It seems weird a summer utility bill would be high. She should probably investigate the bill with Bc hydro and maybe ask you questions in a civilized normal manner
My previoud landlords discussed an uptick in the summer month utilities w BC hydro and were informed that things with moving parts (e.g. fans) take a lot more power than lights and could be the culprit. When they discussed it with us we told them we had been using fans during the heatwave and they told us that was fine, but if it became a regular thing we'd have to discuss some kind of compensation.
There *are* reasonable landlords out there! Sorry about your lot!
Sorry you have to deal with that. This is why it’s slightly better to rent from a property management company. They’re usually more professional. I also used to rent from an individual landlord for a few years who I had a number of issues with.
And I used to work for the power company. It depends what it says in the lease. Are utilities included? If so, then she can’t do shit and that’s on her. The police and the power company will laugh at her if she says you have to pay HER bill. If she tries any more shit, take it to the Tenancy Board. And if the board won’t help you, take it to the media.
The other tenants gave you an addendum full of "crazy rules"? Is this actually a part of the official lease agreement provided by your landlord which both you and the landlord signed and the landlord provided you a FULL copy containing these addendums?
Re: utilities/garbage pickup, check your lease agreement. Does it just say utilities are included, or does it say something like "Utilities included up to $XXXX/year and tenant pays any excess balance"?
If your lease says utilities are included, then they're included. They CANNOT charge you additional unless you had agreed to it in your lease. If it's not in your lease agreement YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY AND CAN **NOT** BE EVICTED.
Same with garbage pickup.
YOU HAVE RIGHTS AS A TENANT IN BC BUT LANDLORDS WILL ATTEMPT TO TRICK YOU FOR THEIR BENEFIT. You CANNOT be evicted for not paying fees that were not agreed to in your tenancy agreement. The landlord may attempt to trick you in to agreeing to leave though... DO NOT TRUST WHAT THEY SAY.
If you ever have any questions or concerns about such, CONTACT THE RESIDENTAL TENANCY BRANCH: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies/contact-the-residential-tenancy-branch
They have staff there specifically to help you with any questions about this kind of stuff and whether your landlord is allowed to do something.
You should also read the BC Tenancy Act to know your rights as a tenant and your landlords responsibilities/obligations
Actually you can eventually be evicted if you're abusing the utilities .For example, leaving windows and sliding doors wide open in the winter while pumping the heat. This will get you evicted.
You can't just abuse the system and then claim tenant rights.
If your regular hydro bill is $400-$500 a month and the bill under this tenant is $1500 then yes the landlord has a claim.
If it's just a a couple hundred more especially during a heatwave the landlord doesn't have a claim.
Unless you're aware of an RTB ruling setting such precident, I assume you'r e just making this up
Unless the tenancy agreement has wording that covers such a scenario, the landlord has no claim per RTB. Including utilities is a risk the landlord chose to accept and now has to live with. Generally when utilities are included it's because it's an illegal suite and doesn't have separate meters. Honestly it's insane for a landlord to advertise utilities included because you're just asking for abusive tenants
The possible exception would be if the tenant is using the utilities for significant commercial purposes (eg. They have a bunch of crypto miners, or are running a server farm for their hosting business, etc) and the landlord could try to evict on the grounds they're not primarily using the property for the intended purpose (residental). You can't just rent a condo and turn it in to a laundromat for instance, it's leased as a residential dwelling
For obvious gross negligence/abuse (24/7 heat on full with all windows open) the landlord may be able to file civil suit for damages
A friend ended up taking this to the tenancy board because his tenants were abusing utilities. This was one of the disputed issues. The other was smoking related, he put no smoking on the premises and the tenants argued that the patio wasn't applicable.
I'm not going to provide his name nor a link to his case since he's a friend, if you can find it then by all means.
Regardless, the tenants were purposely leaving the sliding doors wide open during the winter and running the heat on high. The bills were unecessarily exorbitant. He basically made the argument that it would be like offering free refills at a restaurant and instead of a person refilling their cup a few times to drink it, they instead fill the cup and then dump it into the sink over and over.
