To Councilmember Bob Blumenfield,

We, the tenants of Versailles Apartments in Woodland Hills, have united to form a tenants’ association with the support of the Debt Collective. We are writing to formally request a meeting with you and to ask for your leadership in addressing serious and ongoing abuses related to Ratio Utility Billing Systems (RUBS) in Los Angeles—particularly in non-RSO buildings, where tenants currently lack meaningful protections.

Why We Are Reaching Out

At Versailles Apartments, tenants are charged excessive and opaque utility fees through RUBS. These charges are imposed without sufficient transparency, accountability, or tenant control, and they function as de facto rent increases in buildings not covered by the Rent Stabilization Ordinance.

Tenants receive monthly bills from a company called Conservice for water, trash, pest, and sewer without access to the underlying data or documentation needed to verify the accuracy or fairness of those charges. Despite repeated concerns by tenants for many years, management has failed to provide clear explanations of how costs are calculated, allocated, or adjusted.

California courts have made clear that when a lease requires tenants to share costs with a landlord, tenants have the right to inspect the underlying basis for those charges. In McClain v. Octagon Plaza, LLC (2008) 159 Cal.App.4th 784, 808, the Court held that tenants disputing pass-through costs—such as utilities—are entitled to access the invoices and documentation supporting those charges.

Ongoing Issues at Versailles Apartments

Tenants are seeking clarity and accountability around the following issues, which management has not adequately addressed:

• Access to LADWP, LASAN bills and any other utilities provider or vendor for the property

• How utility costs are apportioned between Equity Residential and tenants, and what data supports those percentages

• Whether landlord-controlled usage (pools, laundry rooms, maintenance, leasing offices) is properly excluded from tenant charges

• How vacancies affect tenant utility costs and whether vacant units unfairly inflate charges for occupied units

• How serious leaks or infrastructure failures—clearly the landlord’s responsibility—are reflected (or not reflected) in tenant bills

• The volume of water used by pools and common areas relative to total building usage

Based on our lived experience and comparisons with other Los Angeles tenants, we believe that Versailles residents are paying significantly more in utilities than is typical or reasonable.

Why RUBS Requires City Action

RUBS systems charge tenants for collective usage over which they have no individual control. One household’s conservation efforts do not result in lower bills if others consume more. This lack of control, combined with opacity and weak oversight, makes RUBS ripe for abuse—especially in non-RSO buildings where landlords can shift costs without triggering rent increase protections.

In practice, these charges operate as unregulated rent increases and, in our case, may also constitute unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices under consumer protection laws.

A Pattern of Abuse Requiring Citywide Enforcement

With the support of organizations such as the Debt Collective and the Los Angeles Tenants Union, we have firsthand knowledge that the issues tenants are experiencing at Versailles Apartments are not isolated.

Across Los Angeles, tenants living in multiple buildings owned and managed by Equity Residential have reported remarkably similar experiences with RUBS utility billing: excessive and fluctuating charges, lack of access to underlying utility bills, cost-shifting of landlord-controlled usage onto tenants, and prolonged resistance or silence when tenants request legally required documentation.

Tenants who have organized and fought back—often at great personal and financial cost—have already uncovered evidence of these malpractices and, in some cases, obtained partial financial relief. However, these outcomes have only been achieved building by building, after months of organizing, strikes, legal pressure, and public exposure.

One building recovering money is not enough.

These practices continue across a landlord’s portfolio, in both RSO and non-RSO buildings. Tenants should not be forced to organize individually to stop unlawful conduct or to recover money that should never have been taken in the first place. What is urgently needed is citywide action to ban RUBS in all residential buildings, enforce existing consumer protection laws, and ensure that tenants can recover improperly charged funds.

Our Request

We respectfully request:

1. A meeting with you to discuss the conditions at Versailles Apartments and the broader implications of RUBS abuse in your district

2. Your leadership and support in one of the following:

   • Championing legislation or ordinances to ban RUBS outright in Los Angeles, or

   • Advancing and enforcing strict, enforceable parameters on RUBS—particularly to protect tenants in non-RSO buildings from abuse, opacity, and cost-shifting

We also ask that you support stronger transparency requirements, tenant access to billing documentation, and meaningful enforcement mechanisms.

Closing

Tenants should not be punished for living in buildings outside the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. Utility billing must be fair, transparent, and accountable—and it is within the City’s power to ensure that it is.

We appreciate your attention to this issue and look forward to the opportunity to meet with you and your team. We are also sharing this letter with Councilmember Nithya Raman, Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee.

Thank you for your time and your service to the residents of Los Angeles.

Respectfully,

Tenants of Versailles Apartments
Woodland Hills, CA
(with the support of the Debt Collective + LA Tenants Union)