Home Improvement → apartment power meter scam

I've heard of this scam on the grapevine. In an MDU building, the super lets in the power company into the meter room (or rooms?) only once every 2 years as legally required. When the super learns a tenant is not renewing his lease, he phones in over 3-4 months $1000 power bills as "estimates". The tenant blindly pays them or is forced to by the power company. Tenant doesn't know/realize they are estimated bills. Then when the tenant moves out, the apartment is switched to landlord billing/responsibility, and the apartment is advertised with "free electricity/landlord paid". Actually the previous tenant paid for a year or 2 of electricity so the bill for the apartment, if any reading is done, is zero.

Another thing the super does is, the super himself pays a low power bill for his own apartment. He moves apartments, and doesn't let the poco read the meters, when a new tenant is about to move in, he moves out, the new tenant gets the super's old apartment, and that month the super lets the poco read the meter, and the tenant gets a $3k power bill (the first non-estimated for a year or 2). Tenants all wind up on "payment plans" with the power company since the power company says the meters are "guaranteed" accurate. If you call the power company for a meter inspection challenging the accuracy of the meter, the super won't let the power company in.

So, has anyone heard of this scam? or is it just drunk babble? And 2, is it a crime what this super is doing, or morally wrong but legal?

I see you're from Jamaica NY - that says it all to me...

Down here in Raleigh NC - at least on newer buildings - the meters are OUTSIDE of the building so the land lord can't pull this type of scam.

It is, at best - unethical. You would need to check with local authorities as to whether this is "legal".

I would say it is morally wrong. Plus the tenant would really have to have absolutely no clue what is going on over several months to have that pulled off.

1) At least here, power bills will show that they were estimated. Listed usage is denoted as such.

2) I would think something is wrong if I got a $1,000 power bill, or actually, anything over $100 or so.

3) Why would the super move apartments so much just to save a bit on his own power bill? Maybe if all he owned was a mattress and a TV. Empty units means quite a bit in lost revenue, far more than what he will save by having units empty for a month or more. If you own apartments, any time a unit is empty you spend your days trying to get a new tenant in there ASAP.

4) I am not sure if I would rent an apartment if the power company would not turn on the power. At least with other utilities, once you show that you are a new owner / tenant then service will be turned on. The outstanding bills would follow the previous owner.

Anyways, this will all become moot as the new wifi power meters get installed more and more and are remotely read.

How is the poco setting up a new account without reading the meter?

This type of scam wouldn't work in the city I'm in, as all utility meters have been switched to "smart meters" years ago. This means all meters are monitored remotely by the power company, no estimated bills.

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when a new tenant is about to move in...and that month the super lets the poco read the meter, and the tenant gets a $3k power bill. Tenants all wind up on "payment plans". If you call the power company for a meter inspection challenging the accuracy of the meter, the super won't let the power company in.

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Sorry, but its ridiculous. Firstly, very few if any tenants are going to accept an initial power bill in the thousands of dollars, without screaming bloody murder. Secondly, the tenant (not super or landlord) must set up an account with Con Ed when they move in. They call Con Ed, give them the 'move in date' and their SSN; whereby the account starts at zero. If anyone owes any money against the meter number, its the former account holder.

If you are a tenant with half a brain; you also call Con Ed when you move out; so that no one can rack up electric bills after you leave. (This is usually taken care of automatically, when you call at your new residence to establish a new address & account.) Con Ed will change the metered account back to the landlord's name; or disconnect the electric service, if not allowed.

For some reason I thought Con Ed was using wireless meters. I have rarely ever seen a power meter on the outside of a building in NYC.

When I was managing MDUs, I don't know what would have happened had we refused to let them into the meter closets. Nothing good. But two years without access? That would never happen.

It was a rare month that the power company did not show up to pull a meter for non-payment. That was usually a good clue that the tenant was not planning to pay rent, or had skipped out, and it was the only way we would find out about non-payment.

This might have worked with one super who had one lazy rich tenant once. But I can't see how it would work with any tenant except maybe the ones that are running grow operations, if they hadn't already hotwired their services to their neighbor's meter.

Sounds like the tenants of that building should take it up with the state Public Utilities Commission. If that were my landlord, I'd take him to court.

I have no idea if the cellnet meters in use here have that capability, but I believe PSC rules require the utility's agent to knock on the door and post a notice before disconnection. The concern is that even if the customer did not report the use of power for medical purposes, they can demonstrate that they made an effort to find out.

