electrical meter

[grigoriy30]

What is the name of your state? NY
We live in Rent Stabilized Apartment Building in Brooklyn. Electrical and Gas bills are included in our rent payments. Recently we receive from our landlord “Proposal to install New Meters”. As we understand from Fact Sheet #29 (Termination of Rent Inclusion of Electricity and Conversion from Master Metering to Individual Metering of Electricity with Direct Payment by the Tenant) there are two options: Direct Metering and Sub-metering. Our landlord sends us a letter to sign and he wants to do it by “Direct Metering”, but we would like to do it by “Sub-metering”. We would like “Sub-metering” because it will be cheaper for us (is it true?). What are our options, if any? Can we stop our landlord and/or ask him to change it to “Sub-metering” option? Thanks a lot for your help.

[HappyHusband]

Originally Posted by grigoriy30

Can we stop our landlord and/or ask him to change it to “Sub-metering” option?

You can always ask.

Submetering would be cheaper for you, but it would cost the landlord more money and more hassle.

[FarmerJ]

The only time you save money with submetered services is if the primary meter account is getting a large discount based on volume and the cost is passed to you. Your state public utility commision should be your best souce of information as to what your LLs options are. Just remember its up to your LL as to what route they go. Having tenants have to pay a utility directly to the utility itself is by far the easiest way for LLs to go since no one else has to handle unpaid accounts or disputes that arise when a tenant claims the meter is malfunctioning. In the future expect to see more and more rental units out there where the tenants have to pay ALL the utility cost since a tenant who doesnt waste utilitys now when they are included is the tenant who is subsidizing the ones who do waste them.