I just moved into a new place, and the phone jack in the bedroom didn’t work. The phone company said it wasn’t covered under the service plan ( someone had cut the line outside ) and I had to pay $90 for the guy to come out and run a new line from the box to the bedroom. The question is this: Who shold pay that, me or my landlord?
If it was an apatment complex or something, I would make them pay, no question. I am renting a house from people who are friends, however, and don’t really want to raise a fuss. What would your advice be? Pay? Ask them to pay? Maybe split the bill? It’s not worth creating an adversarial tennent/landlord relationship, but it really should be their responsibility to have everything working, shouldn’t it?
This could be a problem. You have entered a business deal with personal friends. You know your friends better than anybody here. (I suppose) So I think you should know what is best. If it were me I would tell them about the extra expense to have your phone hooked up but not demand payment, just hope they will offer. Then when they didn’t read my mind I would let resentment build towards them and myself for being such a wimp that obviously deserved such lousey friends, not that they really like me they just pity me enough to have me live with them as long as I pay rent but, but,
In my area, it’s the responsibility of the tenant to pay for any line work (relacement/installment) inside/outside of the home. Unless you had a prior agreement with you landlord, its your phone and your bill. I’d start off on the right foot and pay it myself!
We had a similar thing happen. We had been living in the house about 6 months when our water tank blew up and the phone stopped working on the same day.
My landlord paid for the new water tank and paid to have the phone lines redone. Here, in Ontario, it’s up to the landlord to pay for line work.
The phone company offers to cover all of your wiring for only a couple of bucks a month, pole to phone. Since there is seldom trouble in the house, you generally don’t need to get this service.
I get it anytime I move, though. Saves me the $90 if something crops up. Two or three months later, when you know everything is good, you can drop it.
Give that $90 is a serious overcharge for the work and materials involved, I think it’s your responsibility. If I was the landlord, there is no way I would pay anyone $90 to do the work. You should have consulted the landlord ahead of time. It could have been done much, much cheaper and then splitting the cost wouldn’t have been an issue.
$90.00 is about right for a phone company visit. That is, it’s a ruinous gouge, but it’s what the bastards charge. It’s sort of the “shipping and handling” of the phone company – it’s how they make the big bucks.
I’d say that if there was any working phone jack in the house, then the landlords have probably satisfied their obligation. You want a phone jack in the bedroom, then you can run one or pay for it.
I’m a bit confused when you say someone had “cut the line outside”. The phone company usually covers work leading up to the house. Or is this some sort of kluge where the line was run outside rather than having to snake it through the walls?
It looks like you haven’t asked the owners yet. Maybe you should ask them first? Call them.
“Hi, in order to call you or for you to call me, I had to have the phone company work on the phone
lines & it cost $90.00…”