Comed Smartmeter warning

[Kimberly H.]

Comed Smartmeter+tenant leaving a week early and stopping all utilities early+ sump pump w/no power=disaster

Ok, fortunately that didn't happen to me because only 2 out of 3 events occurred, but it easily could have.

In the old days when you called to turn off billing in your name, in my area anyway, the utilities would stay on for who knows how long.

Now, when a tenant calls to turn it off or on, it's done in an hour, remotely.

I am honestly surprised my tenants of 2 years did this. They moved out a week early without telling me, and we were in communication a LOT because I had agents showing the home when they were still there. I was just there a week ago and chatted with them for a couple minutes when I got the yard sign. I had even emailed them move-out instructions with things like "keep utilities on in your name until the lease end day" and "let me know what day you are moving out"...although that email as it turns out was sent 2-4 days *after* they had already moved, but they didn't bother to respond to the email and tell me they had moved already. Yesterday I found a letter with their keys in my UPS store mailbox, which I only visit once a week, dated 4 days ago.

Of course, my lease says ALL of those things. I spend an hour at lease signing going over rules but that was 2 years ago.

Stopped by the house to make sure it was locked up (back door wasn't locked) and never imagined the electricity would already be off, but it was because of smart meter. Ran into the basement in a panic since it had rained pretty hard the day before but it was fine.  I got Comed to turn it back on within 2 hours this morning, but had we had more rain in the meantime, or had this been winter, I might have had a disaster on my hands. 

Better sign up for the Landlord program for all our rentals...