Prop Mgr wants access to my electric bill - should I agree?

[KSMinnesota]

What is the name of your state? Minnesota

This is the request I'm getting from my property manager: "We’re doing an electric efficiency program to look at past bills so that we can pin point areas that we can save energy on. This is part of our Go Green initiative that we’re complying with for our bank loan. I need to have your electric account # and meter #. They’ll just be looking at the billing amounts etc. "

I do not have a wonderful relationship with our property manager & I don't trust her. I just imagine her using it to somehow end up raising my rent, even though they'd back up with an excuse about the cost along the current rental climate in our city, blah, blah, blah.

Since I know this is technically their property, must I absolutely comply or do I have the option to politely decline? And even if I decline, do I have any legal rights to decline? What do you think?

Thanks for any advice!!!

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

You don't have to do squat. They don't have to renew your lease or not increase the rent when it is up for renewal.

This might be a good time to take a swing and making your relationship with your LL better.

 

[FarmerJ]

Personally I have never heard of such a thing and I buy both the star trib and pioneer press DAILY since we are readers and do actually watch local news. If you feel compelled to meet them part way you could compile a list say of the last 12 to 18 months of utility payments like say July 2019 180.00 june 2019 160.00 may 2019 140.00 etc BUT as to sharing your account number Even I would hesitate reason being is dollar amounts mean nothing in the bigger picture because the age of the things you use and the actual things you use impacts how much power you consume. So for example your window air conditioner that YOU own might be very efficient compared to the fridge your LL supplied you with when you moved in, a smart meter already tells your utility the times of day your power use is heaviest. Another thing that impacts you is say your heat is included but you pay your ac cost , if your LLs windows are not draft free and in the winter you can feel air coming in from around them or you see frost all the time on say the storm window then your air conditioning cost could be higher , same way if the building has poor insulation. ( meter number is public its on the meter itself and LL can just get it them self , account number really wont tell them much and I would be concerned enough to ask the electric company to put a security password on the account so even if someone other than you contacts them they wont be able to steal account details that could lead to identity theft and this way you could still give them the account number and be in compliance with the LLs request for acct number and monthly totals.

 

[Zigner]

Send the property managers redacted copies of your bills (redacting the account number and any PIN that might be assigned for account access). That gives them all of the information they need without releasing your personal information.

A agree with FarmerJ about also setting up additional security on your account.

 

[FarmerJ]

Just so you know KS there are a lot of things that can be done to help lower your electric use/ cost such as off peak power where things like electric hot water heaters are set up to cycle all night long or central air units that have those interrupter boxes wired in that allows the elect co to change how a central air unit runs as well as am/ pm meters that let the electric utility bill at one higher rate 8am to 8 pm and a lower rate 8pm to 8am so things like freezers and some fridges would be on timers , or things like meals you cook on a electric cook stove would be cheaper to cook after 8pm even if you had to re heat what you cooked Monday at 830 p for your Tues 5pm supper. Same with wash run after 8pm being cheaper on that set up than day time laundry use ( I work with a number of people from Grantsburg WI area who have those 8 to 8 meters and billing program but Ece up here on our side of the saint Croix has not offered that service as of yet.