All Forum Posts by: Sophia Baratashvili

@Jason S. As Bryan stated, yes RUBS is generally legal in California, but there can be limitations depending on the market and the leases you have in place. 

My suggestion to all housing providers is to make sure you do not include utilities with rent on the lease, reach out to your local apartment association for education, and be mindful of the laws in your ordinance. 

I can go into more detail about your specific building if you'd like to reach out. 

Best of luck! 

@Melissa Oberti Hi Melissa, sorry to hear about your son's situation! What state is he in? 

Top rule for RUBS providers is transparency, so I would ask SimpleBills for their allocation table, original bills, and how they calculated the charges. Each unit should only be paying for their fair share of use. 

There may have been allocation errors but they should show you that information and be able to substantiate the billing. 

Hope this helps and best of luck! 

Or use a third party RUBS provider that will bill fairly and legally. Alleviate the headache for housing providers :) 

Try Ratio Utility Billing honestly. It's the best alternative to metered billing. 

Try RUBS or show them their bill. Making tenants responsible or making them feel responsible for their water use will likey decrease their usage. 

Hi everyone, I've been listening to the Bigger Pockets podcast for a while and have always wondered what multifamily investors/owners thought about RUBS (ratio utility billing). Anyone have any RUBS or utility billing stories/opinions to share? I do marketing for a boutique RUBS company and I'm trying to develop a win-win model so that tenants are happy, too (or at least not unhappy). I personally think rent and utilities should be separate and rents shouldn't be ridiculous. I'm in California for reference.