theft of electricity

[lnj49]

hollywood fl. (broward county)
recently discovered that the efficiency apt. next to my 1 bedroom apt. is connected to my electric meter and i have been paying the electric bill for this apt. he rents the efficiency apt with utilities included. in addition i have discovered that my electric hot water heater also feeds this apt. after much arguing and confrontation he is taking steps to correct this! there are 3 electric meters servicing 4 apt's! he cannot produce (or will not) produce any past electric bills for the efficiency next door! Is this criminal behavior on his part and can he retaliate against me for causing such a brou ha about this? thank you for a reply!

 

[LL]

No, I doubt that it is criminal behavior on his part.

You have to check FL law about a specific statute regarding using your electric meter for other purpose. You can probably recover some amount for electricity erroneously billed to you.

I don't know about retaliatory evictions in FL. However, such laws usually provide only temporary relief. If you make too much trouble, you will surely be evicted sooner or later, perhaps more.

 

[niradh]

Title VI Chapter 83
83.64 Retaliatory conduct
At the top of this page, click on State Resources. When the new window opens click State Statutes then click on Florida in that new window. When all the Florida statutes appear, select search statutes and type in Landlord. About the third or fourth one down (search results)click on that and go to the bottom of the page. There you will see 83.64

Not sure about the meters. You could also try a search in this same section for that.