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November 23, 2007
Tenant never opened account with Con Ed
We have a two family, and currently have a tenant who signed a lease with us about 7 months ago. We've noticed that they've never signed up with Con Ed for electrical service. We have separate meters, and our previous tenant got regular bills from Con Ed. This tenant is regularly late with the rent, recently had their gas service shut off by Keyspan for non-payment, etc. I'm wondering if we have any liability in terms of their electrical use (somehow Con Ed is supplying them with electricity, even though they never signed up for an account.)
Would it be wrong to contact Con Ed? Advice, please, thanks!
Comments
Maybe they're Amish?
Posted by: guest at November 23, 2007 12:58 PM
Sounds as if you are going to want to be getting rid of them as soon as possible, hopefully you only have a year's lease with them.
You might want to check if they are somehow leeching from your electricity - do they have access to any of your outlets, inside or out? More than likely, the previous tenants did not cancel their Con Ed services, or you may be right - Con Ed doesn't know what's up.
I had a tenant, for whom Con Ed came in and removed the meter, due to non payment - they had a court order that said I had to let them in to do that. I was was in the process of evicting him anyway, and he lived in the apartment with no electricity for a couple of months until he disappeared, leaving all of his belongings, and a refrigerator of rotting food.
When I rented my apartment to my current tenant, Con Ed put a new meter in. I guess they just ate their losses, as they could not collect. They never tried to get it from me, and after my new tenant proved that she was not the same person as the evicted tenant, they never harrassed her about the money (around $900) either. In the end, we all pay for that, I suppose.
Posted by: guest at November 23, 2007 3:34 PM
Evict now. No need to wait if they're always late with your rent.
Posted by: guest at November 24, 2007 2:50 PM
NO, don't be rash. Just call ConEd, give them their name(s) and leave it to them. If the tenant doen't pay you have a lease & they know you called. They'll just shut off their electricity.
Posted by: tag482 at November 24, 2007 5:22 PM
Hah joke post above. Evict NOW.
Posted by: guest at November 24, 2007 10:02 PM
My tenants did the same thing -- but with Keyspan, not ConEd. Keyspan wanted to shut off the meter, since there was no account, but I just gave them my tenant's name, address, cell, and SSN from the rental application and Keyspan was very happy--I'm assuming they billed them, since I never heard about it from Keyspan again (and they were pretty agressive about shutting off the meter, contacting me, etc).
I'm assuming ConEd will just take the info from you too? You have a lease and all the info they need....
Posted by: guest at November 27, 2007 5:40 PM
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