shared power meter

I am an owner of all 3 commercial spaces in a 30+ residential condo unit building. I have recently found out that 2 of my 3 units share a power meter.

It has not been an issue since I've always have tenants that rented either all 3 units or both units that share the power meter.

For the first time in 10 years, all 3 units are now rented out to 3 different tenants. Now this became an issue with unit 2 and unit 3 sharing a power meter.

Unit 2 moved in first and owns the bill to that meter.

Unit 3 moved in few months after and quickly identified this issue.

After first finding this out, I consulted the HOA. HOA brought this to the Board of Directors and they both came back telling me it's my issue. I have to go to the local PG&E to install a new meter and separate unit 2 and unit 3. I looked into doing that, it's in the range of $7,000+.

I've asked HOA to add the agenda for the Board of Directors and they had a meeting and came back telling me my request for HOA/BOD to add a separate power meter was denied, but without providing a reason.

I went into the power meter room and quickly identify that my unit #3 is the ONLY unit that does not have it's own meter. If every owner of every unit has a power meter, and I do not have one in one of my units.

I looked over all the project documents, my 3 units are listed as 3 individual units in the project. I checked the city records, it's also registered as 3 individual properties.

Is there anything I can do here as an owner to have either BOD/HOA either install the power meter or share the cost with the owner?

Do they have the authority to turn down my request to be consistent with every other unit in the project?

Please comment, I don't mind if you are on the HOA/BOD side or my side. Any comment is good feedback.

Thanks in advance!
-Frank

My advice? Ignore the fact that multiple units share a power meter, add the cost of power into the rent, include power as part of the included utilities. Warn the tenants if they don't keep the power use down, the rent will go up.

Problem solved, no money spent.

Steve,

That would be the simple solution but when 2 share, one could be a power hog and the other could live by candlelight. And chhances are that Mr. Candlelight would not like sharing a power bill with the hog. It is best to seperate the meters.

I would contact the local Zoning Board and look at the original drawings. It could be a mistake was made and two units were metered together and you could be covered by the builders warranty or it could be a design defect. The ZB may make the HOA remedy the situation but more than likely you are going to have to pay, either directly to the power company for a new meter, a sub-meter or attorney fees.

PS. I know it is common to have title insurance and this could be something it might cover. Alot of people don't realize title insurance coverage often goes well beyond just covering title/property line type disputes. I've seen it cover a new owner who buys and then finds out there were improvements done without building permits, or other issues and this lack of a meter seems to fall under that kind of scope.

Did you buy title insurance?

SteveM9, that wouldn't seem to be the case based on his comment,

"I looked over all the project documents, my 3 units are listed as 3 individual units in the project. I checked the city records, it's also registered as 3 individual properties."

DJ1; there is no legal requirement for a "unit" to have separate anything. I've seen a legal duplex that shared a bathroom.

Frank,

There are several reasons why you could have one power meter for two units within an HOA. Most of the HOA's in the San Fernando Valley have shared meters which the HOA pay's the utilities. However, to cut costs, many of these HOA's are switching to individual meters. These costs would be forwarded to the homeowners via a special assessment. The previous owner might of agreed to only pay for one for the two units. This is only one possibility. Regardless, it would be your responsibility place a second meter.

I would either raise the rents of the two units and include the utilities, or just pay for the second meter. You would have to place a second meter to sell the two units anyway later on.