POWER SHORTAGE, SHMOWER SHORTAGE–
AS LONG AS I HAVE LIGHTS

Santa Monica landlords definitely consider the Rent Board and dealing with the City of Santa Monica in general as their number one problem. In addition, landlords have to contend with other obstacles that can also be problems in conducting the day to day business of being a rental housing provider. One of these obstacles is the use of electricity.

We have the distinct privilege in Santa Monica of having to deal with the Edison Company if we want electric service for our properties. Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that they are not a "Consumer Friendly" organization. Now that they are experiencing severe financial troubles due to their own greed, I am not sure that I can feel "sympathetic" to their plight. Anyone who has looked at their utility bill recently knows that the costs of electricity are already "up" and will probably go higher as time goes by.

Here are a few anecdotes regarding my experiences with Edison. Maybe you have some as well. We will be happy to print any interesting tales you may want to submit to us.

First, have you ever asked Edison for a new meter? Perhaps you want to have outside lights at night and need a meter for that purpose. Certainly you don’t want to hook it up to a tenant’s electricity. Many older properties don’t have a meter for outside lights. It becomes a major hassle just to get the Edison representative to come to the property. When he finally does show up, he is liable to say that in order to give you another meter, you will have to move ALL your meters to a different location on the property. That does not sound very reasonable. Edison may also say that they want you to put all your wires underground. All you wanted was one additional meter and now Edison wants you to move all your meters to another spot and put the wires underground. This can mess up your original budget. They might also do the same thing to you if you want to switch from fuses to breakers. There are many Santa Monica properties without breakers. It just seems as if they have always looked for ways to increase your costs. The time involved and the red tape make you want to throw up your hands and forget you ever started. Did you ever have an occasion when Edison damaged your property? They will never admit fault under any circumstances and will make you sue them in court before they will ever pay for damages.

Here are three incidents that happened to me:

1. They had a power surge in my place and it destroyed every appliance. That means the TV, computer, etc.; everything was fried. I learned that you had to first file a written claim with Edison. I did that and they sent me back a letter denying it. I accepted the denial of my claim and ate my losses.

2. Another time, I had just put a brand new Entreguard system in a building a few weeks earlier. There was another power surge (it happens far too often in Santa Monica) and it burned up my entire "circuitboard". After spending $3,000 for the system a short time earlier, it cost me another $500 to replace the burned out circuitboard. There was little doubt how it happened and who was at fault. Once again I filed a claim with Edison. It was denied. Now I was beginning to suspect that this was strategy designed to "shine on" anyone who files claims for damages.

I am a busy person, and I don’t like courts or confrontation any more than the next guy. It soon became clear that Edison banks on this type of attitude by consumers to eliminate probably more than 50% of claims.

3. The third time I had an encounter with Edison, I was determined to follow through. My tenant had vacated a house in Ocean Park and turned off the electricity. Despite the fact that I have made arrangements with Edison to keep the electricity on during periods of vacancies—they shut off the elec tricity to this house. I called Edison and ordered the lights turned back on. After one week, I realized the electricity was not on. I called Edison to see what was the matter. They assured me that they had turned on the lights.

Next, I had to get Javier, my electrician, to come out to see what the problem was. As you know, the electric meter has a lock on it. Only Edison has the key. Only Edison has access to it. When we got Edison to take off the meter lock, we found the problem. The Edison rep probably had not been paying attention to his work, and shoved the handle of the meter into the connecting "prongs" so fast that he forced it in on an angle. What he really did was to break the "prongs" and we had no electric service although it looked like we were all hooked up. This little problem only cost me $750. It could have been much more, but thanks to Javier’s clever ingenuity, I got away reasonably cheap. At first we thought we might have to replace the entire pipe and connection up to the roof.

Well, I filed my claim with Edison. How could I lose? They had the key to the meter. They controlled the meter. They had done the damage. Guess what? They denied the claim.

Next I filed in small claims court. When I got there, I had to have my witness, Javier, with me. He was willing to go even though he had to take off work. By looking at the docket, I realized that I was not the only one suing Edison that day. There were 4 or 5 others. So while we were waiting, I talked to these guys. All the stories were people who have been treated the same way as I was.

If you have been to Small Claims Court, you realize that you have a right to have a judge hear your case. However, that would take longer. The court asks you--how about a judge pro-tempore? I had no objections—but not Edison. They had to have a real judge. Another delay; that was the only reason. I would have to come back in a week. How many people have the time to keep coming back to court? I had to ask my witness to come back. By now Javier also got the idea of what was happening. This was a definite Edison strategy—delay; delay; delay.

Well, we finally got the case heard—and we won. What next? Within the next 30 days Edison filed an appeal. Anything—except pay the claim. Well, we had to return to court again for the
appeal.

You are not allowed to have an attorney in a Small Claims case. But, when there is an appeal, you CAN HAVE an attorney. By now I was more determined than ever to see this through. This would be the third time I had to go back to court. I needed Javier more than ever. This time I decided to ask Gordon Gitlen to represent me at the trial, and Gordon did a great job.

To make a long story short—I finally won and Edison finally did pay the claim. But as you can see, this is apparently Edison’s company policy. Deny claims; delay court trials; file appeals. I can imagine how they would behave if you bring a case for real damages. Obviously, it cost me more than the $750 to get the $750 claim. I had been ignored on the first 2 claims and I was determined to get justice—no matter how much it cost me.

So do you think Edison is our friend? Just watch yourself in these matters. I have to go and see the movie Erin Brockovich.

Thanks for reading.