Renters with a new electric vehicle found themselves facing an unexpected — and seemingly unreasonable — $75 per month charge from their landlord.
"Our landlord texted both [us and our neighbor, who also has an EV] that he's upping utilities for car charging," they wrote on Reddit. "We asked our landlord for proof it was costing both us and my neighbor $75 and he said the utilities for the whole property have gone up 'about $300.'"
"Are landlords allowed to do this? Raise utilities with no warning?" they concluded.
While it's understandable for a landlord to consider an increase of some kind if utility usage does indeed go up, the main concern is the $75-per-month charge being an arbitrary figure with no documentation provided, rather than collaborating with the tenants or lowering the rent and having the tenants pay the electric bill instead. Commenters immediately jumped in with advice.
"Your Tesla app shows detailed charging stats by location," one person said. "Easy to set the rate and pay for what you use or prove that you don't charge at home."
OP explained that they had not received any proof of the increased electricity bills. "I worry about getting taken advantage of and if we get charged even more down the road if we just start paying it," they said.
Unfortunately, seemingly punitive responses toward EV owners are all too common with landlords and HOAs. In some cases, HOAs have even created an unnecessarily burdensome insurance-gathering step to prevent residents from installing electric vehicle chargers.
In fact — whether it's intentionally anti-environmental or not — many landlords and HOAs have become notorious for making it as difficult as possible to save money while helping the environment.
HOAs have been caught banning water-efficient landscaping, nixing energy-saving solar projects, and even blatantly destroying pollinator habitats in favor of monoculture grass.
"What about baking a lot in a portable convection oven? Is that an upcharge too?" one person said sarcastically.
Another person advised, "In any situation where the landlord is requiring a tenant to pay all or part of [a] utility bill that their name is on, they are legally required to show you the bill."
OP later updated the forum, saying that they "don't intend to charge there again unless we can see our output, which is impossible [with] it being 4 units under 1 address." And, while they said they liked the place and, in their words, "there's a few more pros than cons," they added that due to the charging issue, they may have to move out.
If you're dealing with a stubborn landlord or HOA, check out TCD's step-by-step guide to help you fight back — and win.
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