Am I mistakenly assuming the worst about my landlord and my potentially shady gas bill?

May 23, 2009 11:37 AM

Philly filter: Is my gas bill too high and/or is my landlord shady? We get charged a ton for "indirect" charges by a non-PGW company and must write our checks payable to the landlord, not the utility. I also pay the same amount every month, and am not enrolled in some budget plan that makes the amount due the same each month. Several residents (me included) think this is some sort of way for the landlord to rip us off.

You can see three examples here (I've removed identifying information about myself).

You will notice that I pay $81.25 every month. After commiserating with others in this apartment complex, they also pay the same every month regardless of their actual usage (or non-usage). We have little to no ability to control the thermostat in the winter months. You'll see that the majority of gas usage each month is "indirect," meaning, according to the utility company: "the heat radiated from the shared boiler and the building heat distribution pipes... For residents that maintain the lowest thermostat settings during cold weather, and for many additional residents during mild months, the indirect heat allocation may be greater than the direct heat allocation" (see here).

My questions:
1. Is it fair to be charged so much for something over which we have no control? I fear the answer is yes, but this rubs many of us the wrong way since no matter what we do with the thermostat, we have no control of the heat in the winter months.
2. Is a CCF charge of $1.91 high? I paid $1.36 per CCF at my old apartment, when I did have PGW service (on a small furnace in my unit, not a boiler).
3. Is the adjustment/credit on my current bills which brings it down to $81.25 every month the result of some arcane regulation to ensure PA residents don't pay exorbitant utility costs, or is it a gimmick to make me feel like they're doing me a favor while still pocketing $81.25 every month?

Overall, the landlord has exhibited several other behaviors that are highly shady, unethical, or that just cut corners (e.g. one of my closets was painted shut when I moved in). Several other residents have experienced far worse. Several of us feel that something is up with these high gas bills when we have no control over the actual usage (we've tried -- I get heat in the winter no matter whether my thermostat is jacked up or all the way down). Furthermore, we must write our gas bill checks payable to the landlord, not the utility. This only increases our suspicion that we are being ripped off.

I know that at one point complaints were made to some authorities, but nothing has come of it. Apparently one new resident called PGW to try to turn on gas service, not knowing it was handled by this other company, and the PGW representative had some sort of difficulty sensing/finding our building in their database of possible properties.

Any insights are welcome, especially if I'm just overreacting about the difference between boilers and furnaces. It's just that the track record with this landlord has been bad in several other areas, so we have some reason to be suspicious.

posted by midatlanticwanderer to home & garden (7 answers total)

What does your lease say about utilities?
posted by jayder at 11:57 AM on May 23, 2009

The standard -- that we're responsible for them.
posted by midatlanticwanderer at 12:03 PM on May 23, 2009

It sounds to me like perhaps the building is not set up to have metering of individual apartments. If this the case, the landlord is supposed to build average cost of utilities into your rent. At best, he's organized things so that the advertised rent is significantly lower than the actual rent. At worst, he's ripping you off.

Regardless, the way he's doing it is possibly illegal. Here's the text, I have had too much brunch to get through the legalese.
posted by desuetude at 12:06 PM on May 23, 2009

The example bills you linked to show different amounts of gas consumption even though the billed amount is the same each month, so you clearly are on some sort of budgeting plan whether you intended to be or not.

Is a CCF charge of $1.91 high?

Where I am (Ohio) it would be exorbitant. I'm on a variable rate plan. My current rate is $0.99/ccf including transportation charges, which is unusually low, but it hasn't been anywhere near $1.91 for a very long time, if ever. I just browsed some archived records from the last 5 years, and the upper limit was around $1.35/ccf. I suspect this is most of your cost problem.
posted by jon1270 at 12:11 PM on May 23, 2009

You are being submetered. This means there is a central meter at the property line that is the connection to the regular utility grid and managed by the owner of the property. Your bill is from a company called Monitor Data. Says them:

Monitor Data Corporation, the leader in utility submetering in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions...Our Utility Billing Department converts the many meter readings and data into resident utility bills. The bills are mailed directly to apartment and condominium residents. ... Our Resident Payment Department provides the optional service of accepting and posting payments from the residents, and makes bank deposits for the building owners and managers.

The reason PGW couldn't find your address is because they technically do not service it. However, your state should have submetering rules that your landlord--and this company--must follow. In addition, it looks like you don't have to pay your bill directly to the landlord. I'd call Monitor Data and ask what's up.
posted by fireoyster at 12:27 PM on May 23, 2009

The situation clearly sucks but I'm not sure how you think the landlord is ripping you off? The bill gets delivered directly to you and as you haven't had any red letters saying you haven't paid (I assume you'd have mentioned it if you had), its not like the landlord is pocketing the cash.

Have you tried asking any of these questions (ie. concerning the bill being the same regardless of usage - and your bill being identical to other tenants) to the landlord or the company that sends your bill? It sounds like you're on a flat-rate monthly bill rather than paying for your actual usage month by month (ie, they take your previous years usage and divide by 12 to determine your monthly bill for the next 12 months - so you always know how much your bill is going to be and spread the payments evenly rather than low bills in summer and high bills in winter)
posted by missmagenta at 12:44 PM on May 23, 2009

missmagenta: I have asked these questions to the company, and they didn't really provide any good answers -- the ones suggested here have been more plausible. It's very difficult to get the landlord on the phone, but I'll try again. They're pretty cagey about most things, but we'll see.

jon1270: fair point, which missmagenta made too, about being on a fixed rate plan even if I didn't sign up for it.

Fireoyster: I knew about the submetering in theory, but thanks for pointing out the details. I'll look into submetering rules and see if I can pay directly.

Thanks all. Apparently we're a little paranoid...
posted by midatlanticwanderer at 2:10 PM on May 23, 2009