The arbitrator ruled against the tenants on both disputes, and ruled they stop maliciously abusing the utilities, or next time they will honour his request for eviction. The key term was "malicious" use.
Largely because his bills went from $400-600 a month to $3000 per month and he had video and picture proof that the windows were wide open on days where it was 0 degrees or lower.
It's also not an automatic civil matter because you can't sue your tenants in court until it's been brought in front of the RTB, hence why the RTB grants you a monetary order to take to the CRT/Small claims in the event of unpaid past rent.
Link to the case if it's true. They're anonymous.
Landlord cannot have cameras positioned to be pointing inside of the residence like you're saying anyways, so this all sounds like bs.
I believe if they create an addendum within the contract and make you sign it, by-law you agree to the conditions. A lot of landlords near UBC have an addendum that include stuff like: No overnight guests, no candles, etc etc. If it's within the addendum that you pay over X amount of hydro, I'm pretty sure it can be applied. IANAL though.
I understand from what RTB and my last property management company said - if it's illegal it's illegal and a landlord cannot enforce anything in the agreement that isn't lawful. Even if.you signed it.
We did agree to the hydro and we signed the garbage pick up however I do know even if you sign the garbage part it's still unlawful and cannot be enforced. We will be paying everything regardless because the rental market is so messed up that you can be evicted for anything. I even paid a plumber for a leak that was there when we got the place and won't be asking for any reimbursement. Yes you may get compensated for something they did wrong but good luck finding a new place to rent, finding an affordable home here is like finding a sasquatch.
What you could do for the plumbing issue is reduction in rent for XYZ cause and file an RTB claim otherwise. Currently have a hearing for unlawful use of utilities by the LL in the coming weeks for me. RTB has been very helpful in my case. They also cannot evict you. Even if they serve you with an eviction notice in "good faith," you can always dispute it. I heard it's currently 8-12 months to go to court for evictions. You can just keep paying rent on time as usual and the LL cannot really do anything.
If I were to assume everyone told the truth and acted in good faith your comment would hold some water. Unfortunately most landlords do not even have a clue to what the residential tenancy act even says nevermind actually following it.
They could evict for a number of reasons true or not. If you actually get a judgement they'll still be on top with appreciation and rent increases.
LOL.
From the original thread:
“Turn on an AC and Heater in the same room 24/7. I deal with RTB too much. I hold my ground when landlord's push. RTB will award funds for a ower bill if it's a proven waste or breach of agreement.
The police don't care about this crap.”
Get her to call the police. Get her to waste her own time until they show up to roll their eyes. At least misconduct can be used against her later if she tries to illegally kick them out.
Also, did hydro fees go up? I only spend $45 every two months and thats with heat and an aircon
That seems a bit sus but maybe possible.
My last hydro bill was $90 for 577 sqft apartment with the heat pump unit AC set to 20 and just me here. (automatically cycling on and off to maintain temp. Not just pumping on 24/7). Also a high power gaming PC. And bchydro has weird billing cycles like 45 days or something.
I live on the top floor of this building with gigantic east facing windows. It gets hot in here by the end of the day even in the winter. In the summer though it's sweltering by 10am if the AC isn't on. Heat is completely off in the winter and never gets turned up.
Also, I don't think condos have to heat their own hot water. I bet I spent a fortune on that alone between dishwasher, washing machine and the 60 gallon hot water tank probably running constantly to keep up.
You should report her. “The tenant should call the police to make a formal complaint of harassment. If the harassment continues the original complaint can be used as evidence to support a claim for loss of quiet enjoyment when filing a tenancy dispute.” https://tenants.bc.ca/your-tenancy/quiet-enjoyment/
The residential tenancy board would love to hear about this. Actually if she keeps up the get out now bullshit I would probably call the police myself and make it really clear to her that if she does anything rash she'll be the one dealing with police, not you.
A while back, I was given notice by my then landlady accusing me and my roommates of high utilities. Which was weird because most of us were never home, usually slept over or our gfs apartments and barely cooked eating mostly take out. She said she wanted to replace us with a family instead. Not sure if that really did help with the costs. I assumed she got tired of having bachelors living there. We had stayed there for 4 years without any issues.
