Community Chat

[Laura14]

@CelticCrafter  Thanks!  I was thinking I could always prepay part of the lease too which I hate to do in case they don't hold up their end of the contract but, for a year, it could be done.  

[CrazyDaisy]

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@Cakers3 wrote:

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@CrazyDaisy wrote:

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@Cakers3 wrote:

There seems to be some confusion about water meters.

Yes, a complex will have one meter since the water bill is in the name of the complex.

In @Laura14 's case I'm reading that the ONE meter the city/town uses to bill the complex for water will be used by management to assess each individual apartment's share.

So the # of gallons per month on that one meter will be divided up among all the units; the issue is does everyone pay the same portion of # of gallons or are they billed by # of persons in the unit.

For complexes passing along a portion of the water bill, a separate monthly bill to each tenant. will be issued.

It depends upon how the lease is written; whether the tenant will receive a bill each month for his/her share of water or is water is included in the rent.

Individual water meters may not be the norm but are showing up more and more with newer construction.  It would cost a fortune for an established complex to install individual water meters; thus the complex uses some type of prorated  formula to recoup some of the cost of water.  Whether it is factored into the rent or issued as a separate monthly bill depends upon how the complex wants to handle the water bill.

Again, this is what happens in my area.

With increasing costs of a growing population I am not surprised to see complexes issuing separate monthly bills for water; the cost of providing water to everyone is soaring.  Evident by our water bill at our house.

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Separate monthly bills seldom work, people just don't pay them.  They cannot evict because you didn't pay the water bill and it is in the complex name so you are not responsible.  Most places around me simply itemize the monthly chargers on the lease.  It is a set amount for the life of your lease.  Makes the rent look lower

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@CrazyDaisy  If it is outlined in the lease then the tenant has to pay and will be reflected on his/her credit report, to start, if they let those bills lapse. 

I never said a word about eviction, either.

Again, this is what happens in MY area which I have clearly indicated each time I post about this issue.

Everyone has a different story; and I'm not going to keep going around with this-your area is not my area.

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Good Grief, I was not contriducting anything you said. 

The complex I live tried individual billing as well as rules in the lease....it did not work.  Complex is responsible for the water bill.  It is now just an itemized line used in the calculation of the tenants monthly rent.

Sorry I tried to add some thing to the conversation,  I will ignor your comments in the future.

[Maggie Nolia]

About that water formula thing, which seems like a mess, I would ask how that formula is applied.  If it's by total number of apartments and you're one person in a one-bedroom apartment, then you're subsidizing residents of three-bedroom apartments who may number from three to six, for example.  More people = more water usage.

Seems owners would save themselves and tenants a lot of headaches by including water in the rent.

[Toppers3]

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@Spurt wrote:

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@Laura14 wrote:

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@Cumbercookie13 wrote:

I may be looking for an apartment within the next month or so if my house is purchased by a flipping group. This would be the first time I would be renting. I would prefer a private owner because they usually tend to cover water and sewer, and some will also do snow removal and grass cutting if the property has a yard. I'm trying to avoid yard maintenance and snow removal because it will be just me, have no pets.

I used to work for a non-profit that housed the homeless in an apartment complex and we also did regular rentals so I have some knowledge of costs, rules & regulations, but when you're doing it yourself, it's quite different. 

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@Cumbercookie13  I have never done a private owner.  My only concern with that is you need to have a responsible one.  Watch me get the lone person who doesn't respond to maintenance calls when needed.  I can see my episode of Judge Judy now.  I wonder if there is a way to vet them as well as they do us.  

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@Laura14

The private owners would scare me too I like to watch the Peoples Court and Judge Judy and there have been quite a few cases where private owners didnt take care of maintenance issues---heater/A/C or bug and rodent issues.....

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We've lucked out with private owners so far.

They've taken care of maintenance issues.

Our recent landlords have been doing a gradual sale to another private owner who has a property management company who also owns other rentals.

He is a very nice man, and seems to be pretty laid-back. If you need something taken care of, he'll have a maintenance man here to take care of it for you within a reasonable amount of time.

I always allow time for parts/items having to be ordered, etc., when it comes to any kind of maintenance needing to be done for a large item--maintenance concern--if it's like a dishwasher repair, oven repair, or something like that.

It hasn't been a problem so far. He has owned our property for about two years or so now--I think.

We have to pay our own electric bills. Everything is electric. Our building--and its sister building--were built around 30 years ago. There are two floors to our building, and every unit has two bedrooms. 

The units are different sizes.

Heat is not included, but trash and water are included. Everyone has their own independent electric meter hooked up to their unit.

You pay for your own phone and cable. The building is cable-ready.

Most people have cable, but we gave it up due to the cost, and have a digital TV on an indoor antenna that gets a few stations, since we're pretty rural here and inbetween larger cities for station pick-up.

We're allowed to have two cats maximum, as pets, and there is a monthly cat fee but no one-time pet security deposit.

You are allowed two parking spaces at no cost for your cars in the outside lot. You can also rent a garage for an extra monthly fee, and then you would get one free outside space then for your other car, if you have two cars.

Each unit contains a dishwasher, a garbage disposal, and a wall unit air conditoner, wall-to-wall carpeting, and blinds on all of the windows/balcony/patio doors.

They take care of all building-related maintenance, like cutting the grass, and snow removal, and so on.

You have to take out your own trash to the dumpsters. We are required to sort our own trash for recycling. There are recycling dumpsters outside, too. 

[Toppers3]

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@ccassaday wrote:

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@Laura14 wrote:

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@Spurt wrote:

@Laura14

One of my co-workers used to live in a place near the office that was designed more like a townhouse...she told us they did have one common meter for electric and divided the bill into how many apartments were rented....She hated it because she saw her neighbors that had kids leave their sliding glass door open in the middle of summer which ran up everyone's bill, while she put her thermostat at 78 and tried to conserve.  She got tired of the high utility bills and moved.  Even though her commute was a bit longer she saved a lot on her electric bill...........

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@Spurt  And there is my fear, right there.  I'm hoping the one bedroom apartments don't really have the kids (they usually don't) and they run up the 2 and 3 bedroom rentals instead.  

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Beware if there is kids and they are on the second floor it will be noisy. The 2 yo above us was running around by 645 every morning. Maybe you could find one level apartments where there is no second or third floors.

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Yes, that's definitely something to consider regarding noise.

It's just my husband and me renting our unit. We don't have any children.

Our downstairs neighbor says that she never hears us regarding any noise, except that she can hear us walking around sometimes, since we're directly above her unit.

She'll joke around and ask us if we're "still alive," because we're so quiet.  

The newer condo or townhouse-style apartments would be nice. You just have someone next to you, but not above you, so you might hear them through the wall/s. 

Our landlord would try and put renters with children on the first floor whenever possible, so that there would be less noise if the children were going to be playing/moving around.

We also have large common yard areas that they could play in, so if anyone had/has children, they would go and play out there. 

[Stray]

I am in Northern NJ across from NYC.....we sold our house and moved to a condo and inclusions/exclusions can vary block to block.  In my complex, heat, ac, parking, pool and gym are included in maintenance so I have no surprises.  We are an all electric, pet friendly building with no pet fees.  In surrounding buildings, most have a move in pet fee or monthly charge, most utilities and parking are not included and parking can go as high as $150 per month per space.   Most there are no charges for amenities.   

I think it varies where you are in the Country and the individual complex itself.  Utilities can go very high and the rates here were very high the beginning of the year due to the hurricane activity affecting Texas, mostly.  If you can get utilities inclusive that's a plus.