American Utility Management overcharged me & our apartment complex double/quadruplerespectively for natural gas June & July 2017 Carol Stream Illinois

In October 2015 Hines Park place began employing American Utility Management (AUM) to handle billing us tenants for natural gas usage which covers heat and hot water. There is only one gas meter for the entire complex so we are billed based on apartment square footage. Since this situation is ripe for fraud, I kept a record of the charges. Everything was fine until I received my June 2017 bill.

It was twice ($20.25 vs $9.61) what I paid in 2016 and July was 4 times ($20.31 vs. $5.52). June, July and August are months where the heat isn’t needed; only hot water, so I contacted AUM and got nowhere. I then contacted Hines Park Place management who in turn contacted AUM. AUM said that they had made a mistake and the next 2 months they basically undercharged us approximately $5 ($2.86 for August and $1.90 for September). The October 2017 charge was $7.11 compared to $6.11 for last year which was close enough (it could have been colder this October than last October).

This was very upsetting to me in that they overcharges us $25 followed by undercharging us $5 and then everything went back to normal so I attached a note to my December rent payment stating that this situation was unacceptable and that I was going to withhold payment to AUM until I recovered the additional $20.

I just received my November2017 heating bill and it was an undercharge of $8.51. Odd how there was an undercharge for August, September and November but not for October. The remaining balance is $13.30 of the original $25 overcharge.

I would like to note that there are 120 apartment in the complex with either 90 or 100 of them being one bedroom and 20 to 30 being 2 bedroom. I was overcharged $25 for a 750 square foot 1 bedroom and that calculates out to $30 for a 900 square foot 2 bedroom so the total over charge for the complex with full occupancy is between $3100 and $3150.

I've contacted my state representative in Lansing, MI and there is a plan to come out with legislation to correct this situation. I am about to contacted the State Attorney Generals of MI and IL.