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I live in a house in Michigan that was turned into 6 apartments. My apartment is the main door on the main floor. t has recently come to my attention that the hallways and part of the house that is NOT apart of my apartment are wired with my apartment and are a part of my DTE bill.

I cannot keep paying a rising bill every month because he refuses to fix the problem. It's not fair for me to have to pay anything outside of my apartment. It is a month to month lease and I am a felon and he's one of the only people who will rent to me.

What can I do?

FreeMan
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user150989
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    This is a [law.se] question, not a [diy.se] question. This should be migrated. Also, I've added some capitalization, as that makes it easier to read. – FreeMan Apr 22 '22 at 17:00
  • if you dont have an answer why waste time editing and commenting. – user150989 Apr 22 '22 at 17:04
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    Because having a _readable_ question improves the chance of it getting read and answered, and because the comment was to the moderators who can migrate this to a different stack where there can help point you in the right direction. People here know home improvement, but they don't, in general, know the law (at least not this kind of law). – FreeMan Apr 22 '22 at 17:09
  • wow, everybody's against ya? Maybe self-identify as a *former* felon who is now on team Good Guys who work together to solve our problems. Anyway, yeah. We want you to get an answer so we want your question in the best place for that to happen and most easily answered. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Apr 22 '22 at 17:12
  • assuming someone isnt on "team good guys" because theyre a felon and have made mistakes in their life is just plain ignorant. – user150989 Apr 22 '22 at 17:16
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    And an attitude like that - assume the world is against me - is what will keep you from getting a good answer. I would presume that this will be migrated soon (the mods are all volunteers who do the job of their own free will and not for a paycheck and are, therefore, not on a timeline to get it done), and I'm sure someone at the [law.se] site will have some good advice for you. If you presume that they all think you're a bad guy and have a bad attitude about it, though, they may not be willing to help. Here, we're really just _unable_ to help, and that's different. (con't) – FreeMan Apr 22 '22 at 17:23
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    After all, you probably wouldn't ask you car mechanic about a legal question like this, so why would you ask a home contractor (and there are _lots_ of those who hang out here who are)? Just be patient, don't assume the world is out to get you, and I'm sure some good info will be forthcoming soon. Frankly, we could just vote to close the question. That would be our only other option, but it wouldn't be helpful. We are actually trying to help you out. – FreeMan Apr 22 '22 at 17:24
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    As a renter(any type of renter) about the only thing you can do is talk to the landlord or make a statement to the local building inspector if you think it is dangerous/illegal. Even your landlord is not allowed to work on the electricity, must be done by a license electrician. – crip659 Apr 22 '22 at 17:26
  • Hi there. Is the electrical panel inside your apartment? If you are paying a separate energy bill then there will be separate metering and separate panels. – RibaldEddie Apr 22 '22 at 17:39
  • I’m voting to close this question because it's a legal question. Please see the [help/on-topic] for more information. – Niall C. Apr 22 '22 at 20:07
  • have your power disconnected for a week – jsotola Apr 22 '22 at 23:59

1 Answers1

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The first thing to do would be to investigate how much money this costs you.

For example a 5 Watt LED lamp, powered 8 hours a day, will consume 5*8=40 Wh (watt hours) per day, or 1200 watt hours per month, which is 1.2 kilowatt hours per month. You can check how much that costs on your electricity bill, that's probably around 20 cents per lightbulb per month.

In other words, if it's just LED lightbulbs, it's not worth the trouble.

So:

the hallways and part of the house that is NOT apart of my apartment are wired with my apartment and are a part of my DTE bill.

What could cost you actual money would be stuff like heating, electric stove, oven, 24/7 high power lights for "indoors gardening", water heater, bitcoin mining, etc.

If a part of a neighbor's appartment is plugged into your meter, why not just talk to them, then cut off your own power at the panel and check what lights or outlets in their appartment stop working. If it's just lights, who cares. If it's their main heater, then it's worth it to pursue the matter.

bobflux
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  • Why not turn that breaier off if it is in your apartment for a few days and see what happens! – Gil Apr 22 '22 at 20:45