Okay, so, we have a little problem here...Advice desired

[justinO]

RANT MODE ON

Okay, our landlord is saying that our herps are increasing her hydro bill so much, she is increasing our rent by $30/month. now, i can understand how having a huge collection could increase hydro consumption a fair bit, but, in our herp room, we have three 100w bulbs + 3 human heating pads + 2 flourescent bulbs. Now, when we moved in here a few months ago, we decided that we'd live in the dark to conserve power and energy so our herps could have their heating/lighting. One of the questions we have is How much a month would our heating cost our landlord?

also, the landlord is demanding that we get rid of all animals that require lighting that "is not supplied in the apartment", and wants a current inventory of the animals that require additional power supplements, and their adult size potential. (5 baby balls and a 3' burm).

Now, here's the thing, this basement apartment is not a legal apartment (we found that out AFTER moving in), nor is it built to code (no GFCI in the bathroom, only ONE power outlet for the whole living/dining room area, wall studs not evenly spaced, etc etc.. )


one more question, does anyone know of a 1/2 decent 2 bedroom basement apartment in pickering/ajax or scarborough?

Justin and Jessy


Rant mode OFF

[Zoe]

If she's renting her basement illegaly, I don't think she can demand you pay her extra rent. Did it say in the lease that if you used more power, the rent would increase? I use a lot of power in my apt building, and they can't up my rent just because it costs them more.

Zoe

[chas*e]

No way Justin,... a 100w bulb would use $4.80 per month if left on 24hr per day. a human pad and the floresence bulb is depending on length and wattage most likly the same.....give the jerk $10 and tell him to have a nice day.....but don't phone anyone(city) until he refuses your offer ....You can also tell her the heat given off from your set-up saves her heat costs

You know my set-up and I use $25< per month in summer and $50> in winter

[ANACONDASAURUS]

First did you or didn't you sign a lease?

When you sign a lease the landlord is allowed to raise the rent only once when you sign a lease. When the lease is up the landlord can raise the rent to any amount they want to. The heat lights do suck up some watts. Being she knows about what the average consumption of power is that's how she figured it out.

Heres what you could do when she wants to see if you have your heat lights on. You could tell her that they haven't been on for a while and just leave the heat pads on when she's around because she can't see if they're on. What I do sometimes is turn the lights off during the day because my home is very hot inside in the daytime it keeps the temperature pretty level. So when she's not around @ night just turn them back on....lol

[justinO]

Im not really concerned now with the fact she wants a few extra bucks outta me, but its the fact that she's demanding that i get rid of the animals that require lighting. Also, our balls and the burm are on the city's "no no list" of animals we cant have. I don't want her to call in the by-law officer to come and take our animals. as i said, this is an illegal apartment, so, i suppose the little section in the Landlord Tennant Act that states that the "no pet" clause in our lease is completly null and void, so, she can kiss my butt.

Zoe also has a point, our apartment was "all inclusive" so she doesn't have a right to say "give me $30 tomorrow to cover the additional electricity cost".

thanks, just wanting to confirm what we already thought. but, I guess we should relocate our herps for when we lock horns with the landlord.

Justin

[Wuntu Menny]

I don't know about you, but our city has a hotline to report illegal suites. Tell your landlord that they have two choices: either they press the issue and you can make a call to city hall resulting in $20,000 worth of upgrades to meet code, or a nominal increase to offset the extra utility load.

Their request is excessive in my opinion, and personally would challenge their demand.

WM

[Pixie]

Your in a bit of a predicament here....

You have rights to fight the electricity bill and would win out legally with that no problem. But the catch is you would probably lose your appartment in the process...

If it's an illegal appartment, there is no valid "lease" and therefore at best would be considered on a month to month basis and you could have as little as 30 days to vacate the premises.

If you were in a legal and binding lease all you would need to do is ask for her to produce the electricity bills to prove that the consumption has risen since you moved in and since you got your animals.

In this situation, I would keep my mouth shut, pay the darn 30$ a month (I wouldn't give her any lists of animals or equipment) and start looking for another place.

Good luck,
Pixie

[Jeff_Favelle]

Calculate how much energy you use. Its not hard. That's what calculators are for. I pay 6 cents per kilowatt hour. You probably pay around 10 cents. So figure out how long your stuff is on for and how mnay watts it uses and give the figures to the landlord. Pretty hard to beat that.

[Lisa]

Originally posted by ANACONDASAURUS
First did you or didn't you sign a lease?

