Electricity shut off – Do I compensate?

By admin

I am a home owner with a roommate…  I inadvertently forgot to pay my electricity bill and it was shut off.  The power was out over night and for 18 hours.  This caused my roommate the inconvenience of having to get ready for work elsewhere.  She hasn’t asked but I would like to offer a compensation for her inconvenience.  Is this normal and if so what would be an acceptable amount?  Her rent is $550.00 a month.

Edited on: Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 8:17 am

3 Responses to “Electricity shut off – Do I compensate?”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

Richard

November 11th, 2008 7:58 am

Hi lori!
Offering your tenant a discount or compensation is fair and highly recommended. To calculate what type of a discount to give is pretty basic. All you need to do is pro-rate the rent over a 30 day basis in order to get a daily figure.
So if Rent is $550 per month… you will take the monthly rent and divide it by a 30 day month: (550/30 = 18.33) So based on this calculation you would need to give her a discount or amount equal to $18.33. This would be fair. If you want to give her more, that’s up to you. However, the daily pro-rated rent should be fair.


anonymous

November 12th, 2008 7:32 am

You may want to consider offering more than the one day of pro-rated rent. Technically you are in breach of your agreement, which means your tenant can move without any type of penalty. You will need to feel her out to see how upset she was about it, then offer her fair compensation. I would even consider $50 to $100, since it was your error that caused such a breach in your lease agreement.


kimberly

December 13th, 2008 8:16 pm

i think that a day of rent would be ebought that you’re very sorry it was a mistake and that it wouldnt happen again


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