Conned by Con Edison?

Gale, I had to break my lease a month shy of fulfillment this week because of the downstairs tenants who moved in after me, as well as street noise that was way worse than I had expected. I let my landlady know and posted on Craigslist to find someone to take over my lease and had no trouble finding interest. I'm now completely moved into my new space and my landlady has a new tenant that she likes :)

My point being, (a) your tenants should at least help you find a replacement and (b) Craigslist is your friend.

Posted by: ettay at November 3, 2009 2:56 PM in response to Tenants Breaking Lease

I had heard good things about callpaultohall from a few friends (besides one person who said he changed his quote) and booked his time over a week in advance. Well, good thing I have great friends who came to my rescue when he decided he wasn't up for it the day before the scheduled event.

Almost lost my damn mind - as if moving weren't stressful enough. Two thumbs wayyy down.

Posted by: ettay at November 2, 2009 3:25 PM in response to Rec: Call Paul to Haul

Wow, thanks so much for all the helpful responses! I should have come to the Brownstoner Forum much sooner :-/

Posted by: ettay at September 21, 2009 12:23 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

If your bill for $123 is from Con-ed, as your header implies, then you are confused because that is your electric bill. Nat'l Grid supplies gas. If you haven't actually had your meter read in months then you are getting billed on estimates, which are probably high.

Posted by: wyckoff at September 21, 2009 1:12 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

tinarina is right; call the Public Service Commission. On a number of occasions I've had almost immediate attention from various utilities when calling them directly just resulted in a run-around.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at September 21, 2009 1:41 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

My last gas bill (from National Grid) starts with a minimum of $14.08 - then adds an additional $26 just for DELIVERY of gas. My Esco charge for 45 CCF's of gas was $26.66 - that's for the gas itself. Adding on a system benefit charge, and MTA surcharge, the sales tax on delivery, the GIT per CCF...it goes on and on. Total bill was $70.76 - for cooking gas and hot water heater.
No one's gas bill could be only $10 per month in Brooklyn. You could use no gas at all, and still will be billed minimum amounts plus tax. If the op's total Con Ed and National Grid charge for 2 months was $123 - that's doing pretty well.

Posted by: parkslopemom at September 21, 2009 1:50 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

File a complaint with the public service commission. Ask for your meter to be tested IMMEDIATELY.

Posted by: guikazoid at September 21, 2009 2:06 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

I don't get a 'delivery' charge on my gas bill. Perhaps delivery is charged to the building and the landlord pays that as part of the costs for hot water (which he pays for)??

I just get cooking gas in my apartment. Never had a bill over $20.

Posted by: northsloperenter at September 21, 2009 2:07 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

Whoa - something is wrong! I actually had an issue w/gas last month w/our gas being shut off for no reason. Turns out the meters were swapped b/t apts (we're living in X and paying for Y and Y is paying for ours) when the building was built (4 years ago). I believe the original tenants moved out and shut their gas off, which really shut ours off. I'm currently asking for an investigation in the differences b/t apt X and Y, just in case we were paying more.

Regardless... I have a roommate and we use the stove pretty much every night and use the over maybe 2x/week. My National Guard Bill looks like this:

Aug Actual 0541
June Actual 0539
x thermal factor of 1.0269
= 2 therms used in 63 days

Min charge for first 2 therms or less is $28.61
Delivers rate ($.03/therm) $.06
System Benefits Charge ($.0169/therm) $.03
MTA Surcharge (WHAT?!) $.03
GAS DELIVERY SUBTOTAL CHARGES: $28.73

Gas Supply Charge ($.6023/therm) $1.20
4% sales tax $.05
SUPPLY SUBTOTAL: $1.25

4% sales tax on gas delivery $1.15
Bill Charge (inc tax and surchg) $1.65

TOTAL CHARGES: $32.78

The graph comparison also shows that we are using much less therms than other people. Range is 2 (low) to 194 (high)

Posted by: Bklynight at September 21, 2009 2:10 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

delivery charge? I've seen it. Its like my old land line phonebill used to have a charge for "dial tone"

Posted by: dittoburg at September 21, 2009 2:21 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

Bklynnight is right. I called National Grid and was told that every gas customer gets a bill with both the delivery charge (always comes from them) and a supply charge (which can come from them or an ESCO). There are all these extra fees and taxes. They told me if no gas was used at all on an account - the minimum charges would have to total close to $30.

Posted by: parkslopemom at September 21, 2009 3:01 PM in response to Conned by Con Edison?

I can say from experience that the litigious route is the worst. The best you can hope from an experience like this is to get them out of there as quickly as possible with as much cooperation as possible. For heavens sake, do NOT rely on them or expect them to find you a tenant. Their fabulous judgement is what caused this mess. You should explain that this is a breaking of the lease, that it is a big problem for you, that this is a bad time of year, etc. and see if you can get them to be cooperative in keeping their apartment both very tidy and neat and available for showing. Immediately. And then while we can't control everything, to the extent you can, analyze how you can try to avoid a similiar situation in the future, i.e. do a lot of screening up front. I am sympathetic because s**t happens but see what you can learn from this. And stay out of court. I had to go there as a last resort with an inherited tenant from hell and let me tell you about a way to age yourself.

Posted by: donatella at November 3, 2009 3:07 PM in response to Tenants Breaking Lease

I would let them be squatters

Posted by: Xander Crews at November 3, 2009 3:36 PM in response to Tenants Breaking Lease