Possibly Facing Eviction; Advice Needed

[shelnian]

When there is only one or two renters charging their EV in the complex, it's a novelty and may have been acceptable to the previous manager who didn't understand what the cost could be. Now you get more EVs all plugging in and the costs really start adding up. Somebody has to pay the bill. Should the non EV owners have to pay extra for garage units to cover EV charging in other garage units? Should everyone's rent be increased to cover EV charging in some garage units? I think it's only right you pay for the electricity you use.

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[Socalsp3]

If they didn't want you to use the outlet they shouldn't have put the outlet there. I would make them pay an electrician to remove it.

 

[mccdeuce]

They offered for you to put a meter in - less than $100 most likely and you can have a 240 volt plug.

Or agree for a slight increase in rent to cover continuous usage of the plug. Average driving per year 10,000 miles (3 mi/kW, 25 cents/kW) $833 for the year. So a simple $70 a month rent increase and you can charge all you want. pretty straightforward to me.

Cheaper than a lawyer.

 

[blink]

I understand you're frustrated. The guy who told you it was ok might not even have known how it works himself, or figured it would be ok. Then he got backlash from management and backtracked.

He made a mess for you, these things happen unfortunately. I don't know about the legal possibilities, but you might end up having to pay because of a erroneous promise from him. Been there too once. I did learn from it, though, and now I get everything in writing and make decisions more slowly.

I mean, even if that guy made a deal with OP that's bad for the owners, it was still his mistake. He should've checked properly before promising OP free usage. There's something to learn from this on his part too

 

[Earplug]

If you average 25 miles per day @2.5kw/mile that equates to 10kw per day at a rate of $.06/kw equals $0.60 per day charging cost or about $18 per month. Offer them a $20/month rent increase.

 

[canuck1975]

I don't think anyone has suggested reviewing your state's tenant rights law (I'd it has one). There may be an angle you can choose in a law that supercedes a lease. As an example, here in Ontario, most leases forbid having pets yet our courts have nulled the enforcement of those clauses as a violation of constitutional rights. If there is nothing in your state laws, you may be SOL, as Clause 22 is quite clear from a legal standpoint. It will be legally irrelevant in court that you had a discussion (or many) with a former employee of the company as the signed lease agreement doesn't specifically allow you to charge on site.

Regardless, I'm not a lawyer, not American for that matter; however, I've spent years negotiationing, managing, and enforcing multi-mullion dollar purchase agreements, and have some experience being on the short end of the legal stick inside of those.

As others have said, the management company isn't being unreasonable in their communications with you. I doubt they would evict you over this but can definitely see them cutting power to the outlet. As most others have said, it's probably in your best interest to negotiate with them and come to a signed agreement.

Oh, regarding the other deficiencies, that's probably something better to take to your lawyer, as their obligations should be set out in your lease and it sounds like they aren't meeting those.

 

[Flashgolfer]

I know it is frustrating to be told one thing to later on be told something else. You resent this change, but since you don' t have it in writing and their written lease agreement seems clear, you are stuck with the outcome. You use somewhere between $40 and $50 of electricity per month based on your usage. It is far cheaper to add something to your monthly rent than to have an attorney run up thousands of dollars of charges. I think you should work with the landlord and figure out the most cost effective solution. Suggest they pay for the meter (after all, they will have the benefit of its usage after you leave). Otherwise, find time once a week to charge your car to 80% which should cover your weekly usage (at 10 miles per day).

 

[ElectrifyCLT]

I don't feel you guys read my post in the entirety. I moved into this place because I was told that the garage was mine and I could use the 120v charge. That has changed several months into the lease here. I am the bad guy now?

A painful lesson in not having conversations about things like this. Get it in writing, end of story. I lived in an apartment where there were stiff fines for setting off the fire alarm. Our gas fireplace in our unit had an exhaust issue that we had maintenance resolved. I got in writing that the issue was fixed and should no longer cause any issues w/r/t the alarm system.

Sure enough, it triggered it again, and a $500 fine was on my next rent bill. I walked downstairs with a print out of the email communication with the maintenance staff and the fine was removed in a single conversation with no pushback.

Get things in writing, plain and simple.

 

[RickMachE]

Basic commonsense is that if you had agreement to be allowed to do something, it would be in writing.

I found it interesting that you had to ask them for a copy of your lease. Going forward in life, every time you sign any contract, sales agreement (buying a car), etc., you need to insist on receiving a copy of every single piece of paper. When you buy a house, there may be 30 forms you sign, and hundreds of pages of documents. You need to READ every one, sign where you need to, and keep track of the number of pages, and then verify you get a copy of each and every one.

As to your issue - anyone with knowledge about how tenants rights work would know that barring any law requiring EV charging be allowed, you are responsible for the cost of electricity.

Also - your attitude towards them, and the way you have communicated to them, from the beginning (as you documented) is very antagonistic.

 

[mjs020294]

Just tell them you will charge elsewhere and continue to us the garage socket. They have to inform you if they need access so they have no way of checking really.

BTW - You can get a power meter plug for $15. Use one of them for a week or two to determine how much you are actually consuming. At $0.06kWh I bet you are only using $10-15 a month.

 

[RickMachE]

Just tell them you will charge elsewhere and continue to us the garage socket. They have to inform you if they need access so they have no way of checking really.

BTW - You can get a power meter plug for $15. Use one of them for a week or two to determine how much you are actually consuming. At $0.6kWh I bet you are only using $10-15 a month.

That's stealing electricity, plain and simple.

 

[generaltso]

Just tell them you will charge elsewhere and continue to us the garage socket. They have to inform you if they need access so they have no way of checking really.

Your advice is to steal the power after specifically being instructed not to? Nothing so far seems like it would be an evictable offense. But that sure does.

Now that it's on the landlord's radar, if the power bill is higher than usual, they'll know exactly where to look first. And if they have reason to suspect it's still being used, I wouldn't be surprised if they kill power to it or cover it with a lockbox.

I think the most important question here that hasn't been answered is how much will they charge in extra rent to use the outlet? If the OP doesn't know the answer to that, there's no reason to get mad about it. For all we know, we could be talking about $10/mo here.

 

[OrchidMania]

Maybe been said how hard would it be to tie the garage outlet back to your meter.

 

[DennisD]

Your advice is to steal the power after specifically being instructed not to? Nothing so far seems like it would be an evictable offense. But that sure does.

Now that it's on the landlord's radar, if the power bill is higher than usual, they'll know exactly where to look first. And if they have reason to suspect it's still being used, I wouldn't be surprised if they kill power to it or cover it with a lockbox.

I think the most important question here that hasn't been answered is how much will they charge in extra rent to use the outlet? If the OP doesn't know the answer to that, there's no reason to get mad about it. For all we know, we could be talking about $10/mo here.

Good points.

I see it like this. Let's say the Landlord let you use gasoline to fill up your lawnmower to mow the grass around your area. Now you start using the gasoline to fill up your car and the Landlord say's that was not the "spirit" of intent to use. Now you have a poster on this thread suggesting to just fill up your car once in a while and "stick it to the man"?

The way I see it is that one needs to pay for their "energy" that they use...................period.

Upper management will always have the upper hand in the end. Even if the OP wins the battle, they will surely lose the War so to speak.

 

[SightUp]

So to further clarify, I don't mind paying for what I ACTUALLY use. That isn't an issue even though I was told I wouldn't have to pay for the garage.

The problem I have is in this brand-new apartment complex that is advertised as luxury, they want me to cover the cost of the upgrade which has been quoted to me as over $2500. I don't know where this figure of $100 dollars comes from... That would be nice though.

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