ConEdison & two meter building
Here’s one for folks. We have a two family brownstone which has a seperate meter for the rental floor. With our current tennant moving out I have transferred the bill into my name. Con Edison now deem this a commercial bill and charge a higher rate. I challenged them on this that it was all…
Here’s one for folks. We have a two family brownstone which has a seperate meter for the rental floor. With our current tennant moving out I have transferred the bill into my name. Con Edison now deem this a commercial bill and charge a higher rate. I challenged them on this that it was all the same building but thems the rules allegedly. The weird thing is, if I were to convert to a single meter for the house the bill would all be back to residential rate. The rate would also change back to residential when and if it’s moved back to a new tennant. Struck me as very odd but perhaps others have encountered this ? Either way it just seems like a rip off.
Why not just leave it alone?
I’ve had tenants move out, cancel their service with ConEd, but the lights still work, etc.
They stop billing the tenat, but I don’t think they turn off the power unless the unit is severely overdue.
I have 2 meters, 1 for my unit and 1 for the common area, no commercial rate.
If you plan on re-renting that unit tell ConEd that, they’ll just close the old account and wait for a new tenant to request service.
Thanks everyone. We’re not planning on keeping the additional floor for ourselves and I agree that this problem will go away when the new tennant moves in.
We may just change to one meter and make this go away that way but this just seemed plain wrong to me but I guess not.
Con Ed’s policy is to charge an empty apartment meter at “small non-residential” rate. This is the same rate you pay for common areas (assuming that service is on a separate meter), but less than the commercial rate. For an empty apartment, Con Ed will “offer” to remove the meter, and then have you pay for reinstallation. Also not a good idea when you want to turn on lights while showing the apartment. You can probably transfer the service to your name without problem under the guise of being the new tenant…I’ve never tried that. Turn your two bills over and compare the actual charges. I think you’ll find that the difference overall is minimal, and the whole issue will disappear as soon you have a new tenant.
I’ve ran into the same situation, plus they also asked me for a security deposit of $75.00 (which was returned after I closed the account). I think it’s a new thing that they recently started because when we first bought the building I transferred the apartments into my name and ConEd did not charge me a commercial rate. But recently when a tenant moved out they did.
You should probably do what petebklyn suggested and save yourself the headache.
cmu – The bill states the category.
I have 2 fam with 2 meters in my name, because heater and basement are connected to tenant’s meter. Just realized…how would I know if I’m setup as a commercial client?
I have a building w/ 2 residential tenants & 1 commercial w/ 3 meters. I’ve temporarily taken over one apt. bill when the place was empty while I did refurbishing but have never run into what you describe.
I have a two family and I occupy the entire building. I have two meters, and two bills. No commercial status. I have another friend with the same situation as me and no commercial status. It seems rather odd unless you actually have commercial space.
I think only allowed 1 meter for each name. You perhaps could get spouse/partner on the other meter (if have 1).
But don’t understand why doing this…are you planning to use both spaces for yourself now?