Utility bills are out of control. Corporate landlords are making a killing through opaque billing practices. We have a chance to change this in the City of Los Angeles!
The Los Angeles City Council is debating whether or not to make Ratio Utility Billing Systems, or RUBS, illegal. RUBS is increasingly being used by landlords across the country to extract more money from tenants through opaque billing formulae and inexplicable fees.
While the City of L.A. is considering banning RUBS in many apartment buildings, the proposal would leave hundreds of thousands of tenants unprotected—and greenlight a one-off, permanent increase in the rents of thousands of tenants. We demand more!
What Is RUBS?
RUBS is a corporate landlord scam designed to force tenants to pay for building-wide utility bills we can't control. It hides rent hikes in your utility bill — functioning as one of the most widespread hidden utility junk fees in rental housing. With RUBS, tenants do not pay for the utilities (water, sewer, trash, etc.) they actually use in their own apartments. Instead, landlords charge tenants a portion of the alleged total utility costs of the entire building according to a formula.
Landlords use RUBS in buildings where there is a single utility meter rather than individual or submeters for each apartment tracking actual use per unit. Tenants often pay hundreds of dollars per month in utilities without having any control over their costs. Landlords refuse to provide transparency when tenants ask for it.
Why Is RUBS Bad?
-
Tenants often pay hundreds of dollars per month in utilities without having any control over their costs. You are paying for a portion of the building’s - and sometimes even the landlord's entire real estate portfolio's - total utility usage, rather than for the amount of utilities you actually use. If you are very careful about conservation, you could still be paying the same amount as someone who runs the shower all day.
-
Landlords often use RUBS to mislead and confuse tenants when they are signing their leases. You don’t know at the time you’re signing a lease how much you will actually be paying
-
Tenants can’t access utility assistance programs. If tenants are “customers of record,” then they can qualify for programs if they are low-income or fall behind on payments. In buildings where RUBS is used, they are not eligible for those programs.
-
Landlords often refuse to show tenants the bills. They refer tenants to a third-party like Conservice or Livable, and then those third parties say they can’t show the bills for privacy reasons. In some buildings, tenants with newer leases have RUBS and tenants with older leases don’t. How do tenants know that the landlord is truly paying for the utilities for the older tenants, rather than simply charging it to the new tenants?
-
You may be paying more for things that are the landlord’s fault. If the landlord is slow to fill vacancies, you might be paying more because of that: the total building utilities usage is divided among fewer tenants.
-
Landlords have no financial incentive to make repairs or invest in improvements that would conserve water and lower utility costs. For example, in one RUBS building, tenants discovered—after organizing—that many toilets were constantly leaking. The landlord had never investigated the issue before, because tenants were paying for all of the excess water usage.
-
There is no clear or effective way for tenants to dispute RUBS charges. Tenants are often bounced between building managers, landlords, third-party billing companies, and utility providers—receiving no answers until they begin organizing collectively.
What Do We Want
Right now, hundreds of tenants across L.A. are getting together to demand that the City of Los Angeles take stronger action than is currently being proposed by the city's Housing Department (LAHD). Working with the Debt Collective and the L.A. Tenants Union, tenants are demanding the City:
- Ban RUBS on All New Tenancies: The L.A. Housing Department is currently proposing only banning RUBS on new tenancies in rent stabilized apartments. However, the City has the power to ban RUBS for all tenancies, whether or not they are rent stabilized. It should not shy from acting to protect everyone!
- Ban RUBS in Existing Rent Stabilized Tenancies: We support the City's current proposal to ban RUBS for rent stabilized tenants who have RUBS in their existing tenancies
- Enhance Transparency Requirements: For those non-rent stabilized tenants who have RUBS now and will remain with RUBS, we want the city to adopt much stronger transparency requirements to prevent fraudulent charges
- Avoid Passthrough Charges: LAHD is currently proposing allowing landlords to pass on one-off, but permanent rent increases to rent stabilized tenants who currently have RUBS. We believe this merely rewards fraudulent behaviour and call on the City to reject this proposal!
Take Action Now
You can take action now by using this form to send an email to City Council supporting our calls for stronger action. After you have finished, you will also see instructions on how to submit online public comment in support of our efforts. It's quick, easy and critically important!