Kevin O from Tampa, FL. TECO territory. My client moved into a retail space on March 1 and set up their TECO account effective that date. But the first bill covers February 10 through March 8 — it includes 19 days of the previous tenant usage before my client even had the keys. The bill is $2,300 and my client says their buildout had barely started by March 8 so most of that consumption belongs to the previous tenant who was running a full restaurant through February 28.
New tenant got charged for previous tenant usage — 19-day overlap
Kevin, this is a meter reading timing issue identical to the final bill problem Donna described in a previous thread. The previous tenant account should have ended on February 28 and your client account should start March 1. If the meter was not read on those dates, the billing system can create overlaps. TECO needs to establish the actual meter read on February 28 or March 1 and split the consumption accordingly.
I literally just dealt with this same issue in Tampa. TECO has a 2-3 week lag on meter reads for commercial account changes. The old account gets a final bill through the next read date and the new account starts from that same date, but the dates almost never align with the actual move-in. Always check the move-in bill against the lease start date.
Donna, exactly my situation. Called TECO and they said the meter was last read on February 10 (before my client moved in) and the next read was March 8. They billed the entire Feb 10 - Mar 8 period to my client because the new account was the active one at the time of the March 8 read. But 19 of those 28 days belong to the previous tenant.
Kevin, did the previous tenant get a final bill? If they were billed through February 28 on their final statement, then TECO needs to adjust your client bill to start March 1. If the previous tenant final bill only went through February 10, then TECO owes the previous tenant a bill for Feb 10-28 and your client should only pay March 1-8. Either way your client should not be paying for someone else usage.
Mike, checked with the property manager. The previous tenant final bill ran through February 10. So there is a gap from February 10-28 that was not billed to anyone. TECO dumped that gap plus March 1-8 all onto my client. The Feb 10-28 usage was a full operating restaurant — probably $1,800 of the $2,300 bill. My client actual usage for March 1-8 buildout was probably $500.
Filed with TECO citing the lease start date of March 1 and the previous tenant move-out of February 28. TECO agreed to split the bill. They created a final supplemental bill for the previous tenant covering Feb 10-28 and rebilled my client from March 1-8 only. My client revised bill: $480. That is a $1,820 correction. Previous tenant now owes $1,820 which is between them and TECO.
Clean resolution Kevin. Move-in and move-out bills are always worth checking. The timing gap between lease dates and meter read dates creates these billing allocation errors on almost every commercial tenant transition.