Rental home costs couple, irks county

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Home sweet home it is not.

The problems at one Albuquerque couple’s South Valley rental house include a lack of power, huge electrical bills when the power is actually flowing and a ramshackle living space that may be dangerous.

“I don’t feel safe,” said Derick Garcia.

The problems began last fall when the electrical bills began to spike for unknown reasons, Garcia said.

"The heater in my daughter’s room it threw out sparks like crazy into the house," he said.

Their bill from PNM in September 2011 was $341, and the next month it was $280. But January’s bill of $463 was the highest, said Garcia displaying a record of his bills.

When the young couple couldn’t keep up with the payments and the bill ballooned to more than $1,000, PNM shut off the power April 4. But PNM didn’t stop there.  The company also pulled the electrical meter from the outside of the home, Garcia said.

"My kids are flipping the switches wondering why the lights ain't turning on," said Garcia, who lives with his girlfriend, Veronica Roberto, and their two young children.

The couple scraped together enough money to pay the bill and called PNM to get the power hooked up again.

"I told them, ‘We have the money; can we pay it? C an you get out here as soon as possible? I have kids?’” Garcia said. “They're like, ‘We took the meter for a reason because the wiring in the house is a fire hazard.’”

PNM told them the wiring needed to be fixed and that the substandard wiring could be the reason for the high electric bills. So the family lived without power for two months.

The couple told the landlord, but they said he just told them to take power from the neighbors. The two ran electrical cords throughout the house, out the window and plugged into the neighbors’ house.

And their's was not the only home on the lot without power. A mobile home just 10 yards away also appeared to be snagging power from a neighbor with a power cord running under the fence and into the mobile home's window.

Both properties and at least one other on the land are managed by Albert Bernal.

Bernal told KRQE News 13 that besides the couple being without power, he didn't see any other problems with his property. He also said nobody was living in the mobile home and wouldn’t be until it has power and running water.

But neighbors said a family is already living there. Pictures taken by neighbors showed laundry hanging outside and lights on at night.

We asked Nano Chavez, Bernalillo County’s planning and land use manager, about Garcia and Roberto’s living situation. She immediately sent out an inspector, who cited the owner for having the mobile home on the property.

"You're only allowed to have one single family dwelling on one lot," Chavez said.

And, she said, this isn't the first time the county has cited the owner for this problem.

"It appears that we sent a zoning inspector (in the) summer 2011,” Chavez said. “Unfortunately we never followed up.”

It's unclear why no follow-up was done, she said. Now, however, the county plans to follow up, and Chavez said she will track the problems on the property.

"That's a safety issue for those living there," Chavez said.

The county has given the owner until Oct. 25 to remove the mobile home. He may face more citations once inspectors look at the living conditions inside the other homes Bernal rents out, Chavez said.

The couple who were without power said PNM did turn the power back on Sept. 20 after they paid the bill and the wiring problems fixed.

The family hopes the landlord fixes the safety problems for another family because they expect to be evicted once News 13’s story airs.