State Specific Question About: RHODE ISLAND (RI)

Hi everyone,

First, thank to all of you for the invaluable info provided here. It has been extremely useful! I'm hoping someone has a suggestion for me.

I own a 3 family house. Each unit has it's own furnace and it's own electric meter. There is also a house meter. One of my tenants (2nd floor) recently had Verizon service installed and the 'equipment' is mounted near the ceiling in my basement and plugged into an electric outlet that is connected to the house meter.

I bought the building with this tenant already in it and we do not have a good relationship (pays rent late, screams in your face, slams door on you, etc). So, asking her to have Verizon move it probably won't work.

What can I legally do? Thanks in advance for any advice! Deb

I would eat this since we are probably talking about pennies for the electric cost.

But I would be seriously thinking about replacing her because of the other problems, if they have been ongoing and/or cause problems with other good tenants and/or are causing you to lose money.

Also, if you are really worried about this, you can install a Kill-A-Watt device (online or Home Depot) which will track the power used by that device and then you can bill her for the power.

It may not be feasible for Verizon to move the equipment since they probably want to keep it at the demarcation point in the utility area instead of in the tenant's unit..Or maybe they are just being lazy, who knows.

If a tenant is disrespectful as you say, just smile and make plans to evict in February.

Why February? Time to have them served, get into court, have them finally moved out = around April.

Even TV, Internet and Phone draws minimal power. I think the last time I looked at my wide screen it draws less than 2 amps. Internet is a fraction of an amp for a DSL modem and router. Phones are low enough to run off batteries. Your total increase shouldn't be more than $4 - $5 a month.

I had a simular problem. First I used a small digital plug in power meter and measured the tenants equipment use. It came to $3.15 per month based on 35 watts of power (Charge back up battery and provide power for the system). I sent a letter to my tenant to please include this power use from the House Meter with their next rent check. The tenant refused and sent only her next rent check. I then contacted the owners of the system and alerted them to the issues. My next step, unplug the system.

Our apts have house meters. I have locking plugs, and other exterior plugs I capped off. If I were to find something bootlegged into house power I would cut the cord and secure the power recepticle.

It is stealing power.

I even have the laundry going into locking plugs to keep them from unplugging the washer and using the power for god knows what.

If there is some reason for them to use house power and you wish to allow it, I would have a separate agreement with a reasonable fee for the service.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I guess at this time of year I should monitor my electric bill and think about next steps come Jan/Feb like someone else suggested. In the spring it is certainly easier to fill a vacancy.

Yes, you can get fixtures that screw onto the existing junction boxes and have covers that can be padlocked, with the legal wires running out a small hole in the bottom.

Ask the guy in the elect dept.

Someone can pry it apart with a big screwdriver but then they are breaking the law.

Handyman - the house meter runs the lights in the stairway inside the building, outside motion lights, basement lights & power. The outlet they are plugged into is really for the coin-op washer & dryer. The washer uses 1 outlet and the other is open - which now has a surge protector plugged into it and Verizon equipment plugged into the surge protector.