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Report: #1106026

Complaint Review: Baltimore Gas and Electric - Baltimore Maryland

  • Submitted:
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  • Reported By: wsucram15 — Baltimore Maryland
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  • Baltimore Gas and Electric 110 W Fayette Street, BAltimore, Md 21201 Baltimore, Maryland USA

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To Whom it May Concern:

I am now aware I  am not the only person this has happened to, BGE holding bills over to the next tennant or to the owner of a property when a tennant/resident does not pay and denying service on the property until it is paid. 

This seems pretty illegal to me, I understand there is a percentage of people who are stupid enough to defend someone who will comit a crime such as stealing public utilities, but I am not that person.

I moved in with my boyfriend at his house and my house was going to be vacant.  We had discussed going back and forth (due to the economy at the time neither house was worth what we owed) .  An old friend had previously mentioned he wanted to buy my house but would need time so I let him move in with his daughter giving them a place to live and keeping the house not empty. The agreement was for him to pay 1/2 the mortgage and the BGE bill untiull he could in one year assume the mortgage.

Seems pretty cut and dry but it was not, at some point he lost his job, custody of his daughter and while I felt sorry for him, he eventually destroyed my house. I began the process of eviction but he relented and signed a wavier of his rights, took his things gave me his keys and left.  I have not seen him since that time.  I tried transferring the power (BGE) and they want the prior bill of 6339.00 paid.  They also want a home inspection, completely empty house, any information I can supply them about the former resident.  All of which I have complyed with.

I have what little of my furniture that was not destroyed in a storage facility along with my daughter and sons things who would like to have the house back.  But I dont think BGE will allow that.  They are actually keeping me out of my house and anyone else as well. 

 

The bottom line, even after protesting to MD Public Utilities Commission, they are not going to turn on power at my house because I knew this person, unless I pay his bill.  Which I refuse to do, its against the law to force someone to pay a bill incurred by another or place a lien against a property for said bill.

 

Any attorneys..please contact me.  I will file suit just for BGE staff implying I have committed a crime which is all documented.  ITs bad enough they are going to cost me my house, make me pay a bill that does nto belong to me and then they are going to call me a theif ..yes..certainly sir..how far would you like me to bend over for you? 

 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/10/2013 09:56 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/baltimore-gas-and-electric/baltimore-maryland-21201/baltimore-gas-and-electric-bge-bge-forcing-me-to-pay-bill-not-mine-baltimore-maryland-1106026. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
7Author
6Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#13 Author of original report

x husbands-jeeze

AUTHOR: wsucram15 - ()

POSTED: Friday, December 13, 2013

To help your self, you must have documentation of what you are stating, proof that your ex resides elsewhere or you established residency elsewhere. If you have this then you provide this along with your dispute to the Public Service Commission for MD. Look online..thats how I found them. Also if you do something now..to newstips@baltimoresun.com <newstips@baltimoresun.com>; they are doing a report possibly next week 12/20 on this sort of thing. But you must have your documentation strait. Please file a report with the Public Service Commission and do as they say, BGE must do as they deem fit as they are the governing body for Utility services to customers. But I caution you, you must be able to prove what you state...and be clear in your letter of dispute. It has happened to a great many people, more than I ever thought possible. I won my case with them, but it was because I was able to provide documentation. Do whatever the people at the Public Service Utilities advise and go from there. Good Luck

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#12 Consumer Comment

bge denial of service to my home because of my x-husbands past due balance

AUTHOR: Lseegars35 - ()

POSTED: Friday, December 13, 2013

 There has got to be something to be done about the way bge is causing homeowners to loose their homes in the state of maryland because of other peoples bad habits. I own a home in Baltimore city which at one point my x-husband an i lived in together until 2007. At which time i moved out and he refused to leave, he did not pay my mortgage on time which i had to keep getting out of foreclosure and he did not pay the water bill on time, i called the company and asked them to shut off the water so i would not continue to incur bills because the bill was in my name, they said i had to fax over a letter stating that which i did and the water was never turned off, now i have a huge water bill to pay and i wasnt even living there. He also ran up the bge and at one point he started to connect it himself, once i found out about this i called bge repeatedly and no one would come out, i also called the police and they said bge would have to take care of it, the bill was in his name so i didnt care at that point, i just wanted it off so my house would not burn down.

