Rules That Houston Apartment Communites Must Follow Regarding Master Metered BIlls

By apr7777 | Jun 7, 2010 | 0 Comments | Rating: 0

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During the last few years there have been some interesting trends that apartment communities have been a part of. Many apartment communities have been switching from the all bills paid business model to a metered bill model. This is usually the case with larger apartment communities in Houston, TX. Using the metered bill model, the apartment community is no longer responsible for paying for utilities like electricity. The residents are responsible for paying their monthly utility bills directly to the utility company.

The only issue has been that there are additional costs that will need to be incurred by the community in order to switch to the individually metered units. And because of this, residents may actually end up paying more for their share, and units cannot be divided equally. If your in the market for an apartment community, you will want to make sure and pick a complex that follows the rules.

Master Metered Apartment Communities

If a resident chooses to live in a master-metered community, there are certain rules that must be followed. The rental agreement must specifically state how the property owner intends to allocate the monthly bill, and also provide a statement of the average costs for the unit in the preceding calendar year. The apartment community may not charge more than the statement of the bill, and the apartment community must maintain records that can be provided to the resident if he or she chooses to view a copy of them. And lastly, the bill must be separated from the rent.

There are also rules that apply directly to water. If the property owner wishes to allocated monthly costs directly to the residents, they must also follow specific rules. They community must disclose the following information in the lease agreement:

• The resident will pay for water on a certain allocated time frame

• The resident may verify the bill

• The averages over the last calendar year

• The issue dates of the bills and when they are due

• How the property allocated the bills

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