In a message dated 2/10/2009 7:31:47 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, rogerandvi...@gmail.com writes:
My question is: what is the tenant's recourse? They have contacted PGW and so far have been met with indifference at best. The building owner is out of town, and the local agent also seems uninterested to help out. They have pretty strong evidence that their bill is considerably out of line with the other two tenants. I assume that they're paying for their own heat and possibly hot water, otherwise the total of the bill wouldn't be enough to worry about. Do they have access to the meter? If so, they should turn their thermostat town to the lowest setting (or to "off" if it has such a setting) and turn the temperature setting on the hot water heater as far counterclockwise as it will go (this is the "vacation" setting). Then they can look at their meter and see whether it's registering any gas flow. There will be a small movement on the lowest dial because of the pilot lights (assuming the ignitions are by pilot light rather than electrical... in the latter case there should be no movement). If in the course of five or so minutes, that lowest dial makes more than, say, two revolutions, someone else's appliances are hooked up to it. This method assumes that they can determine when the other furnaces or water heaters in the building are firing (e.g., they're all in the basement) because it's possible that nobody is using gas at any particular time. If they do get an indication that they're providing gas to somewhere else, they should send a letter with the explanation above and the readings to the Public Utilities Commission with a copy to PGW, Correspondence Dept. Alan Krigman KRF Management 211 S 45th St, Phila PA 19104 215-349-6500, fax 215-349-6502 _www.krf.icodat.com_ (http://www.krf.icodat.com/) al.krig...@krf.icodat.com or krf...@aol.com **************The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. AOL Music takes you there. (http://music.aol.com/grammys?ncid=emlcntusmusi00000002)