No one would listen to me, i finally went to court because he started to threaten me and threaten to destroy my house, i had him put out of the house by  court orders, i contacted my mortgage company to get my payments back on track and now i am trying to find a renter that can come in so i will have help paying my mortgage. I contacted bge to come out and connect power, they stated they couldnt do that because of a pass due bill of 10,000.00. I explained to them that the bill belong to my x husband and he was no longer in the property, they said i had to do a house inspection and the house had to bcompletly empty, i did that. then they stated i needed to replace the service entry cable because he had damaged it, i did that (which cost me $1000), once they came out to inspect it they said i had to have hard wired smoke detectors installed in the house (which were already there), they came out and passed the inspection. they said that was all i needed to do to move someone in. Once my tenant called to have his service transferred, they stated they were not gonna approve anyone to have power at my residence because of the past due balance, even after i have done everything they asked me to do.

I then called them myself and tried to explain my situation yet again, they said they needed to send another investigator out to do another home inspection to an empty house, i agreed to that, the inspector never showed up. I called back everyday every hour on the hour and still no one would speak to me about my case, they would only tell me i needed to talk to this one supervisor that was never available. At that point i felt i had exhausted every effort inside of bge, so now i have filed a complaint with the PSC, I hope i am able to get some resolution to my situation because i feel no one is listening to my story, I know there are some awful people out there because my x husband is one of them, he would give anything to see me loose my house, in fact he told me he is waiting for me to loose my house so he can move into his. And it seems like bge is giving him just what he wants. I have worked very hard to save my house from numerous foreclosures caused by him and i would hate to loose my house because of the things he has done.

Im gonna have faith that someone will see what im going through and do whats right, i feel bad he owes bge that amount of money but he is putting me in all types of debt because of this. If anyone knows what i can do please reach out to me because i dont know what else to do. I really need help here!! I would love for myself and others that are going through this with bge to get together and bring about a huge law suit because this cannot be legal to hold someone and their property accountable for someone else's bad decisions.

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#11 Author of original report

I blame resident and utility company for different reasons

AUTHOR: wsucram15 - ()

POSTED: Thursday, December 12, 2013

 In this matter, there has been a resolution of sorts. I had involved the Public utility commission in my state who should be involved in any claim with a public utility or your consumer affairs, possibly even the civil rights division of your Attorney Generals office, again depending on your State. In my state, things are handled independently through the utilities commission, which initially looked favorable, but after providing a good bit of documentation, did not. It is an intimidating process and providing as much substantiating documentation as possible is essential. IT is not in the utility companies interest to let go of a person they could force to pay a bill if at all possible and in dealing with them directly you will end up paying the bill. In my case, I had documentation, thanks to my boyfriend I have to say, who had the forethought to have me change my address on just about everything sooner as opposed to later. I did not live in the house while the large debt was being incurred. The Public Utilities Commission based on the Utilities regulations currently in place found in my favor and that I did not have to pay the bill, consent to a search of my premises and could begin service with BGE immediately. However, BGE still has 8 days to appeal this decision. My only issue aside from the person who completely took advantage of me is that one of the representatives of BGE, in letter form, actually accused me of a crime based on things that they believed to be true but in fact, were not. I had a problem with that...its unprofessional and unethical. I believe its also illegal. But I was just making a point..

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#10 Consumer Comment

Once again

AUTHOR: Stacey - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

 If the bill was NOT in your name then this company has no right to go after you.  BUT if the bill is in your name and you can prove that you did not live there during that time period then sue the person in small claims for your damages. 

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#9 Author of original report

again

AUTHOR: wsucram15 - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

 the bill is not in my name..does anyone read what I wrote..? I also did not live in the house at all during this time.

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#8 Author of original report

Aswer to questions

AUTHOR: wsucram15 - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

I DID NOT RESIDE IN THE HOUSE FOR THE PAST 3 YEARS.  The bill was in his and come to find out later, his daughters name.  BGE had they informed me of any of this via mail, anything, this would  have ended immdiately.  Had BGE informed me of this situation, by mail,  anything, they could have saved us both  thousands  of dollars.   They are still not releasing information to me as the bill information  is confidential to the account holder.

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#7 Author of original report

Free Electricity

AUTHOR: wsucram15 - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

It would work that way had we been roommates..but we were not. I had to show documentation of this. I let him stay in my house to keep in occupied while I resided elsewhewre, which is documented. His only responsibility was to pay the utilities, none of which were paid. But they are still not letting this go.

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#6 Consumer Comment

Contact the utility directly

AUTHOR: FloridaNative - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

There seems to be many 'collection companies' that are collecting for phantom debts now. The best thing to do in your situation is to contact the utility directly. They will have a record of any debt you may or may not have on the property.

