Huge electric bill- Tenant continues to charge Tesla after he was told not to

[Natalia Perlova]

Hi BP fam,

Please let me know your thoughts on the following situation: i have one of the units rented by the room to 2 tenants, and the electric bills quadrupled compared to when i lived there. Turned out, one of the tenants started charging his Tesla from the dryer outlet. When i found out, we agreed that he pays $50 extra each month, that was in the summer. Last couple of months he stopped paying that $50, and the bill continued to climb, up to $500 lat month (property is in Mass). I can't figure out why it's so enormous as both tenants are rarely home, and i have tried to pop in to see if the appliances are left on, nothing..  So i clearly told him to stop charging his Tesla, as that's the only thing i can think of that drives up the bill. Last night the other tenant texted me a picture of the Tesla still being charged.

The lease does not say anything about electric vehicles, but has a clause about "wasting utilities". The heat is gas, so separate. The tesla tenant has not responded to my messages and i am guessing he's going to continue to charge his car, because it's "very convenient" for him (his words), otherwise he is a good tenant. Any advice on how you'd address it? 

Thank you!

Natalia

[Dan H.]

There is a device called kill a watt for 110v that are priced very reasonable.  You can determine how much power any 110v device takes by plugging it in. 

So I did a search on amazon to see if they have a 220v equivalent and voila https://www.amazon.com/40-300V-Display-Multimeter-Multifunct...

It is over twice as expensive as the 110v versions, but it can tell you how much power is being used to charge the vehicle.  This would allow you to charge the tenant for his increased power use.  

Good luck