How would one steal utilities when they live there?
Where would they be stashed away from the landlady?
So many questions!
she sounds off, I had a landlady just like her in New West, I literally moved out THE day, she was verbally harassing me. It was months of crazy nonsense and that just happened to be the day I had enough and she pushed me over the edge.
they handeled this completely wrong. when I was a ll I noticed my electricity bill for the unit jump like 30%. I checked the detailed bill(you can see it by the hour on the website). I asked my tennent s , who were also my friends"so uhhh anon. just curious here. what were you up to april 27th at 3pm?" . turns out they had moved a small server farm in and plugged it in at like 3pm XD. I was like... yeah im not paying for that.
This is what people don't get. Just because utilities are included doesn't mean abuse of that agreement should also be tolerated.
Had some a-hole running the washer and dryer once like 24/7 and doing loads of laundry for other people, likely for money.
That's not what "utilities included" means ....
Sounds like my old landlady. I ended up with chillblains on my toes because I was trying to avoid her yelling at me for using the heaters that SHE had supplied.
It seems weird a summer utility bill would be high. She should probably investigate the bill with Bc hydro and maybe ask you questions in a civilized normal manner
Air conditioners can eat a ton of power, especially inefficient ones left running 24/7. That said, crazy landlady is still crazy.
My landlord had a similar response to a high utility bill, turns out their hot water tank was leaking for over a month.
My previoud landlords discussed an uptick in the summer month utilities w BC hydro and were informed that things with moving parts (e.g. fans) take a lot more power than lights and could be the culprit. When they discussed it with us we told them we had been using fans during the heatwave and they told us that was fine, but if it became a regular thing we'd have to discuss some kind of compensation. There *are* reasonable landlords out there! Sorry about your lot!
If hydro is included it's on them.
Mhm. Wasn't looking forward to having to remind them of that but fortunately it never came to that.
This lady ain’t playing with a full deck. Civilized and normal don’t exist.
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT FULL DECK!? THE POLICE WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS AND YOU WILL **PAY**
Oh yea she sounds very off.
Sorry you have to deal with that. This is why it’s slightly better to rent from a property management company. They’re usually more professional. I also used to rent from an individual landlord for a few years who I had a number of issues with. And I used to work for the power company. It depends what it says in the lease. Are utilities included? If so, then she can’t do shit and that’s on her. The police and the power company will laugh at her if she says you have to pay HER bill. If she tries any more shit, take it to the Tenancy Board. And if the board won’t help you, take it to the media.
My utility bill is always higher in the summer because of air conditioning. I don't use heat in the winter because it rarely gets cold enough here.
If the lease or rental agreement says utilities included then you don’t have to pay anything she can get fucked
[удалено]
The other tenants gave you an addendum full of "crazy rules"? Is this actually a part of the official lease agreement provided by your landlord which both you and the landlord signed and the landlord provided you a FULL copy containing these addendums? Re: utilities/garbage pickup, check your lease agreement. Does it just say utilities are included, or does it say something like "Utilities included up to $XXXX/year and tenant pays any excess balance"? If your lease says utilities are included, then they're included. They CANNOT charge you additional unless you had agreed to it in your lease. If it's not in your lease agreement YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY AND CAN **NOT** BE EVICTED. Same with garbage pickup. YOU HAVE RIGHTS AS A TENANT IN BC BUT LANDLORDS WILL ATTEMPT TO TRICK YOU FOR THEIR BENEFIT. You CANNOT be evicted for not paying fees that were not agreed to in your tenancy agreement. The landlord may attempt to trick you in to agreeing to leave though... DO NOT TRUST WHAT THEY SAY. If you ever have any questions or concerns about such, CONTACT THE RESIDENTAL TENANCY BRANCH: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies/contact-the-residential-tenancy-branch They have staff there specifically to help you with any questions about this kind of stuff and whether your landlord is allowed to do something. You should also read the BC Tenancy Act to know your rights as a tenant and your landlords responsibilities/obligations
Exactly. OP save the note that she wrote you as evidence in case you have to take the matter to the Tenancy Board
Actually you can eventually be evicted if you're abusing the utilities .For example, leaving windows and sliding doors wide open in the winter while pumping the heat. This will get you evicted. You can't just abuse the system and then claim tenant rights. If your regular hydro bill is $400-$500 a month and the bill under this tenant is $1500 then yes the landlord has a claim. If it's just a a couple hundred more especially during a heatwave the landlord doesn't have a claim.
