It’s taken a few months, but I’m gradually finding out how sheltered I was as a renter. In the six years I lived in a railroad one bedroom I never once had to deal with any city departments or agencies, worry about maintaining a clear sidewalk or have the short end of the stick in terms of tenent law.

This morning’s mail wake up call from ConEd came in the form of a 4 figure invoice for electric. As it turns out, the all electrical usage for this property has been estimated for more than a year. The previous owner was never around early enough in the a.m. to let the guy in to read the meters.

What’s strange about this is, I had someone from ConEd stop by shortly after closing to get a reading. Shortly after that, while trying to restore gas service to the building, ConEd is back and taking readings. Now, as the ConEd rep I spoke with claimed, none of those readings were ever recorded. The best (and only) offer I got was to take the current month’s usage charges, break that up into monthly averages and spread that across all months since the last reading (and bill me only for the months I owned this place).

While that’s better than being responsible for the full amount, it still leaves me paying more than I should be – the place had no hot water for ~3 months after closing – so noone could really “live” here, much less consume that much electricity.

In the end, I had to take the offer — in addition, I also purchased roughly 40 compact flourescent bulbs to reduce energy consumption. Why? As a renter, I never saw an electric & gas bill over $65, now, as an owner, I’m looking at $110 per month (while not terrible, it’s a bit of a jump).

So how does this relate to the post headline? ConEd cannot refund a cent of the cash that was automatically taken out of my checking account until the next meter reading is recorded and posted to my account.

Verbal: The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.
Verbal: And poof. Just like that, he’s gone.
(like my cash)