Who should pay for damaged electric meter?
Hi there guys seeking for advice (especially if may lawyers here). So our landlord messaged us last Thursday (May 14) that they received a demand letter from Meralco asking to pay for damaged meters that they replaced under the landlord’s account (See attached convos - partner ko po ang kausap)
Here are details for context:
We live in like a house/apartment complex. Malaki syang property with separate apartments within. The biggest house is shempre sa landlord and attached kami sa gilid nila but we’re in 2nd floor kasi sa baba namin is their nephew. Meron pang tenant sa likod namin and another one separated samin by the garage. So para syang house number 123 ABC and kami si B.
We all have separate electric meters not submeters. As in separate meralco account numbers and direct kami nagbabayad via banking app.
Sa demand letter I see na yung last number sa account number is wala dun. Like 1234567 lang pero kami is like 12345678. So was wondering, does that mean anything? Kasi baka meaning nun is main meter account yun or something? Kasi di rin naman nagreflect yung damage payment sa account namin mismo
As you see sa convo we’re good tenants, never missed any paymenta sa rent or bills. And we’ve been here since July 2021 and never kami nagka-issue.
Wala kaming gamit here at all. Like mini fridge and 3 electric fans lang ang appliances namin dito. I live here with my partner and sister but we’re mostly out during daytime due to work. Only my partner works from home for 2wks at most per month but GY shift. We have a rice cooker pero parang 3x in a month lang magamit minsan hindi pa talaga cos we usually eat pag nasa office nalang or lumalabas nalang. Our usual elctric bill averages around 1,500 per month so dko alam pano masabi na hindi tama ang reading ng meter and kulang bayad namin all this time.
So my question really is sino po ba dapat magbayad samin nung damages? Kasi ever since lumipat kami never naman po namin kinalkal or sinilip yung meter outside. May 3 or 4 sa labas ng gate namin actually but we never bothered to look at it kasi so di po namin nanotice yung damage whatsoever. Also, we were never informed na aayusin or papalitan yung meter or what either by the landlord or meralco. We were always out kaya sabi din ni landlord sya ang kausap that time pero last week lang nya talaga sinabi.
Also is there a way to know anong meter number yung nadamage? Kasi I see sa bill na may nakalagay na meter number pero wala po sya dun sa demand letter na naka specify.
TLDR: Pinupush po kasi kami ni landlord to pay po talaga and tbh masyadong malaki pong bayarin yun on top of our rent and other bills na kaya we want to see what our options are. Should we just pay? Should we pushback na dapar si landlord ang mag pay? Should we ask 50/50? Pls advise po and thank you in advance!