what's taking so long.

Chances are that you will have more luck this way, since you don't even know what your damages are (if any) in order to have a case against the builder.

ETA: You won't get anywhere with the "lost potential" stuff. Be happy to be made whole based on what you've spent.