[Las Vegas Mommy]

EVER BEEN A VICTIM OF THIS SCAM!!!!!!!!!.
At this time apartment owners using the RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System) are able to offer competitive rental rates. However, when you recieve your utility bills, these costs are inflated and quite outrageous. I moved from an apartment complex, where my water, trash, sewage were a flat fee of $25.00 a month. The new place I moved to charged me $78.00 for water, $28.00 for sewage, $2.00 for garbage and a service fee to bill me of $4.25, these prices will flucuate every month. When I asked to see the meter readings I was told by the third party biller, that these bills are confidential. Why is there no transparency?? They can add on anything they want, when no one is regulating them. Owners are not eager to fix leaks becuase tenants pay for them. How do we know these are the actual prices?? How do we not know, the owner did not get a bill from another company and put it into our utilities? We dont
No one regulates them.......NOBODY
must say, I wouldnt have a problem with the RUBS system, if it was utilized better, and didnt benefit the owner so much. With the RUBS billing the owner doesnt have to pay for the extensive landscape, pools, leaks or even the toilets at the front office that his leasing agents flush......all that is passed onto us. I equal it to this...EXAMPLE

You used your credit card, you were given a statement....it had the date when your payment is due, the name of the thrid party billing company and a amount. THATS IT.
Wouldnt you be horrified and outraged if you didnt get to see the actual charges..........YES. When you ask to see an itemized statement and they told you it was confidential, would you not be concerned???? Then you try to report this practice, and there is nobody to report it to.........would you not feel helpless and taken advantage of? Especially, when you learn nobody regulates these systems or practices.

Since nobody regulates them, and nobody cares you end up with a few very bad apples who take advantage of a system that is broken. They are able to put anything on the bill they want and charge it off as a utility.

Heres a question....
Why dont the owners, who use these practices just increase their rent and add on a flat fee like other apartments complexes, who run off master meters??
ANSWER
In order for them to stay competitive in rentals, they choose to mislead us with lower rates than their neighbors, by $20.00 to $40.00. When you move in and get your first utility bill, you then realize that you have been scammed and you actually are ending up paying more. These apt complexes also have a high vacany rate due to such practices. Guess who picks up the bills for the vacant units..YOU DO!

[dynimagelv]

do they tell you when you sign the lease, how they will calculate the charges?

[olecapt]

Pay the bill. Then send a demand letter for a refund of the utilities or a detailed billing. If you don't get it take them to small claims court. If you do get it you may want to send them a new demand letter and take them to small claims court.

Small claims court is a neat place. At least you will know what you are paying for. I suspect a clause in the lease allows the billing...but small claims courts can get into equity as well as the law.

[Las Vegas Mommy]

Thank you for the comments and letting me know what recourse are still available to me. Heres has what I have done so far, and why I have been so frustrated.

1. contacted Las Vegas Valley water district- to let them know about this practice, they informed me that the owners can do as they please and have no control over it. This is after I told them, there billing is less than honest and needs investigation
2. Contacted the public utilities- to let them know of this practice, they informed me. However, they may feel about this billing system, they have no juristiction to do anything about it.
3. Contacted my senators, all of them- NOBDODY EVEN RESPONDED
4. Contacted the EPA- about the safe water drinking act- I was told the removed the regulations for Sub metering and Ratio Billing because it proved water conservation. However, they had certain opinions reagrding the Ratio billing for Master meters, becuase it proved no signifcant water conservation, but the exisiting laws prevented them from acting.
5. Contacted an attorney- Only to be scoffed at....since there were no regulations, these apartment owners were committing no crime.
6. Contacted the property management company and 3'rd party utility billing company about my bill. I ased to see the bill, and was told it was confidential.
7. When I moved in- I asked about the utility fees, since I never heard of this practice being used. I was told my utility bills for water and sewage wouldnt reach over $40.00. Guess what.......I didnt get that particular statement in writing. Now my bills are almost triple that amount.
8. I threatned to not pay the inflated fees, without seeing where my money was going. I would be in violation of my lease, subject to late fes and eviction.

Finally, I got a lovely assembly women to request a bill of draft. The number is 10-636, and Im waiting for my hearing date.

I chose to take this route and try to get the law changed. Its an ugly and misleading practice of billing. California and many other states have been plagued with this for a long time and now they are coming to Vegas. You have all these new Utility companies, seducing the owners and telling them how they can save them lots of money. This is not just going to affect Apt Communitys, it will also affect CONDOS that are run off a master meters, and there are lots of them in Vegas. Im just one person, who choose to push back, and say this is not okay. They should have to be upfront with their fees and let the potential renter/ or condo owner make a decision based on that.

[LandShark99]

What exactly is an Assembly woman? What branch of govt? Details would help. I'd like to find one here in FL!

[dynimagelv]

Originally Posted by LandShark99

What exactly is an Assembly woman? What branch of govt? Details would help. I'd like to find one here in FL!

A member of the State Assembly......similar to a member of the house of representatives on a national level.

[acapr220]

You can start an online petition at PetitionOnline.com - Petition Submission Form
and show the petition to a judge, court, or congressman.
Not sure what else to tell ya but thats really an awful way to do business.

[shaydie]

I was in a place that suddenly started charging for w/s/g. It was awful. They took away our free cable that we'd had for years, too. (Tropicana Springs Apartments.) If you were late paying the w/s/g bill, they'd count it as your rent not being paid and give you a $60 late fee! They wouldn't cash your rent check until it was all paid, so you accrued $20/day late fee until they were caught up. All of this didn't stop them from raising the rent, either.

[Las Vegas Mommy]

Yes, its becoming more common now......Its Terrbile
will you sign my online petititon??
Prohibit the practice of Ratio Utililty Billing System and Methods Petition

Im going to be having a hearing soon, too
Hopefully to stop this unethical billing method!

[Las Vegas Mommy]

If you are looking for Assembly persons. ect
Go to Florida State Legislature and you can find your districit rep