Power Bill Mystery: Tenants Find Circuit Breaker Surprise

NBC 5 Responds recoups $4,000 for renters

For months, Jason Domina could not figure out why the electric bills for his small apartment were so big. At first, the Rogers Park man thought Chicago’s erratic weather was behind the spike.

"We got one bill that said, ‘hey your expected usage this month is 480 percent of what it should be,’" Domina recalled.

It turns out the dramatic increase had nothing to do with nature, and everything to do with his circuit breaker box. Domina’s wife, Alana, saw it first: an unlabeled switch that was flipped “on.” When she flipped it “off,” the electric bills went down. A few months later, when the bills shot back up, the couple went right back to that box.

“That’s when my wife freaked out. She’s like, ‘I turned it off and someone came back in here and turned it back on,’” Domina told NBC 5 Responds. “That’s when we got really upset. Not to mention, who’s in my apartment? You know? It was kind of creepy.”

Domina says the only people who had access to that box inside their apartment was building management Peak Properties. The company sent in an electrician at the couple’s request.

"He's the one who ended up taking our panel off the wall, finding two large wires and a circuit breaker that weren't supposed to be there," Domina said.

The wires lead downstairs where they were connected to power for a large utility room directly beneath the Domina’s apartment.

"And he's like, ‘Yeah, you've been powering the maintenance mechanical area beneath your apartment,’" Domina said.

Furious, Domina called city inspectors who issued three building code violations related to this incident. The couple moved out of that building but say they can’t move on until they recoup the money they paid after shouldering the bills for the extra space below them for about 2 years.

The Domina’s calculated an overage on their part of more than $4,000 and asked Peak Properties to pay up.

"There's no excuse for my breaker box being connected to another breaker box to begin with,” Domina told NBC 5 Responds. “So that’s when I lost it and decided to contact you guys.”

After our calls, Peak Properties agreed to reimburse the couple $4,000. Peak says it took over the building in the middle of this mess and did not know the wiring was siphoning power off of the couple’s account.

The management company told NBC 5 Responds that the building code violations have now been resolved and the re-wiring was likely part of a previous owner’s duplex conversion.

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