Renting a house and didn't get charged for my gas bill until I lived there for 3 year

[Alfwine]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Minnesota

I am renting a house. I have been renting about 3 years now. Today I got a letter from the gas company saying they don't have anyone listed as living here, and they will disconnect the gas in 10 days if I don't call them.

First off I didn't realize I was suppose to be paying a gas company. I really don't know anything about furnaces I assumed it was electric, since I never got billed anything other than my electric bill / water & sewer etc.

I did not talk long with the person on the phone. The lady was being rude, literally yelling at me on the phone. I was confused. She started asking for my information and I hung up on her. I didn't want to start agreeing to things without getting some legal advice first.

What I want to know is am I legally obligated to pay the gas company for 3 years of gas even though I never had it connected. Apparently after the last tenant disconnected the gas company made a mistake and continued to give me gas without charging me. I never had any contract or agreement with them oral or written to pay for their services.

I am estimating the bill will be between $3000 and $5000 dollars. There is absolutely no way I can afford that. I don't know what to do. Our electric bill is already $150-$200 a month. If I had known I had to pay more on top of that I would have been looking for a different place to live a long time ago. Also I would probably not have used as much heat, since It would be costing me more. I don't think this is fair that they can charge me for 3 years of service like this.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. With the economy as it is I was already suffering. Now I feel just lost.

 

[Zigner]

So, to summarize:

You used 3 years worth of gas without paying. Now you want to know if you are required to pay for it.

The answer becomes obvious...

I suggest that you contact the gas company and ask them what they can work out. If you attempt to work with them, I'd bet that you won't end up paying the full amount...

 

[Alfwine]

Yes, but unkowningly. Of course I will be forced to work with them. They are the only gas company in town. I have to. I don't even know where the gas comes from. We don't have a tank or anything. Apparently through pipes underground. You say it's obvious, but to me it isn't. I never contacted them to connect it in the first place. Of course they do this right before winter, but it is their negligence that allowed me to receive the gas. I am willing to work with them too, but I am scared they are going to try to screw me. I am worried they will try to charge me interest on it. Just wish someone had a similar experience could share with me, so I would have a better understanding of what to do.

 

[HomeGuru]

Yes, but unkowningly. Of course I will be forced to work with them. They are the only gas company in town. I have to. I don't even know where the gas comes from. We don't have a tank or anything. Apparently through pipes underground. You say it's obvious, but to me it isn't. I never contacted them to connect it in the first place. Of course they do this right before winter, but it is their negligence that allowed me to receive the gas. I am willing to work with them too, but I am scared they are going to try to screw me. I am worried they will try to charge me interest on it. Just wish someone had a similar experience could share with me, so I would have a better understanding of what to do.

**A: there is no free gas unless of course you eat a ton of refried beans and some cabbage soup.

 

[FarmerJ]

Alf natural gas services are not shut off after each tenant moves out and back on when some one moves in. They are left on unless the owner refuses to sign a rollover agreement ( used to be NSP now Excel ? ) had it set up where a owner would pay the charges when a unit was empty and as soon as a tenant moves in then its switched to tenant name so the LL doesnt have to pay a start up fee each time. When I had rentals the gas and electric companys had cards I could fill out with tenant name ( lease info) and starting date and address and send on in. Some times too utility companys ask the LL for a copy of the lease too. 150.00/200.00 a month for a residential rental that has electric hot water and electric cooking and electric clothes dryer is not horrid ! You did use the gas , work out payment with them. EVEN if they were that slow to catch it they still are entitled to payment. Its likely they found it when they began reviewing accounts that were behind now that our states cold weather disconnection rules are in force for the winter heating season with metered utilitys. Work it out to pay it off over the winter. If they had discovered this sooner ago they could have easily shut you off by now. Consider your self fortunate for now while the rest of us who have on site tanks were propane or oil is brought to us have no such protection, If we cannot pay we go cold !

 

[seniorjudge]

...
Yes, but unkowningly.
...

You didn't notice you had gas in your house?

 

[Zigner]

You didn't notice you had gas in your house?

She doesn't know how a furnace works

 

[seniorjudge]

You didn't notice you had gas in your house?

If I were you, I'd put a new filter in too.

 

[Alfwine]

Thank you FarmerJ for the response. I am going to call them tomorrow and see what I can work out with them.

When I say unkowningly I meant I just figured it was either electric heat or the landlord was paying it. I wasn't getting billed, so why would I think anything else? The other thing is my electric bill is more expensive when I use my heat more. So that made me think it was electric heat. So not only is the electric more from the furnace, but my gas is too. Maybe this is obvious to some, but its probably because the last town I was living in Excel did gas and electric, so it was in one bill. In this town I am in now the city does the electric. Believe me they would have turned it off if I wouldn't have paid my bill. Excel should have done the same when I first moved in. I guess it's a mistake on both sides, but since they are the one billing you would think they would figure that out sooner than 3 years.

The landlord has to have inspectors here each year, so the furnace filter does get changed.

 

[FarmerJ]

Alf There are 126 municipal electric and 31 municipal gas systems in our state. They too are under cold weather rules. YES having both gas and electric on one bill is nice but next time around when your renting a new place assume nothing, If you see a meter at knee height on a outside wall or next to basement block walls assume it is gas and make sure either it is included with the rent written into the lease saying it is included or to ask the LL who you call to establish a account.

 

[Alfwine]

My friend talked to a lawyer that he knows and gave me this response. I am posting it here in case anyone else runs into the same problem hopefully this will be some help to them.

"Ooh that sucks. I have heard of this happening before. He should look at his lease and see what that says in regards to what utilities are his responsibility. That would give him some idea of what is liability for the bill. I would have him go talk to West Central Communities Action Energy Assistance office too. He can apply for fuel assistance as well as emergency funding. I don't know if they'll cover $3000-5000 but he'd have to check.

They may also be able to talk to Xcel and make some sense of this. Xcel should have some liability there since it was their mistake that lead to 3 years of no bill, but they are a big corporation and rarely take personal responsibility for their actions especially at their own expense. The other thing is, he can buy himself some time by claiming "cold weather rule" which is something he has to contact Xcel to do, but basically the rule is that utility companies cannot disconnect critical utilities during the cold months when they're needed for survival.

If he's not already disconnected he's lucky. The cold weather rule takes effect October 15th (today) so both xcel and city public service have been disconnecting people like crazy for the past two weeks knowing that once the 15th hits low income people will have protection."

 

[seniorjudge]

If I were you, I'd put a new filter in too.

Did you check your filter?