Bought a fixer upper in the fall of 1994. Sometime around I;m going to say maybe May or June of 1995 my ex informs me the electric bill was $2.45. I don’t recall if I checked the meter immediately or maybe it took me a few months to go look. Sure enough I go check it, there is considerable amounts of condensation on the inside of the glass, the gears are rusted and not moving. So of course i do nothing. What’s funny is the bills changed by roughly 10 or 20 cents a month. It would be $2.45, then $2.47, $2.35 and so on.
I change jobs in 1997, and get a payout of vacation and holiday time that pays for the install fo central air. My memory is fading but I think we go for a pretty hefty oversized unit for a 1700 sq foot house. Sufffice to say, it could easily keep the house at 70f even on 95+ days in july.
Fast forward to september of 2001, we sign a contract for new construction. We close about a year later fall of 2002. I;m convinced all during this time that they will figure things out. Whats worse is the new home is about 7 miles away and the electric is with the SAME COMPANY.
Never heard anything, who knows that meter may still be rusted today.
Comments
Sounds like they were just charging you a minimum usage fee. Either way it’s not your responsibility to ensure their equipment is functioning properly (although them and the courts probably won’t see it that way). I’d say there is a very small chance they will come after you (especially after almost 15 years). I’m not even sure how they’d even charge you (probably average of your neighbors). I’d continue to say nothing until they come asking around.
Surprised they didn’t catch it. I knew someone that read meters and there were procedures in place to catch this sort of stuff. There was also plenty of monkey business with people stealing power before the meter and they would catch people doing it. I’m sure it just depends on the company.
Utilities have a maximum “look back” period that they’re allowed to pursue as decided by their regulator (I think ours is 2 years).
Who knows, this post may have been written by ChatGPT
in Austin in the 2010s I didn’t pay my electric bill for a year. Moved out, into a new place, didn’t pay that electric bill for a year. Never hit my credit or anything. I got a new bill every month with an ever growing total but they never made an effort to collect.