PG&E bill was over $400 - what to do??

Question

Hey BP,

I’m 3 months into renting out my first property. I rent out by the rooms and charge a flat monthly fee while I take care of utilities. The PG&E bill has been over $400 and PG&E said its mainly the heater.

Is it legal to put a lock box on the thermostat? Or are there any alternatives to making sure the bill stays low? The tenants are not paying utilities so they have no incentive to watch their usage- I will be changing that after the 6 month lease is over - but in the meantime, what can I do??

Thanks guys!!

Bjorn Ahlblad · Answer

Account Closed when I lived in Ca 400 dollars for PGE was not all that out of the norm. Most tenants have no idea electricity costs money unless they pay.

Account Closed · Answer

@Theresa Harris

They are 3 months into a 6 month lease - after the 6 month lease is over, they will start to pay utilities themselves.

Thank you!

Mary Aviles · Answer

This scenario is incredibly common when tenants don't pay for utilities. Fortunately, there's an easy solution. Install a programmable thermostat.

The digital moderately priced ones (under $100) have a lockout feature, so no one can change the temperature other than you. Simply program the thermostat to the appropriate temperatures throughout the day/night, enter your digital code, and the tenants can't change it.

The fancier ones, like Nest, have other features like an upper limit, so even if the tenants try to raise the temperature, it won't go higher than what you set the upper limit to. So if you don't want to lock them out and give them the ability to adjust the temperature, you set the upper limit to prevent them from raising it super high. In addition, these thermostats have apps, so you can remotely monitor the temperature and make adjustments.

Last, many power companies have energy efficiency programs, in which they either give you for free or at a greatly reduced rate both kinds of thermostats. Just look on their website.

Steve Morris · Answer

Replace the heater with something more efficient.  If it's Cadets or baseboard heat, make sure they are not shoving a sofa in front of the heat to block airflow.

Theresa Harris · Answer

This is one of the problems with including the utilities.  Are the tenants month to month or on a lease?  If they are month to month let them know if the heating bill doesn't come down to a normal rate that their rent will be going up to cover the extra costs.  Remind them not to leave windows open when it is cold out and what the thermostat should be set at.  You can also replace it with a nest one where you have control over it.

Michael Noto · Answer

Good suggestions by @Mary Aviles

Bill B. · Answer

Yes. Place a control on thermostat that controls the efficient whole house heat so they each buy their own individual electric heaters and drive the Bill up further. Good plan.

If you have electric water heater and whole house heat, $400 might be cheap. Do you truly believe you priced the rent $100/mo too low? If not, why would they stay if you effectively raised their rent $100/mo? Maybe you‘ ll get lucky and they’ll just stiff you on rent versus damaging the place then leaving, costing you way more.

Ps. Lucky you live in California where I’m sure there are no laws regarding you controlling the temperature your tenants live in. I can see it being illegal and getting sued if you were to set the temperature that a tenant didn’t think was comfortable in less tenant friendly states. You might as well set the heat at 50 if you think you have a legal rigth to set their living temperature. But then again, look at point one and expect a spike when they all buy heaters and leave them running 24/7.

Pps. Do you really think you did such a bad job at tenant screening that you have tenants leaving the window open and running the heat?

Tom Fidrych · Answer

The bill may not be out of line and depends upon a number of factors. Does the PGE bill include both gas and electricity? Where is the rental located and how many square feet? Is it insulated and have double pane windows or older, uninsulated with drafty window and doors? What kind of heating system-gas or electric forced air, heat pump, electric radiant? It's possible that the tenants are cranking up the heat with windows cracked open but it could be a heating duct is disconnected somewhere and blowing hot air into the attic or crawlspace.

PG&E bill was over $400 - what to do??

Most Popular Reply