Marguerita Steele had a surprise when she ripped open her electric bill late last month.

An extra $600 tacked onto her $88 bill.

"I was totally shocked," the Post Falls woman said on Friday.

And a little upset.

Especially since she hadn't used that $600 worth of power.

The extra charge was actually the debt belonging to her new tenant, Rick Blake, carried over from his previous home.

"I called Kootenai Electric and asked them, 'Why do I have this?' and they said, well, because I have somebody living with me who owed them money," she said. "Since he's living with me and utilizing the power, that I am responsible to pay his bill."

That didn't seem right, Steele said.

"I don't think I should have to pay somebody else's debt," she said.

Neither does Kootenai Electric, according to a call she got weeks later.

The situation was unexpectedly resolved on Friday afternoon, when a utility employee assured her that her bill was being adjusted back to $88.

Steele is happy, she said - but still curious.

"They said it was an old, outdated policy," she said. "But I'm wondering, what if this is happening to somebody else?"

Steele, 47, had invited Blake to live in her basement earlier this year, when a friend explained his difficult living arrangements in a Hauser trailer.

When he moved in last month, the arrangement worked for both parties.

He had shelter and a yard for his dogs while he tried to get back on his feet. He paid rent by fixing up Steele's basement.

Meanwhile, Steele and her 11-year-old son had a man in the house to offer protection, she said.

"I work every day. My son is home," the single mother explained. "He (Blake) comes and goes, so he checks on my son to make sure everything is OK."

Blake gave Kootenai Electric his new address, assuring that eventually he would pay his previous charges.

He was just as surprised as Steele, she said, when the company charged the debt to her.

"He said, 'Meg, I'll move out right now. I'm so sorry this is happening,'" she remembered.

But she told him to stay.

After all, she said, he had nowhere else to go.

"I know he's not making the money to pay for a place to live," she said.

Then another letter came in the mail: If the bill wasn't paid by Aug. 22, the house's electricity would be shut off.

Steele couldn't pay if she wanted to, she said.

"I have a hard enough time trying to pay my bills," said Steele, who works at Washington Trust Bank.

It was stressing her out for days, she said, constantly mulling over her next step. For the first time, she had to be put on blood pressure medication.

And then the call came on Friday afternoon.

No extra charge, after all. The company's policy had changed.

What can she say? The problem has been wiped away.

"It relieves a lot of pressure off my back," she said.

But Steele still worries others might face the same debacle.

"What if it's some little old lady?" she said.

That's very unlikely, said Erika Neff, KE spokesperson.

Although the company doesn't discuss specific customers' situations, she said, tacking a tenant's debt onto a landlord's bill isn't KE policy.

"If something like that did happen, we would take the necessary steps to see that mistake corrected," she said.

When an individual moves to a new address, Neff said, the utility mails the final bill, or transfers the old balance to the new address, if it is on KE lines.

KE has gained new management over the last year and a half, Neff added. She couldn't speak to what occurred prior to that transition.

"We don't know of that happening in any other case," she said of one individual's debt added to another's bill. "We don't have any other examples. It's not a common complaint."

If customers have billing issues, Neff added, she encourages they call KE to work it out.

"We always like to talk to members about their bill, if they have concerns," she said.