More re: Fortis billing

I too live in a "condo" unit.  Actually it's an apartment building that stratified roughly 5 or 6 years ago, so it's now classified as condos though the structure of the building itself is +30yr old apartment-style construction.  When Fortis took over from Citrix to handle Kelowna city utilities, my billing shot up by over $25/mo!  My building's strata refuses to let me into the utility room so I can verify that the building itself has it's own meter separate from the suites and Fortis won't let me in in spite of their meter-readers having full access from the exterior of the building!  Some of the months during the early part of the take-over were more than a $50 difference, particularly in the spring after the two winter billings were sent.  My March billing of that year (which you get a month or so later) was higher with no electricity going through the heat registers than the original billing that encompassed October and November when they first took over!  I told them that we had the heat off since the beginning of March, but we had the heat ON in November, yet the March invoice was higher than the November invoice!  They tried to argue watt-usage, which I was already arguing, against me. I was trying to tell them that the watt-usage was higher than it should be and I wanted to find out why!

Unfortunately for me, when strata found out about my frustration and efforts to get into the utility room, that summer would be the first time our floor did not have A/C running in the hallway and the following winter would be the first time our floor did not have heat in the hallway.  The hallway has been this way now for a second summer as well and this coming winter will be the second winter since I tried to complain.  This would appear to me to be a silent agreement that the building doesn't have its own electrical meter and that the suites in the building are to varying degrees, assuming responsibility for heating/AC and lighting out in the public areas such as hallways, stairwells, elevator, lobby, fire alarm, etc.  I have noticed "some" drop in my bi-monthly invoices, but not enough to bring it back down to my budgeted ability to pay.  I am therefore over $500 overdue now due to the first two months where I was trying to fight this (I wasn't going to pay for something I didn't use nor that was correctly reported) and a month last year and a month this year when I missed my monthly instalments.

My point here is that the elevated usage Ian is complaining about may not be entirely on Fortis' end.  It could be on the "condo’s” end as well, With neither party owning up to the situation.  I don't believe Fortis is reporting accurately either, as they have admitted to the fact that one month is estimated and one month read and that they "correct" for any abhorrent "readings".  I highly doubt they are doing that or my spring/summer/fall billings would be quite a bit less than my winter billings, and they haven't dropped as much as they should!

Marilynn Dawson