Originally Posted by
Coffeemadman
Um... absolutely a power company should be refunding any payments for energy made when the power goes out. I'm kind of surprised that even the US doesn't have basic rights like this.
In fact power companies are legally required to protect the most vulnerable (at least in the UK) and in extreme cases that can be paying for hotels. Granted, most of this will be done by the local authority but it can be done by an energy company too.
Heck, when my apartment building lost power for 2 months the building owners funded £200 per night hotel costs, £50 per person per day food costs, 2x daily taxis to and from the building to pick up items, and weekly laundry costs despite the issue not being their fault - it's what they pay insurance for and it covers this.
This may well be a US vs European sort of thing however, given the responses from US posters.
I Think it is less of "a US vs European sort of thing" and more of "a two completely different scenarios thing".
There was nowhere else for OP to have been put up. When a tornado wipes out the power lines in a region, with thousands of people without power, there is no hotel to put everyone up in. The OP conceded there was nowhere else to go. The OP just wants the hotel to give him a refund for the natural disaster that it kept him safe from.
I'm not sure what "basic rights" you are referring to, but magic to immediately restore power during a natural disaster is not one in any country I'm aware of.