Con Ed does not use wireless meters. They show up every month to read the meter. At the same time, they visually inspect to ensure there are no unlawful use of electricity. This is necessary, especially in their older residential installations. (Look up 'loop service' on Con Ed energy services website.) Only newer one- to three- Con Ed residential services in new unattached houses require electric meters outdoors. That excludes the great majority of buildings in Con Ed's service areas.

Must be DEP that is using wireless meters for water then.

NYC is pretty backwards then! Even out here in the the "vast wilderness of hillbillies and retired hippies" our meters are read remotely and they have realtime stats for energy usage once per hour.

Even in the backwoods of Mathews County the POCO just rides around in a truck reading them. No real time yet though.

The co-op here is all about being green. They have hybrids they drive around in and their offices are powered by a 95kW solar array. They also don't drive around to read meters anymore.

It works out great though because the same system allows them to route around faults.

They do very well routing around faults here without that technology. They are doing some hi-visibility fool the public green stuff. Makes for good media play and fools the politicians who mostly are clueless.

You probably missed the point about theft of service. Unfortunately, with the way the system was wired, starting a hundred years ago or so; most houses and buildings have the ability for someone to connect wiring ahead of the meter. My assumption is, that Con Ed is verifying that this is not the case via visual inspection each time they do a meter reading.

up here in hydro quebec territory there are a lot of basement panels (similar to alkizmos one) that have the meter installed between the switch and fuses, and in the last 2 years hydro has been sealing the main switch side just for that reason.

1975 called and wants its urban legend back.

drunk babble

That will never work (someone told you a myth) as if you switch tenents the power company must come out to read the meter as soon as one tenant cancels.

They do not read the meters here, been here for 5 years now in this one apartment, nobody has ever come to read them. there not smart meters either, our bill says estimated on it.

If nobody has "ever" come to read your meter, and the meters are not remote readable, and all of your bills are estimated, I am wondering how much difference has accumulated over five years.

I am also wondering how they determined the baseline from which to start billing you, five years ago. In other words, how much of the previous tenant's accumulated error did you pay, or get credit for, when you moved in?

Never heard of such a scam but can't say the same when the LL "sub-meters" to the tenants. Found this out when my SIL, who also has other issues, was in an auto accident and required nearly four months of inpatient care. While this was on-going my wife and I tended to her business. She lives in a older duplex with the LL residing in the much larger half. The LL was supposedly submetering and providing my SIL with a bill, complete with meter readings on the 15th of each month. While the monthly rent was automatically paid via her bank's bill payer service, the LL e-mailed me the first utility invoice. The gig was up when the bill was for 4753 KwH for an unoccupied 550 square foot apartment. My SIL isn't at all tech-savvy and, aside from a very basic cell phone, doesn't have any of the goodies most of us on here consider necessities. Since she's in MPLS, she doesn't even sub cable TV. Needless to say, there is no chance of this $380 electric bill being accurate. This smelled badly of a rip-off so we drove the 700 mile round-trip from here to MPLS so I could "make sure the bill is paid". The first thing I noticed was the 'present' reading on SIL's bill was very close the 'present' reading on the POCO's meter. There was no submeter as these asshats were simply passing the entire POCO bill through to my SIL. Suffice to say, after picking the pocket of a mentally challenged person for several years, all utilities are now included in her rent.

What if the meter room is locked/no access?

maybe the POCO has a key? That's how it works for a condo I own in San Diego. The meters for each building (of 8-10 units) are in a locked room. The POCO and the property management have keys.

^ I have an audit request put in, still awaiting it.

The situation here is, property management intentionally doesn't allow the POCO into the meter room to create estimated bills and false "phone in" readings by property management/the superintendent to prepay or bank KWH onto the meter's serial number for the property management's selfish purposes. Knowing NYC, I wouldn't be surprised if the unnamed building my friend was talking about had Section 8/PPP/subsidized housing tenants, or has a registered "medical needs" tenant whose power can not be shut off by law, or if the tenants decide to leave because of the high power bills, they will be kicked out of the subsided housing program because they refused to take a subsidized apartment. The building isn't exclusively welfare tenants and its not owned by a housing authority, but my friend never told me if the building is a non-profit NGO or a for profit landlord. He only mentioned the superintendent does this game, he never said anything about the owner of the building.

Outdoor meters are rare in NYC, but standard over last decade or 2 for 1-4 family houses. Commercial and MDU buildings all have indoor meters AFAIK. I think its for vandalism and robbery reasons. From the last time I read NYC's electrical code, service disconnect switches in all buildings other than 1-4 family buildings must be indoors. I guess for vandalism and crime reasons.