A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 13, 2008
2. Supply –
More renters paying for water: Tenants and apartment landlords spar over who should pay for rising water costs.
The
By MARY ANN MILBOURN
Robert Blaylock received an unhappy surprise when he renewed the lease at his
The retiree and his wife had lived in the apartment eight years and never paid extra for water. But now they were being charged $35 more a month on top of their regular rent increase?
Even more galling to Blaylock was that the cost was apportioned based on the number of people living – or supposed to be living – in each unit rather than actual usage because the complex had only one master water meter.
Blaylock initially refused to pay, but ultimately relented. The water charge, however, still rankles.
Welcome to the new era of rent wars as landlords and tenants spar over rapidly escalating residential water costs, who should pay them and how they should be apportioned.
The issue is becoming even more urgent in drought-stricken
Cities across
Landlords have been able to recoup some of the water costs with rent increases. Apartment analytics firm RealFacts says
With water rates quickly eating a hole in their bottom line, landlords are looking to ways to pass the costs on to tenants.
But
And even if they concede a landlord is justified in passing on at least some of the added water costs, there is almost no way in a master-metered complex to apportion the cost in a way that seems fair to everyone.
"In a master-metered building, you don't know who is wasting water, taking 25 minute showers," says Stephen C. Duringer, a lawyer and landlord himself.
He says most landlords have already done as much as they can to save on water by installing high-efficiency toilets, low-flow shower heads and other conservation devices.
Some landlords have retrofitted their buildings with water meters for individual apartment units, but Duringer says more landlords are turning to resident utility billing systems also known as ratio utility billing systems or RUBS. Under these systems, landlords charge for water based on the number of people in the units, the number of rooms or square footage.
Landlords legally are allowed to charge separately for water provided they use an objective standard like unit size, says Duringer. They cannot, however, charge unreasonable administrative fees and they must give tenants at least a 30-day notice.
Ray Maggi, past president of the Apartment Association of Orange County, says few landlords use RUBS. Of the 2,300 units he oversees, only 300 have RUBS. That means most landlords must seek to offset costs directly through rent increases.
In addition to rising rates in general, apartments in some cities are getting hit with a tiered system under which the more water you use, the more you pay. Apartment owners say this may be fair for a single family residence but not for a master-metered building that may have 10, 20 or 100 apartments but is billed as if they were a single unit.
"We have a 160-unit apartment building which in two hours is going to use the same amount as a single family residence does in one month," Maggi says.
He sees unhappy times ahead.
"Sooner or later the unfairness is going to catch up with tenants and it's the 'greedy' landlord who's going to get blamed for it," Maggi says.#
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/water-landlords-says-2122145-apartment-tenants
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