No, you can't get unlimited electric service for free

[WishfulSpirit]

Walks back up to trailer and says you have to move It's unfit for human habitation. They said, no, he has to pump it out. He told them that's only if he wants to keep collecting rent, and he doesn't.

Where I live (Colorado, USA) that's called constructive eviction (making it unfit and refusing to do anything about it). The tenants could have broken the lease with no penalty (which wouldn't be too bad if he just wanted them out) AND sued him for moving costs, as it was technically his fault they had to leave (not so good). Keep that in mind if any landlords out there are considering this method. Other areas (California especially) also impose some pretty hefty fines on landlords who attempt to get renters to leave by making the place uninhabitable, so if you're a landlord with problem tenants, do your research if you decide to try this method.

[icmedia]

My wife's company is a contractor for the electric company in Detroit, and they handle all of the reconnects (when someone finally does pay their bill, and gets service turned back on).

The stories she tells me about the people who are stealing are crazy-sometimes they burn down their house, get injured or killed, or sometimes they just melt the meter box shut from their clever engineering feats.

Of course, there are also the customers who, upon having a crew discover their thieving ways, shoot at the lineman who has to disconnect it.

[Sapphire Silk]

If it isn't a money issue, have you looked at automatic payment? I know many people don't like the idea of it, but I personally LOVE it. I can only do it because my heat is included in rent (old building, natural gas heat, hot water, and range), so my electric bill is low. But anyway, auto payment is nice.

Oh, I love auto pay too. Every bill I have that I can automate, I automate. I can't do it with my electric, and sometimes I forget to pay it on time. Usually I'm really good about it, but I did get my service cut off a couple of years ago. The CSR was really nice about it and waived the reconnect fee because I admitted to being dumb and was willing to pay the full bill on the spot.

A neighbor of ours agreed to rent a trailer to a man and his disabled wife. On move-in day, man, disabled wife, two sons, a son's girlfriend and a baby move in to the two bedroom trailer.

Two weeks later tenant asks for half of sec dep back as a loan...<snip>

The class act tenants defecated on the kitchen floor the day they moved out.

Yeah, and they probably felt self righteous about the whole thing, too.

Every lease I've ever had forbade sub letting, or people not on the lease from living on the property. I don't know about the landlord here, but that should have been grounds to evict. But I get it, even if he had grounds, it would take anywhere from 30-90 days.

It sucks: rules meant to protect people from bad landlords enable bad tenants to screw good landlords.

Perhaps when people have to pay their local taxes, there should be a few empty fields on the forms for past due utility balances. If any amount gets entered in there, it gets deducted from any federal tax refunds they get. Customer gets paid up, utilities get their money, everyone wins!

It's a great idea, but hard to do in practice. There's another way: get a civil judgement in small claims court and file for garnishment.

[Gizmo]

Yeah, and they probably felt self righteous about the whole thing, too.


It sucks: rules meant to protect people from bad landlords enable bad tenants to screw good landlords.

And other residents too.. check out my thread in life advice...

[mhkohne]

Of course, there are also the customers who, upon having a crew discover their thieving ways, shoot at the lineman who has to disconnect it.

Which has got to be high on the list of stupidest possible responses to getting caught-not only does it not keep your power on (they ALREADY KNOW ABOUT IT, that's why they sent the guy!), but it ups a theft of services to attempted homicide. I mean, how f-ing stupid are these people.

[Golden Phoenix]

Of course, there are also the customers who, upon having a crew discover their thieving ways, shoot at the lineman who has to disconnect it.

Which has got to be high on the list of stupidest possible responses to getting caught-not only does it not keep your power on (they ALREADY KNOW ABOUT IT, that's why they sent the guy!), but it ups a theft of services to attempted homicide. I mean, how f-ing stupid are these people.

Guns in the UK are much less common and we still had people threatening our agents with them.

I recall one call I took where an agent had looked around to find the meter (allowed by law, he was gaining access to our equipment, which records showed was outside) and spotted a shotgun leaning against a wall in the porch.

He called in, and spoke with me, the immediate response in a situation where any kind of weapon is involved is to *get the fark out!!!*

He returned with a police escort the next week.

We had agents deliberately locked in rooms by homeowners, one guy went to reconnect a meter in a basement and the homeowner took away the ladder. He was down there for several hours by all accounts (I was off work that week, go the story when I came back in) resulting in new procedures for checking in.

We even had "code phrases" that agents could call in so we could get the police out there fast.

The biggest fear of any of us was "losing" an agent, they would call in when they got there, again when the police/dog handler/locksmith arrived if they were required, again when the work on the meter began (partially to check we had the right meter etc, and partially to confirm they were still safe) and one final time when they left the property to confirm they were ok and to give us the new meter details. If the gap between any of those calls was too long it prompted us to try to contact them, if we couldn't get hold of them that was an automatic call for police assistance.

Luckily it was *very* rare that anyone got "lost" and it was usually a phone malfunction that caused it. The police were always very nice about it too. They'd rather see everyone safe on an unnecessary call than someone get hurt.

[icmedia]

Which has got to be high on the list of stupidest possible responses to getting caught-not only does it not keep your power on (they ALREADY KNOW ABOUT IT, that's why they sent the guy!), but it ups a theft of services to attempted homicide. I mean, how f-ing stupid are these people.

Detroit is pretty much the wild West these days; most of the time the police won't go into certain neighborhoods for just "gunshots fired;" someone actually has to be injured or dead.