Renter/landlord repair questions/concerns

[sierramist03]

We got our electric bill and we are both in shock. It's the biggest bill we've ever had in any place. Do you think our furnace needs a turn up? If so how do we nicely ask for one. I'm not sure what else to do to keep our bill down. We keep our furnace set at 66. We have thermal curtains on every window. The house was built in 2005 so the windows don't seem drafty. Any other suggestions?

Also on similar subject how to do we suggestion to the property management company that we'd like to use our washer and dryer now? Their machines are crap. When we first moved in we complained and the repair people said there is nothing wrong them and it's all normal umm okay.

Another question when you resign a lease are you able to ask for bigger repairs/appliances?

[mrs.jacinthe]

Hmmm. I have a lot of questions:

Do you have an electric furnace?
Has it been cold (-er than normal?)
Do you have incandescent light bulbs?
What about Christmas lights - are they incandescent?
Is the house well-insulated?

I'd just call the property management company and ask if they would be willing to come make the switch between appliances for you. Just say you'd like to use your own machines, if at all possible. However, if they don't have a warehouse or storage facility for extra appliances, they may not have anywhere to put them and you may be SOL.

If the appliances are working, they're not likely to pay to replace them on a re-sign. What kind of repairs are we talking about, though?

[laurental]

On the electric bill were previous months low? We had one really super high one once but it was because the readings they did prior were all wrong and the correct one made it super high. Was there anything else different? Did you run the dryer more? Any space heaters?

[simpsongal]

If this is a new place, make sure the electric company isn't charging you for the previous renters' arrears (that happened at our last place).

[sierramist03]

Jan 3, 2014 11:34:31 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Hmmm. I have a lot of questions:

Do you have an electric furnace? Yes whole house is electric
Has it been cold (-er than normal?) not really we've had a few cold nights but never more than a couple
Do you have incandescent light bulbs? No but honestly they aren't really on that much. Our tv is plasma and we know it uses some electricity
What about Christmas lights - are they incandescent? They are led.
Is the house well-insulated? It seems like it but I honestly don't know. Is there a way to check

To give you reference our electric bill was more than double what it ran all summer with our ac running and a really hot spell.

If the appliances are working, they're not likely to pay to replace them on a re-sign. What kind of repairs are we talking about, though? Our dishwasher it works but it is sooooo loud and heat setting smells like burnt plastic

[sierramist03]

Jan 3, 2014 11:39:31 GMT -5 laurental said:

On the electric bill were previous months low? We had one really super high one once but it was because the readings they did prior were all wrong and the correct one made it super high. Was there anything else different? Did you run the dryer more? Any space heaters?

Our bill was running between 50 give or take since June and then one is 100 more than our highest bill. We've been in our house 6 months. I feel like everything else was the same. We had company for christmas but the chart shows those days weren't that much higher.

[sjh722]

Have you compared what you're being charged for to the reading on the meter? Maybe it was an estimate, or there's an error there?

You've probably got the lights on more, too, since it's dark earlier. Price/kWH can also fluctuate, I think. Maybe check and see if your rate has gone up?

[mrs.jacinthe]

Given all this information: I bet they were doing estimated readings and then did an actual reading to catch up, especially since you were running the AC all summer and it only cost you around $50/month. I'm guessing that's unrealistic, even in a lower COL than here. How much do you pay per kWh?

Check your past bills - there's usually a note next to the reading numbers to indicate if they are actual or estimated. If it's not estimated, I'd definitely ask for your landlord to do a furnace tune-up. However, electric furnaces are notorious for using more power/$$ than a gas furnace, just in general. It's entirely possible that even if the furnace only runs for 2 hours a day, you'd have a bill $100+ higher.

ETA: if you want to know if the house is well-insulated or not, there are a number of ways to tell, but the simplest is just to touch an outside wall when it is cold outside.  If it's super-cold compared to your inside temp, there's likely not enough insulation.  Also, if you drill a hole in the wall, you can stick a bent piece of wire through and fish it around ... if it comes out with fiberglass on it, there's at least SOME insulation.  LOL

[sierramist03]

Jan 3, 2014 11:56:01 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Given all this information: I bet they were doing estimated readings and then did an actual reading to catch up, especially since you were running the AC all summer and it only cost you around $50/month. I'm guessing that's unrealistic, even in a lower COL than here. How much do you pay per kWh?

Check your past bills - there's usually a note next to the reading numbers to indicate if they are actual or estimated. If it's not estimated, I'd definitely ask for your landlord to do a furnace tune-up. However, electric furnaces are notorious for using more power/$$ than a gas furnace, just in general. It's entirely possible that even if the furnace only runs for 2 hours a day, you'd have a bill $100+ higher.

