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I have a house which I rented out to a tenant for 5,000 pesos a month for almost 7 years now. The house has an extended portion where me and my family resides while my tenant’s family occupies the bigger front portion. But both me and my tenant use the same postal address. My tenants portion of the house uses a main electric meter which is connected to a submeter which I use. Every month we share payment of electricity proportionately. Also, at the time my tenant came in, there was no water concessionaire operating in our place. We had our water delivered to us thru trucks.
At the start, we had a written 1 year contract. Back then my portion of the house's electricity was connected to a generous neighbor not to my tenant. At the end of our contract, I negotiated with my tenant that I be allowed to connect to the main meter. In exchange, I agreed that so long as I don’t have my own separate meter, there would be no increase in the rentals. Up to now this is our arrangement: every first week of the month, my tenant pays the rent with my electric consumption deducted from it. No receipts exchange between us. “ Kaliwaan lang.”,as they say.
The problem started last Dec. 2012 when Meralco began paying out interest earned from Bill Deposits to its registered customers. Interest earned from my bill deposit for 15 years amounted to ₱6,256.90 . This amount, however, was not paid in cash by Meralco to its customers but instead offsetted the amount from the electrical consumption of its customers. My interest payout was offsetted in the bills for the months Dec. 2012, Jan. and Feb. 2013. In short, my tenant had a free electricity bonanza for three months in that amount which shouldn’t be since the amount should be credited to me alone because it was interest earned from my bill deposit and does not have anything to do with the electric consumption nor anything about my tenant.
I have raised this issue with my tenant but have refused to credit the amount to me. I have also approached Meralco but they say my tenant and I should settle this. Pls. advise me. Thanks.
At the start, we had a written 1 year contract. Back then my portion of the house's electricity was connected to a generous neighbor not to my tenant. At the end of our contract, I negotiated with my tenant that I be allowed to connect to the main meter. In exchange, I agreed that so long as I don’t have my own separate meter, there would be no increase in the rentals. Up to now this is our arrangement: every first week of the month, my tenant pays the rent with my electric consumption deducted from it. No receipts exchange between us. “ Kaliwaan lang.”,as they say.
The problem started last Dec. 2012 when Meralco began paying out interest earned from Bill Deposits to its registered customers. Interest earned from my bill deposit for 15 years amounted to ₱6,256.90 . This amount, however, was not paid in cash by Meralco to its customers but instead offsetted the amount from the electrical consumption of its customers. My interest payout was offsetted in the bills for the months Dec. 2012, Jan. and Feb. 2013. In short, my tenant had a free electricity bonanza for three months in that amount which shouldn’t be since the amount should be credited to me alone because it was interest earned from my bill deposit and does not have anything to do with the electric consumption nor anything about my tenant.
I have raised this issue with my tenant but have refused to credit the amount to me. I have also approached Meralco but they say my tenant and I should settle this. Pls. advise me. Thanks.
