But Seriously, A Real Reason to Give Thanks: Lower Gas Bills

Over the past 4 months, I've been in a stressful disagreement with my landlord over the utility set-up in my apartment building. Luckily, it is almost resolved, with an actual end to the problem finally in sight on November 29.

Last year, with the super-spike in gas prices after Hurricane Katrina, my gas bills were between $150-190 during the winter months. The insanely high prices tipped me off that something was wrong with my utility set up, and I received confirmation of this after checking with my downstairs neighbors. (They live in a similar sized apartment, bigger actually, and their bills maxed out at $100/month at the worst.)

While trying to figure out what was happening, I talked to my landlord about it. He denied that there was any problem, blamed me (do you cook a lot? take a lot of showers?), but eventually agreed to give me a small credit of a 25% discount on one month last year. As my utility bills stayed sky-high, I called many non-profit agencies around town that claimed to be energy experts - no one could help. The gas company wouldn't help me either. I was at loose ends and discovered that the dryer to the building was hooked onto my gas utility line. I couldn't find any hard numbers to find out what this was costing me, but my landlord offered to give me "half the quarters" from the coin-op laundry that I was paying the utilities for. I was outraged.

I found out that my summer gas bills, about $50-60/month far exceeded my downstairs neighbors, who were paying $10/month. Because I felt so outraged, and because I felt like my landlord was [not a very nice person], I was planning to move out of the apartment this summer. However, since I liked the actual apartment so much, I told the landlord I would stay in the apartment if only the utilities were metered separately in the basement. I wasn't asking for special treatment, just to pay my fair share instead of paying for a lot of extra people to use the dryer and god knows what else. Various other situations made it difficult for me to move, and the landlord ended up agreeing to meter the utilities separately. He said he would do this during the month of September.

September came and went. So did October. At the end of October, I was feeling furious and betrayed. I sent several letters requesting the work to be done and also for some additional winterizing in my apartment. After I sent a certified letter with my November rent, I finally saw some work happening around the house. The good news is, I ran into my landlord last night, and he mentioned that all the work has been done to rewire the utilities, and that the meter will be installed on November 29. Three months late, but I am so relieved and happy that it is finally happening. This was a mental stressor to me for months and months, and I'm so glad to see a resolution.