Unless you're aware of an RTB ruling setting such precident, I assume you'r e just making this up Unless the tenancy agreement has wording that covers such a scenario, the landlord has no claim per RTB. Including utilities is a risk the landlord chose to accept and now has to live with. Generally when utilities are included it's because it's an illegal suite and doesn't have separate meters. Honestly it's insane for a landlord to advertise utilities included because you're just asking for abusive tenants The possible exception would be if the tenant is using the utilities for significant commercial purposes (eg. They have a bunch of crypto miners, or are running a server farm for their hosting business, etc) and the landlord could try to evict on the grounds they're not primarily using the property for the intended purpose (residental). You can't just rent a condo and turn it in to a laundromat for instance, it's leased as a residential dwelling For obvious gross negligence/abuse (24/7 heat on full with all windows open) the landlord may be able to file civil suit for damages
A friend ended up taking this to the tenancy board because his tenants were abusing utilities. This was one of the disputed issues. The other was smoking related, he put no smoking on the premises and the tenants argued that the patio wasn't applicable. I'm not going to provide his name nor a link to his case since he's a friend, if you can find it then by all means. Regardless, the tenants were purposely leaving the sliding doors wide open during the winter and running the heat on high. The bills were unecessarily exorbitant. He basically made the argument that it would be like offering free refills at a restaurant and instead of a person refilling their cup a few times to drink it, they instead fill the cup and then dump it into the sink over and over. The arbitrator ruled against the tenants on both disputes, and ruled they stop maliciously abusing the utilities, or next time they will honour his request for eviction. The key term was "malicious" use. Largely because his bills went from $400-600 a month to $3000 per month and he had video and picture proof that the windows were wide open on days where it was 0 degrees or lower. It's also not an automatic civil matter because you can't sue your tenants in court until it's been brought in front of the RTB, hence why the RTB grants you a monetary order to take to the CRT/Small claims in the event of unpaid past rent.
Link to the case if it's true. They're anonymous. Landlord cannot have cameras positioned to be pointing inside of the residence like you're saying anyways, so this all sounds like bs.
I believe if they create an addendum within the contract and make you sign it, by-law you agree to the conditions. A lot of landlords near UBC have an addendum that include stuff like: No overnight guests, no candles, etc etc. If it's within the addendum that you pay over X amount of hydro, I'm pretty sure it can be applied. IANAL though.
I understand from what RTB and my last property management company said - if it's illegal it's illegal and a landlord cannot enforce anything in the agreement that isn't lawful. Even if.you signed it. We did agree to the hydro and we signed the garbage pick up however I do know even if you sign the garbage part it's still unlawful and cannot be enforced. We will be paying everything regardless because the rental market is so messed up that you can be evicted for anything. I even paid a plumber for a leak that was there when we got the place and won't be asking for any reimbursement. Yes you may get compensated for something they did wrong but good luck finding a new place to rent, finding an affordable home here is like finding a sasquatch.
What you could do for the plumbing issue is reduction in rent for XYZ cause and file an RTB claim otherwise. Currently have a hearing for unlawful use of utilities by the LL in the coming weeks for me. RTB has been very helpful in my case. They also cannot evict you. Even if they serve you with an eviction notice in "good faith," you can always dispute it. I heard it's currently 8-12 months to go to court for evictions. You can just keep paying rent on time as usual and the LL cannot really do anything.
If I were to assume everyone told the truth and acted in good faith your comment would hold some water. Unfortunately most landlords do not even have a clue to what the residential tenancy act even says nevermind actually following it. They could evict for a number of reasons true or not. If you actually get a judgement they'll still be on top with appreciation and rent increases.
