Why Every Rental Unit Should Have Their Own Hydro Meter.

In many high-rise apartment buildings electricity is included with the tenants rent. Every unit should have a meter and every tenant should pay for what they use.




We’ve been in the process over the years of installing hydro meters on all of the sites in the Park. We just installed them on 4 mobile home sites. One of these tenants knows what it’s like to pay your own hydro and his usage was reasonable. The other three tenants have never had to pay for hydro before. Their bills were excessive. We sat down with them all individually and educated them on how to lower their bills. When they got their second bill, two of the tenants cut their usage in half. The fourth tenants was even higher. Her hydro bill is $10.00 less than her rent that she can’t be bothered paying.

It’s tenants like tenant 4 that cause excessive hydro bills for the landlord. When utility bills increase by the allowable increase rate plus 50% of the rate the landlord can apply for an above the guideline increase.

Is it fair that all tenants will ultimately pay for the excessive use by tenants like tenant 4?

When you start making tenants pay for something that was previously included in their rent, like hydro, you have to reduce the rent accordingly. Should tenant 4’s rent be reduced to $10.00 a month?? I don’t think so. It’s a one bedroom, 1 bathroom, kitchen/dining room, living room and recroom. There are 2 wood stoves (we supply the wood so they don’t use expensive electric space heaters), yet she also uses 3 space heaters and the electric oven to keep the place about 90 degrees, 2 old fridges, washer & dryer, Christmas lights outside on 24/7, etc.

With conservation and the environment being the current buzz words, everyone needs to do their part. Making the excessive users like tenant 4 pay for what they use or have their service disconnected is the only way to deal with them.