need advice please!!

[Crystal Furfaro]

I apologise if this is miss subjected... I am currently a tenet in the upper apartment of a two apartment home. I would consider it to be a small two bedroom. I live in New York so our winters are pretty cold, but my natural gas bill was at least $300-$400 a month this winter. The only thing that uses natural gas is our heat and I never thought about it until the tenet below us told me he only pays $75 a month for gas and electric. There are two furnaces in our basement (the basement is split in two and the furnaces are on our side) but my husband discovered that the other tenets furnace was never even turned on all winter. I called our gas and electric company and all they could tell me was that there are two meters at the house, but they cannot tell me if the other is used.

So I guess what my question is, is if it is possible the lower tenet somehow uses our heat, and where to go from here to find out?

Also, for some reason the landlord said we cannot get to our gas meter and if we needed it read, he would have to do it. The only thing I can assume is that the gas meters are on the other side of the basement.

The house is pretty old, but we can here everything from down stairs if we listen near the heat vent. Is it possible that all of the vents throughout the house are connected so the lower tenet realised he can just live off our heat passing through?

My husband brought up the gas bill to our landlord and he said "it's something I will have to look into on my own time". So not much help.

Thank you for reading my helpless rant of confusion! Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!