Landlord problems please help

[Tim Moore]

My wife and I have been making offers on duplex’ in our city for the last few months, but in the meantime we are renting (which I hate.) We’ve had several issues with our landlord not fixing things etc. and for the most part we’ve worked through it. In December our pipes froze and it was the first time that he actually came over and fixed the issue. A couple days later he texted me and said he was thinking about putting a space heater in the basement so the pipes wouldn’t freeze again. I asked him not to do that and he never responded. Now two months later I saw our heating bill and it was nearly triple over the past two bills than it had been the first 6 months we lived here. I texted him to ask and he said that he plugged the space heater in the basement and the plumber was “supposed to tell us to unplug it.” I’ve heard from multiple people/sources that it’s illegal for him to even have the basement utilities on our bill, but I’m not sure. What can we do to rectify the situation? It’s over $300 over the past two months more than our usual bills. We’ve thought about calling our power company or national grid, but I just wanted to ask if any of you had any suggestions for us. Regardless of what happens, working with him has taught me how NOT to be a landlord and I can’t wait till we can do it better. Thanks in advance.