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Condo Association Ran Up My Power Bill & Won't Pay It

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JWL

Junior Member
Alabama.
I own a Gulf Coast condo damaged by hurricane Ivan in Sept 2004. Post-Ivan, the Association Board of Directors and the contractually employed property management company made the condos were off limits to owners and guests for 4 months.

There are interior corridors in the building and the condominium doors were all left open continuously, initially to "dry out the building", and later, to allow unfettered access to management company, workers, and contractors. "Control" was maintained by locking the exterior building doors each night.

During the last month while the condo was still off limits I received an electric bill that was $150 dollars above "normal" even when occupied, based on usage history from the electric company.

The condo "Docs" allow the Board to take measures to protect common proprerty and effect repairs. THey can enter condos, for example and take actions to mitigate damages and prevent damages from spreading to other areas - in the event of a plumbing leak for example.

Nowhere are they given the right to unlimited use utilities of the owners. They were paid by the master policy insurance for damage mitigation and repairs, and they can also assess the owners on a pro-rata basis when money is needed. They can't pick and choose to incur costs that will be billed to individual owners unless it is a specific emergency problem in that unit, which this was not.

Either the management company didn't maintain positive control of the building, and should have checked units more frequently; or they didn't provide enough oversight of workers; or that they were directly responsible for turning on and then failing to turn off the heat.

I contend that the management company and/or the Association owe me for a defensible prorata share of that power bill. If they had come in and run up $150 in long distance phone charges, it would be no different.

My questions are:

1. DO I have a case?

2. Did they have the right to commandere my electricity, run up my bill and then not reimburse me for it?

3. Who do I file the complaint against - the management company, the Association, or both; and the enitities or specific named individuals?

Thanks!
JWL
 
Last edited:


seniorjudge

Senior Member
JWL said:
Alabama.
I own a Gulf Coast condo damaged by hurricane Ivan in Sept 2004. Post-Ivan, the Association Board of Directors and the contractually employed property management company made the condos were off limits to owners and guests for 4 months.

There are interior corridors in the building and the condominium doors were all left open continuously, initially to "dry out the building", and later, to allow unfettered access to management company, workers, and contractors. "Control" was maintained by locking the exterior building doors each night.

During the last month while the condo was still off limits I received an electric bill that was $150 dollars above "normal" even when occupied, based on usage history from the electric company.

The condo "Docs" allow the Board to take measures to protect common proprerty and effect repairs. THey can enter condos, for example and take actions to mitigate damages and prevent damages from spreading to other areas - in the event of a plumbing leak for example.

Nowhere are they given the right to unlimited use utilities of the owners. They were paid by the master policy insurance for damage mitigation and repairs, and they can also assess the owners on a pro-rata basis when money is needed. They can't pick and choose to incur costs that will be billed to individual owners unless it is a specific emergency problem in that unit, which this was not.

Either the management company didn't maintain positive control of the building, and should have checked units more frequently; or they didn't provide enough oversight of workers; or that they were directly responsible for turning on and then failing to turn off the heat.

I contend that the management company and/or the Association owe me for a defensible prorata share of that power bill. If they had come in and run up $150 in long distance phone charges, it would be no different.

My questions are:

1. DO I have a case?

2. Did they have the right to commandere my electricity, run up my bill and then not reimburse me for it?

3. Who do I file the complaint against - the management company, the Association, or both; and the enitities or specific named individuals?

Thanks!
JWL

If I understand you correctly, your electric bill was $150 over what it normally is?

No, you do not have a case due to the stuff you quoted that the association can do. What would be your alternative?
 

JWL

Junior Member
Yes, $150 above normal.

Alternative to what, using my heat excessively? They bought free-standing AC units to keep their staff cool when days were hot, and plugged them into common area outlets,a nd the Association got the power bill. THey could have done the same thing with the heat.

See that's the problem. The common area HVAC wasn't working.

You aren't a lawyer, are you?
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
JWL said:
Yes, $150 above normal.

Alternative to what, using my heat excessively? They bought free-standing AC units to keep their staff cool when days were hot, and plugged them into common area outlets,a nd the Association got the power bill. THey could have done the same thing with the heat.

See that's the problem. The common area HVAC wasn't working.

You aren't a lawyer, are you?
If you want to sue them for $150, then do so in small claims court.

Do not expect success.
 

