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Landlord entering my room and unpluging my TV

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Kipling Martin

New member
What is the name of your state? Colorado

My landlord will routinely enter my room when I'm not there and unplug my equipment. (TV, cable box, etc) He says he's trying to keep the electric bill down. Is he allowed to do this?
 


quincy

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? Colorado

My landlord will routinely enter my room when I'm not there and unplug my equipment. (TV, cable box, etc) He says he's trying to keep the electric bill down. Is he allowed to do this?
Maybe. What does your lease say?
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
No lease, just verbal agreements.
If there is no lease, then he can probably do that, but it's idiocy on his part. I suggest that you find somewhere else to live as soon as possible, because he clearly has no respect for your privacy at all.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Have you had a discussion with your landlord about entering your room to unplug your TV, cable box, etc? I am assuming you don’t want him to do this.

Who is paying the electric bill?
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
What is the name of your state? Colorado

My landlord will routinely enter my room when I'm not there and unplug my equipment. (TV, cable box, etc) He says he's trying to keep the electric bill down. Is he allowed to do this?
I would suggest that you invest in a smart plug (a 2-pack of a Wyze plugs is $20 on Amazon) that will allow you to schedule remote on-off times for your electronics. That way, your electronics can be off when you're not there and on when you are there without you even having to think about it.

(This is what I did when my wife was out of state for an extended period of time. The lectronics turned off about 20 minute after I would leave in the morning and would turn on about 20 minutes before I got home in the evening.)
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
I would suggest that you invest in a smart plug (a 2-pack of a Wyze plugs is $20 on Amazon) that will allow you to schedule remote on-off times for your electronics. That way, your electronics can be off when you're not there and on when you are there without you even having to think about it.

(This is what I did when my wife was out of state for an extended period of time. The lectronics turned off about 20 minute after I would leave in the morning and would turn on about 20 minutes before I got home in the evening.)
I did some research and it does appear that a lot, if not most, of today's electronics continue to use a small amount of power even when they are turned off. The fact that the landlord is unplugging electronics would indicate that he is aware of that and is that concerned about the electric bill that he prefers things unplugged when not in use. That would be a real pain in the backside for anything that has an internal clock. One would constantly have to reset them.

Would the device you mention work if the landlord was unplugging electronics?
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Would the device you mention work if the landlord was unplugging electronics?
It would eliminate the need for the LL to unplug appliances because the devices are disconnected from power already. In essence, it's a regularly scheduled "unplugging" of the device. Or, more simply, a timer.

Edit: Of course, the OP would need to explain to the LL that he's got the new outlet(s) and explain how the scheduling works.

In fact, the OP could do the same thing with a mechanical timer on the outlet(s) for even less money, although, $10 per outlet is not that much more than a proper mechanical timer would cost.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
It would eliminate the need for the LL to unplug appliances because the devices are disconnected from power already. In essence, it's a regularly scheduled "unplugging" of the device. Or, more simply, a timer.

Edit: Of course, the OP would need to explain to the LL that he's got the new outlet(s) and explain how the scheduling works.

In fact, the OP could do the same thing with a mechanical timer on the outlet(s) for even less money, although, $10 per outlet is not that much more than a proper mechanical timer would cost.
But that would still mean resetting internal clocks on all electronics on a daily basis, correct?
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
But that would still mean resetting internal clocks on all electronics on a daily basis, correct?
If there was an internal clock to reset, yes. The OP is talking about a bedroom. I suspect the "clocks" aren't a concern.
 

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