So today hasn’t been much of a good day for me. I got my electric bill and it was over $150…again. This is in spite of the fact that I’ve cut my AC usage way back, I turn off all lights and appliances when leaving the house, and I even unplug the appliances if I’m going to be gone for more than an hour (this is because plugged in, they still zap electricity). So, naturally, I was a little angry that my bill was so high. I immediately called the electric company and asked to speak to someone who could verify my usage because I believed it was wrong.

After spending some time on the phone with this lady she said that the usage was coming from my unit and suggested I check with the apartment complex to see if there was anything wrong with the unit itself. Great!

Well, as I’m sitting there thinking of possibilities, I hear a whole lot of racket going on outside. Naturally, I take a peek at what it is. Now, before I even get to the cause of the disturbance, what do I see but the apartment complex has an extension cord plugged into MY outlet on the porch. Needless to say, I was pretty irritated.

I call the apartment complex and talk to one of the girls who assures me that she’ll call maintenance out there to have a look at what’s going on. Well, two and half hours later there’s still a whole lot of noise going on upstairs and that cord is still in my outlet. So I call again. The same girl answers and I question her about it again. This time she gets snippy and tells me she doesn’t know what I’m talking about and sends me over to the manager. So I have to start over again with the explanations.

Something you should know about my building. It’s completely full resident-wise, and there’s a lot of younger college people in this place. It gets treated very much like a dorm, so stuff is always breaking, needs cleaning, or in need of major repairs. The maintenance crew is in this building a lot. As it turns out, the manager didn’t even know that my porch had an outlet…I think that speaks to something else entirely as every apartment has an outside outlet, but I won’t go there. My issue, though, is that the outlet is charged to my unit in terms of electricity. And, as I found out today, the extension cord was to an industrial power surge protector that had like 10 different plugs on it…all but two were being used by whatever it is they’re doing upstairs.

So, in talking with the apartment complex and the maintenance crew, this has been a regular occurrence for several months. My outlet is the easiest to access in terms of reaching as many units upstairs as they need to. Based on some rudimentary calculations of what they had plugged in, I’m guessing they cost me an additional $50-75 a month for the last four months. Which is upsetting because my bills are already higher in summer – I live in Texas and I like it cool in my apartment. So I budget for more in summer due to AC. But, a one bedroom/one bath shouldn’t be running in excess of $150, especially when I turn stuff off during the day when I’m not here. So, obviously I have a problem because as far as I’m concerned, that’s just as bad as theft. And, the fact that no one bothered to mention or ask me if it was alright to use my outlet makes me even angrier.

My friend thinks I’m blowing this out of proportion, but I’m inclined to believe that if I do nothing about it, I’ll be giving my consent for this to continue. While I’m not hurting for the money, the additional $50-75 could be better spent on reaching my goals. And while looking at it from the small picture perspective, it’s not even a lot of money. However, looking at the big picture, we’re talking $200-300 over the last four months. Imagine what that could be over the rest of my lease here.

I’m a little picky about my money anyway, so I wrote it all down in black and white with calculations of what they were using and for how long and then I went and sat with the manager of the apartment complex. I explained that I’ve tolerated a lot from this place – particularly given that my building is very much like a dorm, loud parties and all – but that causing me additional out-of-pocket money on electricity was unacceptable and we would need to find a compromise or I would report it to whomever handled management company complaints.

We agreed that I would be comped one month’s rent and if there were any instances in the future where they would need access to the outlet, they would notify me in writing and it would be deducted from my rent. I thought that was more than generous so a compromise was struck. But, I share this story with you because if you live in an apartment and believe your electric bill is far greater than it should be, you might want to check and see if your apartment complex has a role to play in that.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you think I overreacted to the situation, or would you have done the same? How do you feel about the compromise?

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