Getting ripped off by my landlord

I’m going to make this long story very short, but hopefully I will get some decent general advice from those who have eperienced this.

I moved into my apartment six months ago and I received no utility bills for almost five months. It was a big red flag but the landlord is western so I trusted him.

So about six weeks ago he give me this enourmous bill for five months worth of electricity, but he gave me no electrical statements from Taipower supporting his numbers.

He says he had a separate meter installed for this apartment, which he reads and then deducts that amount from the one bill he gets for the whole, six-floor building, which includeds a restaurant on the first two floors.

So he presents me with this very high amount, then tells me the above explanation. I freaked out becuase he didn’t say anything about this before I moved in. He also held back the billing for a longer than reasonable amount of time, so that I was almost five months into my contract when I realized how much my monthly electricity would be.

You might say this is my fault for not asking about the utilities, but I assumed I would just get a regular electric bill every two months and then pay that, because he wasn’t telling me it would be any different, right?

Anyway, big mistake.

So now these massive bi-monthly bills are rolling in, about three times more than I’ve ever paid for using a similar amount of power, and I don’t know what my options are and I still have not seen any Taipower bills.

I did go to the local governement district office and tell them what’s going on but I need a translator and a lot of time just to go through the process.

What I need is someone I can speak to in English and ask what kind of options I have as far as why this wasn’t included in the contract and if I can get out of this by pursuing some sort of legal action.

Thanks for your help!

Are the bills high compared to previous places in Taipei, or somewhere else?

The meter story should be easy enough to verify, tell him to show you where it is. If it’s there, you can track it for a couple weeks and do the math to see if what he’s giving you is correct or not. I’d start there actually. If he can’t show you or offers some excuse, then I’d tell him you aren’t paying anything until he can show you the meter and associated bill from the power company.

Good luck!

This might be a good route to go. OP, you say that the electricity is for the entire floor and there’s a restaurant on the first two floors. Normally, those are different meters, I’m not electrician, but if he owns it, he could maybe re-route everything to one meter.

This plays into your hands where if you don’t pay, he may not go crazy and turn off your electricity because the landlord’s other tenants need it too!

Do this.

The first floor power should be calculated at a different business rate than the rest if it is properly set up.

Check your meter (if it exists) for the number of units you personally are using and then use Taipower rates to calculate your bill. Note there is a sliding scale of charge per KW which increases the more you use so calculate accordingly, note also that we are now in summer time rates which are higher, use winter rates for previous bills.

Also if a meter exists, make sure it’s only for your apartment, turn off everything in your place, using the main breaker if you have one, and see if that meter still spins at night or during the day.

Just for curiosity sake, when you say the bills are high, how much are we taking about, how big is the apartment and are you using a lot of AC?

Moreover, commercial buildings pay different rates from residential buildings. So if the firts two floors are restaurants, it could be that the rate is accurate… for a commercial enetrprise. hence, the outrageous amount. That has happened before. Problem is finding out before you move in.

so uh…how much are they?

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I won’t get into specifics in the public forum, but suffice to say that the electric charges are at least twice the amount for non summer and three times the amount for summer rates.

I know this because after being in Taiwan for 14 years and four different apartments, I was able to adjust the use of my air-con to about two hours a day and still pay the same residential rates for summer and non-summer consumption. I also earned a 10 per cent discount after being so careful with my air-con use.

After all these years I know what the rates should be and these rates are through the roof for residential consumption. I moved in here in December and for that month and January it was three times higher than the average bill for the same use of power elsewhere.

There is definitely something fishy going on in this building.

I shouldn’t have to turn off the breaker. Maybe if I just did not use any power by turning off and unplugging all sources of electric consumption, the meter should stop, right?

kinda weird, not like your giving out his name or any personal info.

If you have been here 14 years you should of learnt to speak Chinese by now lol :rofl:

Or know at least 1 person who can translate. Sounds shitty though, hope you sort it out bud.

Unplugging everything should work however you need to be sure you got absolutely everything. Hitting the main breaker is the best approach and it may also give you a heads up on who else is using power on that circuit when they complain their electricity has been cut.

I had something similar some years ago when living in a 4 story walk up which was owned by the same landlord and split into one apartment per floor. The only shared bill was supposed to be the water bill and it was a set monthly fee. After I got a fast internet connection I didn’t really watch TV anymore so called the cable company and had it disconnected…queue 3 floors below complaining and a visit from the landlord, seems I was paying the cable TV bill and everyone else was leaching off it, free cable being part of their deal with the landlord! Forced a refund for the 3 months cable I had paid and refused to pay the shared water bill anymore as compensation. The neighbors got one connection hooked up between them but everything was still connected on the same circuit so I had free cable…

Translate what?

SuperS54

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Turning everything off/unplugging is good to test if someone is leeching off your electricity. Now that could increase the amount paid. And it is also quite frequent.

Well yeah…but my problem is not if other people are using the same meter. My problem is I don’t have a Taipower statement for my own apartment and I have to rely on my landlord’s ability to read a meter, then use that information to figure out how much electricity I have used, and then deduct that amount from the overall bill for the whole building.

In other words, it’s a lot of trust issues and I would rather have my own bill. The other thing is, he didn’t tell me I wouldn’t be billed directly from Taipower before I moved in. So all of this was a surprise to me.

That is the area of contention because it wasn’t stated in the contract.

Have you tried Tsui Mama?

You don’t know that yet, it may be your second problem!

The bill for the whole building has nothing to do with you so you don’t have to deduct anything from it. All you need to know is how many units you used and calculate your bill from that using the sliding charge rate from Taipower’s website. Do you know where the meter is? Get a reading now so at least you have a baseline to work from. Figure out how much electricity is being used in a week and do a quick check on how much the landlord is overcharging, if he is indeed overcharging. As before, make sure that meter is only for you though.

Forget about what was or wasn’t stated in the contract for now, yes it’s a PITA, yes it sucks to have been lied to or mislead but unless you are trying to use this as a reason to break contract and move it’s not going to help you. What is going to help you is finding the meter, ensuring only you are using the power recorded, figuring out what your bill should be and then either telling your landlord to take a running jump or paying your bill and figuring out how to reduce consumption.

Very curious as to how much these bills are! Can’t just give us a ballpark figure for a 2-month bill? 500? 5000? 50,000?? How big is the apartment? Inquiring minds want to know.

This is very key. OP, yes, it is a public forum, but it’s not like we need to know your personal info to help you out this this issue. Size of apartment and amount of the bill your landlord gave you would really really help everyone here.

If you’re living in a 10 ping apartment and mediating your electricity usage, but getting a 10,000NT bill for two months, there’s something wrong. Or if you’re getting 1,000NT for two months, but think it’s a lot.