commercial lease - shared electricity issue

[Kindzmarauli]

I am in Culver City, Los Angeles Cty, California.

At the end of a 5-year commercial lease, I found out that I was paying for the neighboring office electricity, to the tune of $6K over five years. After I reported that to the landlord, the landlord appears to be dragging their feet on it, doing month-long "investigations", not responding to emails, etc. The lease ends Sept 30, 2013.

How I know about the electricity: when a previous tenant moved out of the neighboring office, my electricity bill dropped from $200/mo to $40/mo. When a new tenant moved in, the bill went back up to $200/mo. When I didn't use the office at all (no electricity using equipment other than a fridge), the bill stayed the same.

Initially I thought it was a circuit sharing issue, but today, the electrical company said they don't bill my neighbor at all - there is no separate meter for them. The neighbor confirmed that. There is little chance the landlord didn't know about it: they are the ones who must request a metered service for any triple-net space they lease out. So it appears they're dragging their feet on purpose, and leased the space to me fully aware I'd be paying for the neighboring space electricity.

I'd like to give them the benefit of a doubt but not very hopeful. If they end up refusing to compensate me for those charges, do I have any practical legal ways for force them to that won't cost me half the due amount?

Thanks!

 

[FarmerJ]

If you were to take the LL to small claims court I would imagine what will help you with claim is to have letter from elect util stating there is only one meter at this property , copies of the bills when you were the only tenant in the property and your lease copy and then copies of your communications with the LL about it and ask the court if you were to pay the elect for the entire structure then should that have been disclosed to you in your lease ? No idea how the court would treat it but id say it may well be worth the filing fee since the court might just agree with you that the lease should have disclosed to you about the elect.

 

[Kindzmarauli]

...letter from elect util stating there is only one meter at this property, ... ask the court if you were to pay the elect for the entire structure then should that have been disclosed to you in your lease?

Thanks FarmerJ. There are quite a few tenants in the building: about eight triple-net ground floor leases that should have their own meters, a few more on gross leases on the second floor. The neighbor who doesn't have a meter, is on the ground floor and should be on a triple-net lease with a separate metered electricity service. I do get where you're going with this, and have everything except a letter from the electrical company - only verbal confirmations.

When you say, "no idea how the court will treat it" - is this something considered fairly normal - making the tenant unknowingly pay for something they didn't agree to? In other words, what would be a good reason for the court not to ask the LL to reimburse the overcharges? Do you picture them saying, "You were unknowingly paying your neighbor's electricity bill for five years and the LL refuses to compensate you for it? What exactly is the problem with THAT?"

 

[STEPHAN]

Why don't you just turn off your power and wait until the other unit starts screaming?

 

[Kindzmarauli]

Why don't you just turn off your power and wait until the other unit starts screaming?

That's not a bad idea - I haven't thought of it. If the landlord does not respond by tomorrow, I'll consider that.

I do have subtenants there who need the power once in a while, and a fridge that needs the power constantly. But turning off the power selectively - to those circuits that go to the other offices - is a perfect solution.

Well, on another though - if I have access to it - which I probably don't. Already tried turning off the circuit, and the office next door didn't seem to lose power. The meter is in a closet outside and I don't have a key to it, and even if I did, I wouldn't want to change anything there on my own. Yet another thought is that it won't change much - I am off that grid by end of September, I just want my money back.

 

[FarmerJ]

In residential rentals when there is no local or state requirement of separate meters for apartments and a meter is in a tenants name then as long as a landlord discloses to a tenant that they will be paying for electric that covers say a hall light thats in a common hallway in a multi unit there are places where that is acceptable and the residential landlord is held to a higher standard for it. Commercial rental is just that , its to make money so commercial rentals tend to have little to zero regulation by state law so I suspect that it might possibly be more challenging for a commercial tenant to convince a court that a LL has not been fair. im not saying impossible just its a whole other game, but you know if you filed small claims you can find out