JWL

Junior Member
Had it been $150 long distance phone charges should I expect success? How about if they spray painted graffiti all over my furniture and fixtures?
I'm serious. Where do you draw the line?
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
JWL said:
Had it been $150 long distance phone charges should I expect success? How about if they spray painted graffiti all over my furniture and fixtures?
I'm serious. Where do you draw the line?
Ask for whatever amount you want. Be prepared to prove all of it.

The defense will be necessity; this was an emergency situation, this is all I could do, etc.
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
Q: what was the electric used for?

A: There are interior corridors in the building and the condominium doors were all left open continuously, initially to "dry out the building", and later, to allow unfettered access to management company, workers, and contractors.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
seniorjudge said:
Q: what was the electric used for?

A: There are interior corridors in the building and the condominium doors were all left open continuously, initially to "dry out the building", and later, to allow unfettered access to management company, workers, and contractors.

**A: that does not answer my question.
 

JWL

Junior Member
They could only assume the power was used for heat - either to "dry out the building", or "because it was cold several days and the common area HVAC was'nt functioning", or "in error during testing of heater strips".

In Sept - Oct, when they were airing the building to dry it, my electric bills were "normal" & also in November. By the mid-December to mid January billing cycle when 95% of the building was long dry (my condo included), I got this huge electric bill (which was NOT the residual result of estimated billings to that point but actual readings, per the electric company) and only the electric heat could have run a bill that high that fast. The refrigerator and water heater are never turned off, and the lights wouldn't have run up the bill that high.

Baldwin electric company and I (I work for Ala Power) believe it had to have been the heater, though we don't know it for sure. For all we know it could have been an external demand for power - maybe they were running those big blowers in the hall plugged into my outlet via extension cord instead of the common area outlets in the halls that are metered and billed to the association. And I got the bill instead of the association. Or they were testing heater strips as I was also told, and they simply failed to turn my heat back off.

So they used my power for a common area purpose which is a common (i.e. Association) expense (heat or airflow or general power source for the building or entire floor); or they simply messed up and turned heat on for some reason and failed to turn it off. Either way they should be responsible for it.

Bottom line is you can look at the billing histories for my condo and see something is obviously way out of wack for that billing cycle. At that time the Association (through the managment company) had the building totally under their control and told the owners to stay away. I couldn't stay in it or even close and lock my own front door.
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
JWL said:
They could only assume the power was used for heat - either to "dry out the building", or "because it was cold several days and the common area HVAC was'nt functioning", or "in error during testing of heater strips".

In Sept - Oct, when they were airing the building to dry it, my electric bills were "normal" & also in November. By the mid-December to mid January billing cycle when 95% of the building was long dry (my condo included), I got this huge electric bill (which was NOT the residual result of estimated billings to that point but actual readings, per the electric company) and only the electric heat could have run a bill that high that fast. The refrigerator and water heater are never turned off, and the lights wouldn't have run up the bill that high.

Baldwin electric company and I (I work for Ala Power) believe it had to have been the heater, though we don't know it for sure. For all we know it could have been an external demand for power - maybe they were running those big blowers in the hall plugged into my outlet via extension cord instead of the common area outlets in the halls that are metered and billed to the association. And I got the bill instead of the association. Or they were testing heater strips as I was also told, and they simply failed to turn my heat back off.

So they used my power for a common area purpose which is a common (i.e. Association) expense (heat or airflow or general power source for the building or entire floor); or they simply messed up and turned heat on for some reason and failed to turn it off. Either way they should be responsible for it.

Bottom line is you can look at the billing histories for my condo and see something is obviously way out of wack for that billing cycle. At that time the Association (through the managment company) had the building totally under their control and told the owners to stay away. I couldn't stay in it or even close and lock my own front door.

You are complaining about a $150.00 (one hundred and fifty dollar) overage?

You've spent more complaining about it than it would've cost you if you had paid it.

I'm sorry: please explain the logic behind these complaints. Thank you.

(And I don't mean "it's the principle of the thing.")
 

BlondiePB

Senior Member
seniorjudge said:
You are complaining about a $150.00 (one hundred and fifty dollar) overage?

You've spent more complaining about it than it would've cost you if you had paid it.

I'm sorry: please explain the logic behind these complaints. Thank you.

(And I don't mean "it's the principle of the thing.")
It is the "principal" of the thing.

My last electric bill = 0 kilowatts used and there's a balance due. :confused:
 

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