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My tenant has control of the heat in the basement, and I still occupy one small room in the basement. He does not pay for utilities and his gf keeps the heat at 80 degrees. It not only runs up my bill, but it makes the small room I still occupy, disgustingly hot and unuseable. I have been shutting off the "red emergency gas shutoff" switch. Is this bad to do? Does that valve control the whole house? just the basement? water heater or just the heat? Someone please help me out. Send me a message if at all possible with how this emergency shut off works. Much Thanks
Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 23 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,219 posts, read 17,095,590 times
Reputation: 15538
You can move the thermostat or have a limiter placed on the it by a heating company. The limiter prevents them from raising the heat beyond a certain setting. Verify with your town what the minimum temperature you are required to provide is. Here it's 67 degrees. For aprtments/rentals that provide/include heat this setting is the minimum the landlord must provide. If the tenant doesn't like it they can suppliment it with their own electric heaters.
If your boiler heats your hot water then yes, it also shuts that off, if not then no, its just the heat.
As a PP said, you can remove the thermostat from the apartment, even easier, I would leave it in place and install another one in series with it in your portion. Leave yours set at 70 (or whatever) and it will go no higher.
The gas emergency shut off switch will stop the flow of gas into the building. It will stop all gas appliances. Unless the appliance has an electric start you will have to re-light pilot lights to have the heat and or water heaters function when the gas is turned back on.
Move the thermostat and the problem will be solved and save some wear and tear on the appliances.
I've lived in apartments where the heat had to be set at 80. If the walls have little or no insulation, and cold air pools on the floor, those places can be miserable to live in. It is something you don't see when renting.
The first part of the solution is to make the tenant pay for the gas. If the landlord is living only in one small room in the basement, this is obvious. The second part is to have the metering split. However... I have a dozen donuts that I'll bet that this is an uninspected, illegal situation. In good consience, I can't advise more than that.
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