When you sign a lease the landlord is allowed to raise the rent only once when you sign a lease. When the lease is up the landlord can raise the rent to any amount they want to. The heat lights do suck up some watts. Being she knows about what the average consumption of power is that's how she figured it out.


Here in ontario landlords can only do an increase once a year and only a certain percentage then.

I'd say, look, you can try charging me $30 more if you bring the apartment up to code. If not then there's no reason we should be paying more rent.

As for your herps, keep your mouth shut over what you keep and your landlord can't use them against you.

[Zoe]

I think they increse is of 4% max once a year.

[BoidKeeper]

It's all on the bill from month to month the amount of kilowatts used. Ask her to white out the price but to just let you see the kilowatt hours that have been used from one month to the next. The bill does not lie but she might.
Good luck,
Trevor

[justinO]

I understand that we are using up some power, however, if utilities are included in our rent, she should have to deal with marginally higher cost of having us as tennants. Also, we dont use her washer & dryer, and we use the oven like once a week, so, there should be little to no extra power used.

just so many things in this situation are bugging me right now. We will be hopefully having a conversation with the landlord in a few days, so i'll keep you posted.

[Steele]

Tell them that you have corn snakes or some thing that is "legal"so then if she calls the city she will tell them what you have and they will say that is all right and after your first "story"then tell her that you wher thinking of reporting her because I bet she donot pay her tax's right and the goverment will like to know that.

[justinO]

we were thinking of telling her we keep some colubrids, or just finding a friend to snake sit for us for a while to keep the snakes safe. What would happen to our snakes if the by-law people found out we had them? would we be given a chance to find new homes for them, or would they seize the animals (over my dead body btw) and have them destroyed?

[Corey Woods]

J & J,

If it were me I'd just tell her to F*** Off. Even if you signed a lease stating that you cannot have animals in the apartment once you move in you can get animals and their isn't a damn thing the landlord can do about it. Tell her to drop the issue or you'll call the city to inquire about her illegal apartment. Unless you haven't paid your rent for about 4 or so months their isn't much she can legally do to kick you out.

Good Luck.
Corey

[GI Joe]

This is a lose lose situation all around. The only thing anyone can do here is the landlord can kick you out. If you call and complain to the city they will make you leave until the apartment is properly zoned and up to code. If the LL calls the city they can confiscate your herps.

I would ask the landlady to let you keep your pets for an increase of like 10.00. If she balks tell her you won't complain about the apartment if she will leave it status quo.

[MouseKilla]

I'm wondering how the landlord found out that you had any herps at all in the first place let alone ones that aren't legal to have. You'll know better next time that the answer is NO to the do-you-have-pets question. The only reason they ask is so they can try to rob you later saying that they have to fix something because of your dog or whatever. Anyway, you can't have a valid lease on an illegal apartment so even evicting you would be very difficult even with a good reason because she couldn't do it through the law like a proper landlord, she'd have to get some big boys to come by and throw you out. So remember, say "no I don't have pets" and if the landlord wants to come in say no to that too. They have to give you notice if they want to come in. This gives you plenty of time to hide the herps, porn, illegal immigrants and the hydroponics lab. Don't sweat animal control either, they have to have good evidence against you and get a warrant just like the cops. I say piss on her, give her nothing she can't touch ya.

[justinO]

She found out about the herps by innocently asking about our "one small lizard" while installing a smoke detector.

[RepTylE]

Non disclosure is always a good policy concerning herps

[honduranfreekk]

LOL I would have to agrea with Cory on what he said and well said lol that is what I have and would do like he said there is nothing they can do (been there) ;)

[lordkovacs]

here's my advice..

settle on $15/month extra. reason being, if you have a landlord that is not happy with you, you will not be happy living there. Heating costs ARE going up, and heating 6 snakes IS noticeable. Probably not $30/month though! Still, she probably feels like she's being had. If I were you, first I'd look for an apartment that IS up to code, but in the mean time, pay the $15 extra...or at least offer that.
good luck,
MIKE

[Corey Woods]

MouseKilla,

I liked your post....it made me laugh.....just had to say that.

Corey

[chas*e]

Justin..I can go over with a few brothers and " make him an offer he can't refuse"..maybe you can live for free rent...lol...maybe he will pay you for living there..lol..

[ReptiZone]

I would get all the animals a siter then I would invest in a 500-1000 stereo and leave it on all night on a low tone and leav you TV on all night on mute AND when you go to work leav all your lights on when she comes over tell her to serch the place if she likes then tell her it was so much cheaper whne the animals were here at least you did not need to watch TV and listen to music at the same time then.