Water utilities collect their payments on the property whether you use their services or not. There is a basic monthly service fee charged even if you didn't use one drop of water. Having said that, if the fee remains unpaid, the water utility will put a lien on the property and the property can not be sold or transferred without the lien being paid. In fact, if you left an outstanding bill, most water companies will have the next person (tenant or owner) pay the bill of the previous person if it is outstanding. Otherwise there is no water service to the property. As far as I am aware, water utilites are the only services that can get away with this - because the bill/service rides with the property. The utility authority has the ultimate control over the services. If any bill is outstanding, there is no service to the property.

By the way, you can check your own records to see if a lien was filed against the property by the water authority. It will show up under your name in the public records section of the county where the property was located. That would be good info to have before you contact the water utility.

So, even if you did leave in 2007 an outstanding bill, it is unlikely that it remains unpaid today. Contact the utility directly. Don't mess with the 'collection company'. If there is no bill, get a letter from the water authority and send a copy to the collection company that shows there is no outstanding bill due. Then report the collection company to the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau. Keep the original letter for your records and send them copies only. Good luck.

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#5 Consumer Comment

Comments

AUTHOR: Robert - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

First a comment on the reason BGE is doing this is for one reason.  Now not saying that this is your case but there are many people who live in a house and will put the utilities in one persons name and never pay the bill.  They then would "tell" the utility company that that person moved out and a new person moved in effect getting free electricity.  Well Utilities are well aware of this and since you know the other person this is what they are going to assume is going on.

When your "old friend" agreed to pay the BGE Bill did they transfer the service into their name?  If they did not transfer it into their name, sorry to tell you but the chances of you not having to pay the bill in order to get the power on is about zero. 

There is one possible option for you.  That is to actually sue your "friend" for the amount of the utility bill.  However, one thing that may be a problem.  If during the eviction process you had him sign any document that said in exchange for him leaving you would not pursue him and he is not responsible for any damages or expenses.  That may be enough for him to rightfully claim that the bill is your responsibility. 

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#4 Consumer Comment

It is your responsibility

AUTHOR: MochaG - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Even though I am sorry to hear about your problem, it is not the utility company responsibility if the bill is under your name (and I am sure it is). You may feel sorry for him, but that does not help the person. What he did to you may demonstrate how his responsibility is in person. He took advantage of your good heart and left this mess on you.

I am sure he will do this again on the next person who tries to give him a hand.I doubt that you have a written contract with your friend. Verbal contract doesn't work with it involved the 3rd party like this. What you can legally do is to pay the utility company, and then sue your friend for what you paid for (and may use collection company after you are successfully sue him).

If the bill is under his name, you could get the service reopened again (reference - look at the part under 'Unauthorized Collection Remedies').

If the bill is under your name, the utility company may deny your service as long as they inform you the reason (reference). Why this is your responsibility if the bill is under your name? For one, you have a contract with the utility company, not your friend. If anything happens with the company service, they will come after you because you are the only legal person who has the deal with the company. For the other, you let your friend in and did you follow whether he paid for the bill. I highly doubt that the $6,339 is a month bill even included all late fees. It looks like your friend did not pay the bill for many months!

You trusted your friend too much and never asked for a deposit. Your good heart is being taken advantages of, so you ended up with losses. You have a choice of taking the losses or pursue legal action toward your friend. You cannot blame the utility company because of your mistake (even though it is not completely from your own action).

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#3 Author of original report

bill not in my name

AUTHOR: wsucram15 - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

The bill was not in my name,  But they are holding me liable and according to other stories I have seen on the internet, its not just me.  What they do is refuse service to the property until the bill is satisfied, showing a substantial investigation of your properties background and in my case making some pretty serious allegations of criminal misuse. But the ultimate goal is to get the bill paid by someone even if not the person with whom they have the contract.

This has happened to many people.  Tenanats moving in apartments after other people, one girl had a shared apartment with her sister but had been out of the country I believe to come back to no heat and a large bill. Those are the stories I have seen, one woman was homeless with children because of this and she had nothing to do with the bill or the property prior to this according to her. 

 

 

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#2 Author of original report

name

AUTHOR: wsucram15 - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

 Residents name was Dennis Dyer. I asked him once how he was paying his bills and he informed me while his disability was pending his girlfriend Tina was paying the utilites. I had no access to these bill so took him at his word. I found out after he was gone that he had at one point put the BGE in his daughters name, which had to be contested by her mother as she is 10 years old.

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#1 Consumer Comment

Question

AUTHOR: Stacey - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, December 10, 2013

 Whose name was the utility bill in??

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