Should we be scared?

May 17, 2007 10:45 AM

Is my apartment a ticking time bomb?

I live in a two-bedroom apartment on top of a restaurant that they've been building for the last 8 months. I know this because we moved in 8 months ago: sometimes people are there working, but most of the time it's empty. There's a giant banner that says, "Coming Soon" with the restaurant name, but nothing's going on. How can these people afford not to finish their restaurant and open for business?

But it gets more complicated. Our landlord told us that we'd get free electricity because of something to do with the restaurant--that we shouldn't call Con-Ed. So we haven't and we don't pay electric. We do, however, pay gas and the last two bills have been outrageously high: appx. $700 each. Our landlord took responsibility the first time, and he may do so again. Nobody can believe that our gas bills are so high. Can this have something to do with what's going on downstairs?

Meanwhile, city workers are digging up the street outside. They came by a few weeks ago to say that water was leaking from the restaurant into the street and that it could cause an explosion. Is that why the restaurant isn't open? Because of a big safety issue? Should we be nervous? Is this apartment a ticking time bomb? How do we find out more? Thanks.

posted by adrober to Home & Garden (26 answers total)

I am not lawyer or psychic medium, but it sounds to me like your landlord is going out of his way to keep you happy (and quiet) while all of this hush-hush top sekrit business is going on.

You're sufficiently spooked that you've posted an AskMe question; I think what you want to do is move out. Since your landlord appears to be more interested in avoiding problems/attention, I'll bet he'd be willing to let you out of your lease early, too.
posted by CRM114 at 10:54 AM on May 17, 2007

Yikes, I'm not sure what to tell you. Could you explain what "Con-Ed" is please?
posted by nola at 10:57 AM on May 17, 2007

Con-Ed = Consolidated Edison - NYC's utility company
posted by dr_dank at 11:01 AM on May 17, 2007

Con Edison. A power company.
posted by nilihm at 11:02 AM on May 17, 2007

high-tail outta there.

gas is not to be doodled around with and you obviously cannot say for sure what's going on. better safe than...
posted by krautland at 11:07 AM on May 17, 2007

Why don't you just ask your landlord what is going on? If he gives you a straight answer, then you can be reassured but if he is evasive then you can try to find out more or prepare to move out.

Seven hundred dollars seems like an unreasonable gas bill, so it seems likely that gas is being used on your account outside of your apartment. If your landlord is willing to keep paying the bills then maybe this is something you can live with, but otherwise you are going to need to make sure that the gas on your meter goes only into your apartment.
posted by ssg at 11:09 AM on May 17, 2007

Are there any other tenants in your building? Does each unit have its own gas meter? Does the restaurant downstairs have its own meter? You might want to ask your landlord that. Either way, I know that in Philly you can contact the gas company if you receive a suspiciously high bill and ask them to do an investigation. They'll send someone to check the meter for proper function and try to determine the source of the cost spike. In the meantime, they put a hold on your bill and you're not required to pay the disputed bill until its resolved.
posted by The Straightener at 11:13 AM on May 17, 2007

It's not uncommon at all for restaurants to languish half-finished, when the owner underestimates the expense involved and runs out of cash to complete the job.

Apparently though, your apartment is on the same electric and gas account as the restaurant below. This is bad. Presumably the building used to be a single-occupancy residential affair, and it has now been hacked into a commercial unit and a residential unit, but no one told the power and gas people. If legit contractors had done the hacking, this problem would have been remedied - a second gas meter and second electric meter would have been installed so the apartment and restaurant would be on separate accounts. This costs money, naturally.

You should probably inform the electric and gas companies of what has happened, and request a second meter from both of them. They'll inspect and require that the building owner do the work necessary to separate the two accounts. The owner won't be happy.
posted by jellicle at 11:16 AM on May 17, 2007

Call 311. Part of their charter is to direct inquiries about problems like this to the right agency.

There's a giant banner that says, "Coming Soon" with the restaurant name, but nothing's going on. How can these people afford not to finish their restaurant and open for business?

FWIW, stuff like this sometimes happens. People run up against permit/financial issues.

Our landlord told us that we'd get free electricity because of something to do with the restaurant--that we shouldn't call Con-Ed. So we haven't and we don't pay electric. We do, however, pay gas and the last two bills have been outrageously high: appx. $700 each.

This, however, is highly suspect.
posted by mkultra at 11:16 AM on May 17, 2007

Your gas meter probably isn't rated for residential use. A call to the gas company can change this. If they say it can't, ask them to send an inspector to see what's up with the meter.
posted by hermitosis at 11:23 AM on May 17, 2007

As for the restaurant opening, I just want to provide more anecdotal evidence that it happens all the time. I used to write up new restaurants, and there were many that would announce their opening, begin work and take a year or more before they opened (if ever).
posted by drezdn at 11:44 AM on May 17, 2007

I'm in a similar situation with my aparment right now, which has TWO restaurants going in downstairs. They've been under construction since last summer, and for many months I didn't see anybody working on them at all. At the rate they're going, I'm wondering if they'll even be done by next summer.

They have also been periodically shutting off the power and gas in my building to do upgrades, which I can only assume is related to the restaurants (although both are included in my rent, so I haven't had any billing issues).

So, I think some older buildings just take a crapload of work to put in restaurants, and your landlord is dealing with it as best he can.
posted by gueneverey at 12:01 PM on May 17, 2007

Absolutely call 311 and tell them workers warned you of dangerous conditions and you need help because your landlord is telling you not to contact ConEd (very bad sign).

