Have read all and various comments in this thread regarding rental tenants and landlords in relation to heat/hot water; and with all due respect some of you don't know what you're talking about.
Laws regarding supply of heat and hot water vary by state and or local laws/codes. There is also a vast difference between a landlord renting out apartments in a one-four family home, versus a large multifamily apartment building with 20 or more units. Age of the building in question also comes into play.
Here in New York City code requires landlords to provide heat and hot water. This has been widely and nearly universally accepted to mean that the property owner must provide the means for creating same, who pays the bills for fuel is another matter.
Electric heat historically for New York is not popular due to our high rates. In NYC and elsewhere you have a very large stock of housing (apartment buildings) that went up in the last century or before. As such they once all burned coal, however over the years those boilers have been converted to oil or gas burners. In fact there are plenty of buildings in New York that still have original coal boilers, again they just don't burn coal.
Much of this is because steam or hot water is the dominate source of heat in his part of the north east. You aren't going to have individual boilers for each apartment. However tenants do pay for the costs of heating in other ways.
Market rate apartments of course will see utility costs passed along in their rent. Rent controlled tenants are another matter, who likely only see a portion of the LL's true costs pass along to them. Those in NYCHA and other public/subsidized housing (where heat/hot water are supplied as part of rent) are totally insulated from such market forces because their rent is based upon their income.
You walk into any NYCHA building even on mild winter days and the heat is on full blast. So much so that tenants have their windows open. Some even run their air conditioners (many have electric included in their rent as well), so that is that.
For such tenants federal heating grants do not cover heat/hot water, but can pay for electricity bills if the tenant pays them separately from rent.
Increasingly new construction here is going with PTAC units, even for high end/luxury buildings. Developers and landlords are wanting to shift the costs of at least heating to residents/tenants for various reasons.
These Hideous Built-In Air Conditioners Are Spreading Across NYC Like A Virus: Gothamist
Heating/Cooling Unit as
Both NYS and NYC are on a roll with offering various incentives to get homeowners and others to use "cheaper" energy.
https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Progr...ewable-Heat-NY
https://www.nyccleanheat.org/content/incentives
Con Edison for instance has been on a roll ripping up NYC streets to install larger/high pressure gas mains. This to accommodate and or prod buildings to switch from heating oil to natural gas.
As for Section 8 and other federal rental subsidies; make no mistake, landlords are well compensated including for their heating costs. In fact in some areas there is a small cottage industry of people willing to take such programs. Remember with Section 8 the LL is guaranteed to get his money regardless of what the tenant can or cannot. It is only when local or federal government messes with LL's money (late payments) that some start to make noises about pulling out of the scheme.
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