Tenants aren't taking electric costs lightly


Macungie residents found out accidentally that outside lights were connected to their meters

May 16, 2012|Paul Muschick | The Watchdog

In the midst of October's freak snowstorm that knocked out power to thousands, Robert Gracin watched as his neighbors at Madison at Macungie Village powered up their dark apartment with a generator.

When their lights came on, so did some of the apartment complex's outdoor lights. Gracin, an electrician, thought that was odd.

Several months later, other tenants in the complex, Brian and Kelly Magill, had trouble with their electric stove. They thought it odd when they shut off their apartment's power to fix the stove and the lights in front of their building went off, too.

Gracin and the Magills now know why. The wiring for some outdoor lights at the complex was hooked to the electric meters of some apartments. Since tenants pay their own electric bills based on those meter readings, that meant some tenants had been paying to light public portions of the village.

Gracin and the Magills are at odds with the complex over how much they should be reimbursed.

Christine Murray, regional property manager for Madison Apartment Group, said the complex has made an offer, which she wouldn't disclose.

The Magills and Gracin, who lived at the apartments with his fiancee but recently moved, told me they reviewed the offer with their attorney Tuesday and rejected it. They also declined to disclose the amount.

"It was basically a slap in the face," Kelly Magill said.

Their lawyer has requested reimbursement for all of their electricity costs since they have lived in the apartments in Macungie, about $7,701 for the Magills and about $4,454 for Gracin and his fiance.

Murray would not discuss that request with me.

"It is our policy not to conduct dialogues with our residents in the media," she said in an email. "We are always willing to listen with courtesy to our residents' concerns, and are available to discuss this matter at their convenience."

Gracin and the Magills told me the apartment complex hadn't listened or taken their complaint seriously at first, which is why they went to a lawyer, PPL and the Watchdog.

"We tried to talk to them and be rational with this," Gracin told me.

In letters to Gracin's fiancee and the Magills, PPL said it had found wiring for other lights on the property connected to their meters.

Murray told me they had been paying for two lights that illuminate the front step area of their buildings. She said it's unclear how the error happened, because the wiring and lights were in place when Macungie Apartment Associates bought the property in 2007.

She said repairs were being made.

"The wiring issue was determined by our electrician to exist in several but not all of the units throughout the property," she said.

State law protects tenants in situations like this, but only to a degree.

Once a wiring issue is confirmed by the electric company, the law (Act 54 of 1993) requires the electric company to bill the landlord for all of the affected tenants' power use until the "foreign wiring" is removed.

That ensures tenants don't continue paying for their landlord's electricity. It also gives the landlord an incentive to correct the problem quickly.

That procedure was followed in this case, with PPL switching the tenants' accounts into the complex's name in early April. Murray said the apartment complex paid the balances and the accounts were switched back in early May after the repairs were made.

That's where the Public Utility Commission's authority ends. It says it can't get involved in a dispute like the one at Madison at Macungie Village and compel a landlord to reimburse tenants.

The PUC ruled it did not have jurisdiction over "a financial dispute between two non-utility parties" when investigating natural gas use at an apartment building in Philadelphia a few years ago. In that case, a sink used by the landlord was connected to a tenant's hot water heater.

That leaves it up to landlords and tenants to negotiate a settlement or go to court.

Murray told me the reimbursement offer was "above and beyond" what's required, as all the law requires is for a landlord to pay the electric bill until the wiring problem is corrected. The law doesn't address refunds.

Madison at Macungie Village based its reimbursement offer on a PPL formula to calculate the amount of power used by the outside lights, its lawyer, Jenel Marraccini, wrote in a letter to the tenants' lawyer, Lia Snyder.

Snyder is citing another part of the public utility code in demanding reimbursement for all of their electric payments.

In a letter to the apartment complex's lawyer a few weeks ago, she said Madison at Macungie Village had been required to notify PPL that the apartments were not individually metered, which would have made the complex responsible for their bills.

If you are a tenant and you believe your utility bills are too high because you are paying for electricity or gas being used by your landlord, ask your landlord to investigate. If the landlord won't, ask your electric or gas company.

The easy part may be confirming the problem exists. The hard part may be reaching a financial resolution.


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