Q: is landlord allowed to use my electricity from my rental for his property?
i found a cord running from my garage to his big garage and he has been using my electricity. I confronted him about it and he told me to get out. Told me to move if i dont like it. He admitted he uses my electric. He also told contractors that put on the roof and gutters its okay to plug their cords straight in to the side of my house and use my electric to install roof and gutters. I think this is wrong. I pay the electric bill here not him. He never offered me help with the bill he just got mad and said get out. I just moved in here and only been here 3 weeks. Now he is retaliating and wont let me replace his mouse infested stove in the house. I have mice coming out of the filthy oven he left for me and i offered to buy a new stove with my money and put this one in his garage. He told me yes i can do that, and now that i caught him using my electric he said i cant remove stove and get out. What can i do?
A: Dealing with troublesome landlords can be frustrating, and there aren't a lot of good solutions. If you have access to your circuit breaker box, you could shut off the outlets he and his contractors are using. But they would have to use a lot of electric to raise your electric bill more than a few dollars. And doing that could antagonize him. For the mice, you could buy some mouse traps or get an exterminator to deal with the mouse problem. But if you are on a month to month lease, landlord (or you) can terminate your lease by giving the other 30 days' written notice.
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