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Comment by zachlatta | Hacker News Reader

Yes, but this is how you get evicted.

And I can attest to learning this lesson personally in 2012.

lol, sorry, but how long until your landlord contacted you? What was the conversation like? I'd would have said, sorry running servers for my internet business.

> I'd would have said, sorry running servers for my internet business.

Why do you think that would have helped? The landlord cares about the fact that he/she is paying more money because power consumption is high, not about why power consumption is high.

The landlord will very much care if the reason you're using so much power in your residence is that you're running an energy-intensive business there. In many states this would give the landlord really solid grounds to toss you out immediately, especially compared to the situation where you're just suddenly using more power because you just like to set your AC to 60F in the summer, for instance.

Do many people live in units where electricity is provide as a gratis benefit? That was never my experience in California, Washington, D.C., nor in Virginia.

It can be rather common when a unit isn't in high demand.

Electricity is rather cheap in Washington because we have plentiful hydro power from the Grand Coulee Dam. See: http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/204.htm

Not really uncommon if you're renting in a house that's been split up to several rental units. I've mostly seen it with water, but gas and electric service can be done that way too.

Yea, it's usually when things weren't set up properly to be a rental. It's painful for the landlord because then people don't pay attention to usage, and they're assuming extra liability for someone who might run up the bill and then skip.

One of my college apartments in California was like that. But I've never seen it anywhere else. On the other hand, I've never had to pay my own water bill in an apartment -- only power and gas.

Besides, there's no way it's really free -- it's accounted for in the monthly rent. If you use less power than average, you are probably better off paying for it yourself.

it's common in college dorms. It is also usually against the law for a landlord to charge for electricity unless each unit has an individual meter. So if they are subdividing a house into multiple units it may not be economical to install per unit meters. In cases like that electricity is included.

And your landlord would have said they're renting you living space, not office space. Of course, you could always offer to put a meter on the servers, and pay them the difference.

It's somewhat disheartening that you've founded two businesses, yet you're looking to the letter instead of the spirit of the agreement.

A lease can have a clause forbidding commercial use of the property.

I've lived in a few house shares where power/bills are all included in rent, but the contract forbids running a business from the premises. I assume they wouldn't particularly care if I had a small software business or whatever, but if the servers were in the house and they were getting billed they most definitely would.

And then you'd get evicted, and rightly so. You are in no way entitled to have your landlord fund your cryptocurrency speculation.

You'd also get monitored for a being a likey weed grower.

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