Sandy Hutchens outlines the landlord scam
Our hapless tenant was informed they did not have to pay any bills at all at the time they rented their unit other than rent, gas and electric. Then the landlord told our tenant not to call PSE&G right away and have service put in their name, since "they were going to install their own system." Two weeks later the landlord called the tenant and asked him "Did you call PSE&G and have service put in your own name?" The tenant answered in the negative because he was told to "wait". The landlord then told tenant "You should call because the service can be cut off and you might have your electricity cut off as tenant that lived in same apartment you now rent did not pay their PSE&G bill account."
Our tenant then called PSE&G and explained what landlord told him and gave the moving in date and was told not to be worried about the other tenant who lived in the apartment. That bill was not connected with theirs. Now the landlord begins asking the tenant to help pay the heating bill for property in the name of other tenants who lived there before his moving in date which totalled $950.00!
Our tenant replied to landlord saying that he would be more than happy to contribute his share, but he still didn't even have heat and if he were to pay a bill in someone else's name for a PSE&G account, why would he have to give it directly to the landlord or other tenant money orders. The tenant still was not receiving the legal amount of heat and the landord began to harass the tenant since he did not fall prey to the landlord's scam.
At the moving in date the landlord did not supply smoke detectors and the tenant had to ask for them from the local fire department after the landlord said they were going to install new ones but did not. After a while our tenant called the housing department because of the heat issues and now also possible health issues due to mold in the building that was now appearing on the wall and around the windows. After calling the housing department the new tenant was informed that the rental property was not registed as being rented by two separate families!
The landlord was not in possession of a "C/O" (certificate of occupancy) which is a form showing that the property is approved for rental. At the inspection time, the landlord was coming to meet the inspector at the building before the inspector arrived to attempt to hide things that could be cited for violation. Our tenant was not aware of this until they came home after the inspection and found that things had been moved around (to intimidate him and also to hide any damage). Some dirty dishes were put in the dish rack with the clean dishes and trash was put in the closet where our tenant kept his canned and other foods.