ETA: if you want to know if the house is well-insulated or not, there are a number of ways to tell, but the simplest is just to touch an outside wall when it is cold outside.  If it's super-cold compared to your inside temp, there's likely not enough insulation.  Also, if you drill a hole in the wall, you can stick a bent piece of wire through and fish it around ... if it comes out with fiberglass on it, there's at least SOME insulation.  LOL

It wasn't $50/month. It was only a change of 50 a month. It was running between $125-$175 our December bill was $285. It says we used 2,707 kWh and it looks like an actually reading. Rate is 9.5 centers/kWh

[katie4253]

Sounds like they were estimating, rather than doing actual meter readings. So, you are playing "catch up" because you had a real meter reading.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Jan 3, 2014 12:13:48 GMT -5 sierramist03 said:

Jan 3, 2014 11:56:01 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Given all this information: I bet they were doing estimated readings and then did an actual reading to catch up, especially since you were running the AC all summer and it only cost you around $50/month. I'm guessing that's unrealistic, even in a lower COL than here. How much do you pay per kWh?

Check your past bills - there's usually a note next to the reading numbers to indicate if they are actual or estimated. If it's not estimated, I'd definitely ask for your landlord to do a furnace tune-up. However, electric furnaces are notorious for using more power/$$ than a gas furnace, just in general. It's entirely possible that even if the furnace only runs for 2 hours a day, you'd have a bill $100+ higher.

ETA: if you want to know if the house is well-insulated or not, there are a number of ways to tell, but the simplest is just to touch an outside wall when it is cold outside.  If it's super-cold compared to your inside temp, there's likely not enough insulation.  Also, if you drill a hole in the wall, you can stick a bent piece of wire through and fish it around ... if it comes out with fiberglass on it, there's at least SOME insulation.  LOL

It wasn't $50/month. It was only a change of 50 a month. It was running between $125-$175 our December bill was $285. It says we used 2,707 kWh and it looks like an actually reading. Rate is 9.5 centers/kWh

Oh.  I don't find that unreasonable at all, in that case.  With an electric furnace especially, that's entirely possible.  When we lived in OH, there were times our gas bill was $200+ higher than the previous month, just because of furnace use.  

[InBetweenDays]

Jan 3, 2014 12:13:48 GMT -5 sierramist03 said:

Jan 3, 2014 11:56:01 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Given all this information: I bet they were doing estimated readings and then did an actual reading to catch up, especially since you were running the AC all summer and it only cost you around $50/month. I'm guessing that's unrealistic, even in a lower COL than here. How much do you pay per kWh?

Check your past bills - there's usually a note next to the reading numbers to indicate if they are actual or estimated. If it's not estimated, I'd definitely ask for your landlord to do a furnace tune-up. However, electric furnaces are notorious for using more power/$$ than a gas furnace, just in general. It's entirely possible that even if the furnace only runs for 2 hours a day, you'd have a bill $100+ higher.

ETA: if you want to know if the house is well-insulated or not, there are a number of ways to tell, but the simplest is just to touch an outside wall when it is cold outside.  If it's super-cold compared to your inside temp, there's likely not enough insulation.  Also, if you drill a hole in the wall, you can stick a bent piece of wire through and fish it around ... if it comes out with fiberglass on it, there's at least SOME insulation.  LOL

It wasn't $50/month. It was only a change of 50 a month. It was running between $125-$175 our December bill was $285. It says we used 2,707 kWh and it looks like an actually reading. Rate is 9.5 centers/kWh

This doesn't really surprise me. In college we lived in a house with electric heat. Our living room had gas heat but the rest was electric. Given, this was an old 3-story Victorian in Vermont but we only kept the heat on enough to have the pipes not freeze (and would spend 99% of our time in the room with gas heat). I went to bed in a hat and mittens, and our bills were still well over $300/month.

[downtoearth]

Electric heat is expensive - we've had gas for several years and I don't think heating our 2800 sq ft house has ever been near to $300 for a month (and we live in MT). I'm not sure if anyone mentioned, but you can also call the power company and ask them how your bill compares to the previous year (usage wise) and then get an idea if that is how it normally is at that house. Can you also turn down certain zones or keep doors/rooms closed that you don't use much. If you have extra bedrooms, can you close their heater valves and then the door so the thermostat is only registering the rooms that you need heat?

As for appliances...I'm a landlord and I'd be fine with you using your own machines, but I would expect you to install your own (pay or do it yourself) and then when you go to leave, you'd have to reinstall the other machines and verify they still worked. With a dishwasher, I would bring up the noises and smell b/c those are pretty cheap to change out usually, but if it still works, I'd say it's 50/50 that they'll change it out right now.

[emoflamingo]

Jan 3, 2014 13:07:57 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

As for appliances...I'm a landlord and I'd be fine with you using your own machines, but I would expect you to install your own (pay or do it yourself) and then when you go to leave, you'd have to reinstall the other machines and verify they still worked. With a dishwasher, I would bring up the noises and smell b/c those are pretty cheap to change out usually, but if it still works, I'd say it's 50/50 that they'll change it out right now.

With the dishwasher, I'd address the burning smell as a fire hazard and not in a "it's so loud" way. Use the angle so it makes it look like you're concerned about THEIR investment and not the discomfort the noise may provide.

FTR, if my tenant said "hey, I want to install my own appliances" I'd tell them that was fine as long as the ones I provided were all reinstalled correctly or a bill to have them reinstalled would be deducted from any deposit or would be owed to us. Make sure you find out where the old set could be stored because I wouldn't pay for storage of my appliances at my rental.