Landlord Submetering Efforts Begin In Earnest

Written by Jim McGrath Thursday, 10 September 2009 20:30

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ENERGY CONSERVATION - YES!  SUBMETERING - NO!

Yes, we are in an energy crisis.  If there were ever any doubt about it, remember the spectacle of our maximum leader going to the Saudis, hat in hand, oil can in the other, and coming back without a drop.  Now come District landlords with an epic plan to solve the energy crisis: submeters to put energy cost increases on the backs of tenants.

There are many things to be said about this subterfuge.  The first is that it is nothing more than a flagrant end-run around rent control to disguise an illegal rent increase.  The second is that it flies in the face of the vast majority of tenant leases which specify that rents include all utilities.  The third is that most tenants already pay an ever-increasing separate surcharge for air conditioning - a cost that has become annualized.  Fourth, tenants are being hit with huge Capital Improvement (CI) costs for building repairs and belated conservation measures, i.e., energy saving windows that should have been completed and amortized over the last forty years.  Witness the huge $15 million CI, the largest in District history, tenants are battling at 4000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. 

Wisely, submetering has been eliminated from a recently proposed bill and it needs to stay out.  In fact, it needs to have a stake driven through its heart.  Let the fat cat K Street crowd and business community be submetered.  That is where energy waste is profligate.  Tenants have borne far too much of the epic increase in rental housing costs.   Remember most District apartments now command market-rate costs.  Market rate means windfall profits for landlords, since the "market" has become a casino and the landlords are breaking the bank at Monte Carlo.