As I probably don't need to tell you, $700/mo is next to impossible for a residential kitchen's gas usage (my ConEd bill -- covering gas & electric for a small studio apt in Manhattan -- is under $45/mo total), but the safety issue is your most pressing concern.
posted by allterrainbrain at 12:27 PM on May 17, 2007

(Missing a logical piece of that last comment: yes, my stove is gas and I do cook every day, probably a bit more overall than the average New Yorker.)
posted by allterrainbrain at 12:29 PM on May 17, 2007

Is your agreement that you pay for *heat*? In that case (assuming your bldg is gas/radiator heated) you may be paying for the entire building's heat -- not only your heat but also heat for the construction project. That could explain 700 especially if construction means sometimes they need to leave the space's doors open (and maybe it's not correctly insulated/doored now anyway).

In any case it sounds like you have so far agreed not to investigate this because you're guessing elec would end up costing you more than gas. I would gues that under normal circumstances, that could be true, but even if it's true here it sounds like a broader situation that needs looking into pronto by ConEd (and a landlord that doesn't deserve you as a tenant...).
posted by lorimer at 1:09 PM on May 17, 2007

All that gas could be used in burners to cook meth. In which case the place is definitely a ticking time bomb.
posted by ijoyner at 1:18 PM on May 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yes - highly suspect. Even if you can't smell it, call your gas company today to check for a leak.

Then when the technician comes out to look (it will be a priority call, probably less than an hour) ask them about the $700 bill and how the building is set up, and all your follow up questions. If they give you the finger, then go the most time-intensive routes.
posted by valentinepig at 1:46 PM on May 17, 2007

Lots of good comments upthread. I'd only like to add that you really need to get your name off that account. If your landlord ever forgets to pay one of the bills, or decides he doesn't feel like it ("he may [pay it] again"? are you kidding?), or can't keep up with them, you're the only one on the hook. Not the landlord. His verbal agreement to pay might technically be binding, but good luck proving to a collection agent or judge that they shouldn't take the money out of your pocket.

If anything illegal is going on, your name on the bill could get you dragged into trouble too. Then you've got the headache of proving that you didn't know what the landlord was up to.

Bottom line: get your name off that bill. Since he agrees that it's not yours to pay, he should have no problem with transferring it into his name. Unless something is not on the up and up.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 2:07 PM on May 17, 2007

Don't read too much into a "Coming Soon" banner. I've seen those hang around until they rotted away. It doesn't necessarily mean they've actually found a tenant yet.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:08 PM on May 17, 2007

Ijoyner's answer is probable enough, and potentially catastrophic enough, that I think you really must rule it out soon in order to stay in your apartment.

That banner would be a perfect cover for a hit-and-run meth lab.
posted by jamjam at 3:03 PM on May 17, 2007

I second nakedcodemonkey's suggestion of transferring the bill to your landlord, which he should be happy to do if he doesn't want to get each apartment metered separately. I would not call Con-Ed unless your landlord is forcing you to pay the high bills. The explosion sounds worrisome if it is gas related; you mentioned water though, and I'm thinking the city worker may have been talking about a pipe bursting rather than a gas explosion. I'm not sure how leaking water could trigger an explosion of any kind, but this is definitely something you should get reassurance on from someone who knows what they are talking about (probably not the city worker, your landlord, or ask mefi).
posted by BrotherCaine at 5:40 PM on May 17, 2007

What BrotherCaine said. I am still stuck on how water can cause an explosion. The exact verbiage would be important. "It's gonna blow," could mean the water pipe. City workers digging up the street would be required to report any potential danger and take care of it. If there was a gas issue, the city would come in and put lock on the gas line. In my town, they lock the gas line if your furnace is even a bit out of compliance.

There is plenty going on, and I don't blame you for being worried. But you really need accurate information NOW to make a decision.
posted by The Deej at 6:47 PM on May 17, 2007

The very fact that you're not out of there already is, I imagine, a testament to the utter insanity of New York real estate. That is, if you were in any other city, I bet you would have left by now. Escape!
posted by HeroZero at 7:08 PM on May 17, 2007

Leaking water can't cause an explosion. However; leaking gas will almost certainly cause an explosion and this would also explain your high bills. A leaking gas pipe or appliance seems like the only explanation that fits all the evidence.

Get the fuck out of there.
posted by dg at 7:56 PM on May 17, 2007

Leaking water can cause an explosion if it infiltrates underground wiring. It can also produce a $700 gas bill if it's leaking from a hot water heater.
posted by jamjam at 10:48 PM on May 17, 2007

The landlord may not "want" to install a separate meter for utilities because the way it was built, it would cost an arm and a leg to separate the circuits/supply lines. Water and gas, granted, have many fewer connections to worry about. But electrical wiring could easily have been done in vertical "zones" if the upstairs was once part of the downstairs business, and creating separate circuits would mean wholesale rewiring.

So that could have an innocent explanation, but being the name on the gas bill doesn't make sense in that case. Either you are paying higher rent and no utilities or you are paying lower rent and have metered utilities. Getting the bill for someone else's utilities is not acceptable. You need to have your landlord or ConEd or NYC find out why that bill was astronomically high. Chances are it's connected to the construction and maybe to the leak as well. If not, then you are in a building with multiple problems and should look into moving.
posted by dhartung at 12:02 AM on May 19, 2007