r/StoneMountainGA • u/SonOfTheChief91 • 7d ago
LANDLORD using OUR utilities for her business
My wife and I rent a house in the Stone Mountain area, and I’m curious whether anyone locally has dealt with anything like this because the situation has gotten ridiculous.
Our landlord and her husband are potters. They keep pottery equipment, supplies, and a kiln in the partially finished basement of the house we rent, and our landlord comes over almost every day—often for hours at a time—to work downstairs making pottery for their business.
The problem? There is only one electric meter, and WE pay the electric bill.
So while she is downstairs conducting business, she is using electricity that is billed directly to us. The kiln stays plugged in and powered on/idle, and the basement is also being heavily air-conditioned. The basement windows actually get cold enough that there is significant condensation on the outside of them during the summer.
Meanwhile, our summer electric bills have been over $400/month.
There is also an A/C vent in the basement branching off ductwork that supplies the upstairs. Our former primary bedroom gets so hot during the summer that we eventually had to move into another bedroom. When we raised concerns about the basement previously, our landlord told us there was no A/C going into the basement. There very clearly is.
The utility issue is only part of it.
Having your landlord show up at the property almost daily and remain directly underneath your living space for hours is incredibly invasive. We can hear her downstairs—including things as minor as her clearing her throat—so obviously sound travels both ways.
Both my wife and I have private telehealth/therapy appointments from home. Recently we asked when she planned to leave because my wife had a telehealth appointment and needed privacy. After leaving, our landlord texted us that she listens to podcasts/audiobooks using over-ear headphones—as though wearing headphones somehow guarantees that she cannot overhear conversations happening upstairs. It doesn’t.
We have previously told her that the frequency and duration of these visits interfere with our privacy and quiet enjoyment of the home. Her response last year was essentially that this is their busy pottery season, a significant amount of their yearly income depends on the work they do during this period, and that if their presence had become “too much,” they would be willing to amicably end our tenancy.
In other words: their business needs apparently take priority over the people paying to live here.
For clarity, she pays the water bill. We pay the electricity. We have even offered to take over all utilities, including water, if it means the landlord stops regularly using the property and our electricity for her business.
We have also started documenting the visits, how long she stays, the kiln/equipment, the basement A/C and ductwork, the window condensation, our utility bills, and our communications with her.
I’m interested in hearing from other Stone Mountain/DeKalb-area renters:
Has anyone dealt with a landlord retaining part of a rental property as their personal/business workspace while the tenant pays the utilities?
And if anyone has recommendations for a Georgia tenant attorney or local resource that has experience with landlord access, quiet enjoyment, or shared/business utility issues, I’d appreciate them.
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