Imagine renting an apartment that has an outside patio where there is an electrical outlet. What would you do if a construction crew was doing some work on the apartment complex and plugged their equipment into your electrical outlet? Would you think nothing of it or complain?

In this story, one renter is in this situation, and he’s furious that the crew is using his outlet, an outlet that he pays the electric bill for. He complains multiple times to multiple people, but it takes two power outages before anyone takes his complaints seriously.

I know I’d be really upset if I were the tenant in this situation. Keep reading for all the details and to see if you think the tenant handled this situation well or not.

AITA for a angrily calling my apartment complex after the third party construction workers kept using my electricity for other apartments’ repair?

So for the past 3-4 weeks there has been a third party construction company replacing doors, stairs, and other external pieces of the apartments.

Most of the apartments do not have power outlets outside but mine does and it’s right next to my front door. It’s also on the same circuit as my TV, home server, desktop, and multiple other expensive electronic devices.

There is also a building that the apartment uses for storage which has power a few doors down from mine.

They really shouldn’t be using a tenant’s electricity.

The workers plugged their extension cord to my power outlet and ran it to their tools (about a 100 foot extension cord and about 20 different power tools plugged in to it). Connected for about 10 hours per day.

When I first saw this I called the apartment and asked if they would be compensating me for the use of my electricity.

They said the amount used was negligible.

I got upset and hung up.

At least the construction workers seem nice.

Later that night, they went to unplug the tools and it flipped a breaker.

The worker was nice about it and apologized.

And I asked why they didn’t use the complex’s power instead of mine.

They didn’t speak English very well so they didn’t understand the question.

At least the office is kind of coming around.

The next day they plugged in to my outlet again and I went outside and found some of the maintenance staff that is on the apartments team rather than third party and explained the situation to them.

They told me that I could contact the office with my complaint.

So I did.

This time they said they’d pay the difference in my bill compared to last month’s bill.

It got worse.

The next 2 days were uneventful. Using my power but there was nothing I could do.

Then they plugged in again and my power immediately went out.

Went outside angrily and yelled at the workers (both third party and staff were outside at this time) because I had brought this up a few times at this point.

They apologized and said they had been drawing power from multiple people not just mine (this is a lie. I walked around the complex looking to see if they were using other peoples power on the first day and saw only mine being used).

I’d be really frustrated too!

The next morning after this they plugged in to mine again.

What do you know the breaker flips and my power goes off (this is now three unplanned power offs of my home server that I use for development and file storage and other uptime-sensitive things)

I called the office once more this time furious asking if they’re going to be replacing all my electronics because this problem has been presented to them and they’ve done nothing about it.

They sent the third party company’s project manager to talk to me. He apologized and told me it wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t have so many devices plugged in to MY POWER THAT IM PAYING FOR).

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Finally!

He moved the plug to the one that is paid for by the apartment complex.

The workers continued working.

It hasn’t been a problem since.

They never should’ve used the tenant’s power in the first place, especially after he complained multiple times.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a townhome owner who is at his wit’s end with the noise from next door.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person is on OP’s side.

Another person would be upset.

Nobody thinks the crew should’ve used OP’s outlet.

On the first day, maybe the crew just plugged in their equipment at whatever outlet they found, but after OP complained the first time, the office should’ve made sure they used a different outlet instead of playing it off as no big deal. It’s definitely a big deal! In fact, it’s a huge problem when their equipment keeps knocking out your power! OP should try to negotiate a rent deduction for the next month due to the inconvenience.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who reported some missionaries after frustration over lack of parking boils over.