Landlords....

[pokerfan]

My story pales in comparison to grasswire's but I thought I'd tell it anyway.

When I was fresh out of university twenty plus years ago, I moved into an apartment complex not too far from my work.

It was one of those complexes with a bunch of three story 12 and 18 unit buildings surrounding a rec area with a pool and tennis courts. The apartments were surrounded by covered carports.

I moved into a nice studio on the top floor with a vaulted ceiling and on one of the ends. East end to catch the morning sun.

One of the few mods I made was to replace the light switch in the bathroom with a dimmer switch.

Anyway, after several years I'm moving into a larger apartment across town. I figure I should put everything back the way it was when I moved in, so I flip the breaker switch and go to work on replacing the bathroom light switch.

It's evening and I get a knock on the door. It's my buddy from the adjacent apartment. He says I need to check this out. All the lights in the carport are out! I start to say that's really interesting before it dawns on me. I go back inside and flip on the breaker and the lights all come on! My electrical bill was always higher than my neighbor's but I had just attributed that to being more exposed with a roof and three external walls and baseboard electric heat and a wall AC unit.

So the next day I'm down in the manager's office reading them the riot act and they are all like "oh, that's our mistake! You are supposed to receive a $40 per month credit for living in that unit. WE JUST FORGOT! We'll make sure we credit you the full amount." Which they did. And was more than enough to cover the extra juice.

The best part to this story is a couple of months later, on my way home from work, I swing into my old apartment complex and knock on the door of my my old apartment.

Yeah, you can finish the story from here. The managers had "forgot" again to tell the tenants about the carport lights as well. I made him promise that in exchange for the information that I had given him that he pass it on to the next tenant. And to tell them to do the same. He must have, because I checked in a few years later and the current tenants were aware, but only because the previous tenant had alerted them!

Bastards.

[rug]

1. You know, there's the germ of a short story here.

[pokerfan]

4. LOL

The never ending tale of the breaker box!

I actually became friends with the first tenant I told. He was also in my line of work. Electrical engineering.

We should round up everyone who's still in the area and have some kind of half-assed reunion.

[mainegreen]

2. You did the right thing. Truth forward!

[Deja Q]

3. Bastards indeed.

x(

Is there a course for legal action you could take?

[pokerfan]

6. What are my damages?

Is there a course for legal action you could take?

I was made whole.

I think I will swing by there today or tomorrow and make another knock on the door, just to see.

20 years
12 months to a year
40 bucks (not adjusted for inflation)
--------------
9600 bucks

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. what you did was the right thing to do, but, ifor me i would have

taken further actions....i would have written an editorial and sued to have them rewire the place....i bet the whole fricken complex is being run on other unsuspecting tennents electric bills....this happens everywhere...grrrr