Woman denies tampering with electric meter

Edna Rhambo has a bill-collection agency after her for $244.94, an amount owed to Austin Energy for alleged "meter tampering" at her deceased brother´s house, which Rhambo sold recently. It doesn´t sit right with her.

"I didn´t tamper with that meter," Rhambo said. "I wouldn´t know how. The whole time that I had my brother´s house on the market, the electricity was shut off, and we´d show the house during the day."

She said she received the bill April 11, and the next day she got the notice from the collection agency, Municipal Services Bureau. The amount was due to Austin Energy on April 18. Rhambo says one week didn´t give her enough time to dispute the bill or pay it.

"On principle alone, I would pay it. I don´t want my good credit in jeopardy," she said.

Rhambo was one of the first African Americans to receive a bachelor of science in education from the University of Texas, in 1958, and she went on to have a 30-year teaching career. She decided to fight City Hall on this one.

According to the Austin Energy statement, dated March 25, the bill was for a meter-tampering fee, a broken-seal fee, labor and support, and electricity meter damage for a house in the Delwood neighborhood in Northeast Austin.

The house belonged to Rhambo´s brother, who died in 1996. Rhambo has been handling his affairs.

The letter from Municipal Services said that Rhambo had 30 days to confirm or protest the bill.

"I called right away," Rhambo said. "I was referred to Austin Energy, where I spoke with Bridgette Guyton, a customer services manager, who told me I was liable because I was the last person listed on the account. She said, ´We have to charge someone,´" Rhambo said.

Rhambo said she asked Guyton whether there had been any energy consumption. "She said there wasn´t and that the charge was for meter tampering," she said.

Rhambo didn´t like that. She says she´s kept documentation on everything. That includes records that she briefly turned on electricity in March 2010 for a home inspection and went through Austin Energy to do it.

Rhambo says she paid two bills: $54.78 on April 1 and $21.34 on April 6. "When I got that final bill of $21.34, it closed the account; I thought it was done. The electricity was shut off," she said.

Rhambo´s agent on her brother´s house, Kelvin Glover of Keller Williams Realty, also thinks the electricity at Rhambo´s house remained off while the house was for sale.

"And, no, I never turned on the electricity," Glover said. "But it´s possible another agent may have turned on power while it was for sale. The house was on the market for a year."

Glover referred Statesman Watch to Reed Henderson of Sunny Day Real Estate, who represented the new buyer of Rhambo´s brother´s house. Henderson said he also thinks the electricity remained off except for a short period in March, when the property underwent a home inspection as part of the sale. "The man we use for home inspections would not have tampered with the meter," he said.

Henderson said the home mortgage lender´s appraiser also had access to Rhambo´s brother´s house.