You can understand your utility bill

Years ago, when you rented an apartment, the only thing you paid was your rent. Rent included everything – electricity, water, trash, parking, taxes – sometimes even cable television. Why isn’t everything free anymore?

Well, of course, nothing was ever free. You just didn’t see the individual costs broken out separately in a detailed statement. As the apartment industry has evolved, more and more properties bill with line items for separate services. Most of these are pretty straightforward, but we a lot of questions about the way properties bill for utilities.

Water

You may get a water bill for your apartment calculated in one of several ways.

The first uses submeters. An apartment property will typically have one — or just a few — big water meters between the city water main and the property’s water pipes. The city bills the property for water

(and assumes the same volume for sewer service), with one account for each meter. If all the water for an apartment unit comes into the unit from one pipe, you can put a smaller meter on that pipe and measure the exact amount of water flowing into that unit. The property then bills you for that amount. This is great, because if you use half the amount of water your neighbor uses, you don’t overpay.

Unfortunately, many properties cannot install submeters. A lot of communities weren’t built with submeters in mind, so in some buildings water to the kitchen comes from one pipe and water to the bathroom from another. In properties with central boilers, hot water comes through a completely different set of pipes altogether. With properties like these, owners generally use “allocated billing,” which involves estimating the amount of water for each unit based on a formula. While this isn’t as precise as submetering, it is better than making a single resident in an efficiency apartment pay the same as the family of six in the three-bedroom unit next door.

Under Texas law, properties that do allocated water billing have specific formulas they have to follow. They also have to have a copy of their water bill — and the Public Utility Commission rules — available for your inspection. Before starting an allocation system, properties have to install water saving devices such as low-flow toilets and shower heads. They have to pay for the water they use for common areas (the pool, office, clubhouse, etc.) themselves — they can’t allocate that to you. If you have questions about the way your water bill is calculated, talk to the property manager. They will be happy to explain how it works.

Electricity

Most Houston apartments are metered separately for electricity — you pay a bill for exactly the amount you used to your retail electric provider. A property with a single master electric meter can submeter electricity, or can allocate the bill according to the square footage of each unit. As with water, the property’s bills for the past year have to be available on site for your inspection, as well as the formula they used to calculate your bill.