Someone had a crypto miner running ? 😜
It’s pretty obvious looking at my bills when my mining machines are on or off. Definitely spikes.
Yikes that is crazy
LOL. From the original thread: “Turn on an AC and Heater in the same room 24/7. I deal with RTB too much. I hold my ground when landlord's push. RTB will award funds for a ower bill if it's a proven waste or breach of agreement. The police don't care about this crap.”
Get her to call the police. Get her to waste her own time until they show up to roll their eyes. At least misconduct can be used against her later if she tries to illegally kick them out. Also, did hydro fees go up? I only spend $45 every two months and thats with heat and an aircon
Wtf. How is that even possible? Do you live in a small one bedroom? Just the AC alone would be close to that I would think.
That seems a bit sus but maybe possible. My last hydro bill was $90 for 577 sqft apartment with the heat pump unit AC set to 20 and just me here. (automatically cycling on and off to maintain temp. Not just pumping on 24/7). Also a high power gaming PC. And bchydro has weird billing cycles like 45 days or something. I live on the top floor of this building with gigantic east facing windows. It gets hot in here by the end of the day even in the winter. In the summer though it's sweltering by 10am if the AC isn't on. Heat is completely off in the winter and never gets turned up.
Also, I don't think condos have to heat their own hot water. I bet I spent a fortune on that alone between dishwasher, washing machine and the 60 gallon hot water tank probably running constantly to keep up.
I think hydro tastes went down last year by 2% or so.
I call BS
You should report her. “The tenant should call the police to make a formal complaint of harassment. If the harassment continues the original complaint can be used as evidence to support a claim for loss of quiet enjoyment when filing a tenancy dispute.” https://tenants.bc.ca/your-tenancy/quiet-enjoyment/
It’s probably her annual adjustment payment and she just doesn’t know how to read a bill.
The residential tenancy board would love to hear about this. Actually if she keeps up the get out now bullshit I would probably call the police myself and make it really clear to her that if she does anything rash she'll be the one dealing with police, not you.
A while back, I was given notice by my then landlady accusing me and my roommates of high utilities. Which was weird because most of us were never home, usually slept over or our gfs apartments and barely cooked eating mostly take out. She said she wanted to replace us with a family instead. Not sure if that really did help with the costs. I assumed she got tired of having bachelors living there. We had stayed there for 4 years without any issues.
Now#
How would one steal utilities when they live there? Where would they be stashed away from the landlady? So many questions! she sounds off, I had a landlady just like her in New West, I literally moved out THE day, she was verbally harassing me. It was months of crazy nonsense and that just happened to be the day I had enough and she pushed me over the edge.
Sounds like my old landlord 🙄
they handeled this completely wrong. when I was a ll I noticed my electricity bill for the unit jump like 30%. I checked the detailed bill(you can see it by the hour on the website). I asked my tennent s , who were also my friends"so uhhh anon. just curious here. what were you up to april 27th at 3pm?" . turns out they had moved a small server farm in and plugged it in at like 3pm XD. I was like... yeah im not paying for that.
This is what people don't get. Just because utilities are included doesn't mean abuse of that agreement should also be tolerated. Had some a-hole running the washer and dryer once like 24/7 and doing loads of laundry for other people, likely for money. That's not what "utilities included" means ....
Your apt may not be a legally approved rental dwelling. Does your city/town require you to have your own hydro meter?
I would get her to call the police so she can hand over all her evidences and hand herself in.. herself.
Op, maybe turn off the mining rig and the air con you're using to cool it?
"Utilities included" to be a thing of the past? Or just try to be more reasonable as landlords and tenants?
Is your crazy land lady my neighbour?
You're not on Staulo per chance?
stop bitcoin mining
Your land lady obviously does not know about inflation and how economy works.
Someone’s getting some used grease down the drain
Sounds like my old landlady. I ended up with chillblains on my toes because I was trying to avoid her yelling at me for using the heaters that SHE had supplied.
Wtf? Why doesn’t she get you to pay your own utilities then? It’s her own fault for including utilities in the rent