High electric bill due to broken ac, who's responsible?

[mavee]

Hi, here's my problem. I have gas heat/hot water, so my electric bill in winter is usually around $20/month. In December I received a bill for around $300, so I called PECO. They sent someone to check the meter, but said everything was fine. During this time both PECO and myself tried to contact the landlord to figure out the problem, but they wouldn;t respond. Finally, PECO sent out someone else to check my apartment and he found that my AC unit was broken and that even when my heat or nothing was on my AC compressor was running nonstop and that was the cause of my high bill. I finally got my landlord to send someone to fix my AC (PECO also spoke with them to tell them about this) and it was fixed. The problem is that because it wasn't PECO's fault they said I'm responsible for the $500 in charges that were run up during this time. I feel that since it was caused by the broken AC unit, which is the properties responsibility, they should be responsible for the charges. Bottom line is that if I don;t pay my bill by next week, my electric will be shut off and if I don;t pay my rent I'll be evicted. Do I have any rights legally in this situation? Keep in mind that I don;t have an extra $500 otherwise I would probably just pay the bill and try to get compensated later, but I don't have that option. What should I do?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Pay your rent to prevent an eviction and see if you can work out payment plans with PECO. Then focus on seeing if management will help with this issue. It is likely they may refuse as they were unaware of this issue and appear to have remedied it once notified.

Gail

 

[clidlow]

byrne lofts?

If you are a resident you are not alone.

 

[mightymoose]

That's a pretty steep bill.
If you are unable to reach an agreement with the property owner (maybe split the bill?) then you can always try small claims.
i have to wonder why you would not have noticed a constantly running compressor... so you might have a little bit of responsibility.
Otherwise, have your past bills together to determine your average use and figure what a reasonable bill would typically have been for that month. Offer to pay that amount and ask the landlord to pay the rest since they are respnsible for the maintenance of the equipment.
If it doesn't work out, you pay the whole bill and then file small claims for the amount you feel you are owed.