So.. Pieced it together.. My landlord's screwing me.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve lived in a place for almost two years. The place is nice, the rent, for the first year was fine and affordable for the area, the second it went up 50 bucks a month but still affordableish… Will be moving into a place that costs a bit less at the end of this lease in June.

The problem I have is the water heater. I remember specifically asking my landlord if the apartment had its own water heater before I moved in. He said yes. Awesome. I once lived above a landlord who had one for the entire house (my section and hers). She decided to do a load of hot wash when I was in the shower and had to rinse shampoo off in ICE COLD water. Actually, those pipes in that apartment eventually burst from freezing so that February shower with water exposed to sub zero temps probably was near freezing temps itself.

After I moved out of that place I checked in with a local attorney that had his name out in college aged lower income housing books. It clearly states in NYS law that it is illegal to have two or more apartments fed off of one water heater. The reasoning is that somebody’s gotta pay the full bill.

My hot water recently went out. No big deal. Called the landlord. He had it fixed the next day, but the thermostat was whacked out and it quickly went to shit again. Right away he was over to replace it. Awesome. I only had to take one chilly shower before work out of the whole ordeal. Big whoop. Shit happens. Glad my landlord showed up to fix it in a somewhat timely matter.

Turns out my other neighbor had the same problem at the same time. He had asked my landlord about the problem and if the electric bill was a problem (I’m the only one in all four apartments that has a job, everyone else is on public assistance and pays 50 bucks a month for rent while I pay 550… still, though, they ask me if I could lend them a few bucks to cover their electric, cable… etc… etc… I’ve always said no.). My landlord said that their electric bill would not go up or down because they didn’t pay the electric for the water heater. He didn’t mention who did. I have a very good guess who that guy might be, though.

I had a little flashback to my conversation with the attorney and put that big number two and that other big number two together. Also, even though I never made much of a note of it, sometimes when I’d be filling a pot with water or taking a shower the water pressure would drop then pick back up again. :smack: duh. Never thought about it. Of course someone turned on the sink or flushed the toilet in the other apartment. I just never thought about it.

So. I’m moving out in about six months. Already have a few connections to other apartments to rent that are cheaper.

My options are:

A) Call a lawyer. I don’t have a lot of money, but I’m sure one of the lawyers such as the one that I’d talked to before could file a form with the building inspector for minimal cost. Doubt I’d get shit out of it, though.

B) Call my landlord and tell him “Hey, I remember asking you if I had my own water heater. I found out I’m paying for half the hot water in this apartment building when I should be paying for only 1/4th… my own share. Let me off the hook for some of the last rent and you won’t have a major compliance issue that will cost you thousands of dollars in the reconstruction of a rather old building to facilitate such a remodeling.”

or
C) Nothing. Just get out and move to a cheaper place and make 100% sure I’m not paying for someone else’s hot water for two years.

Fellow Dopers, any ideas?

2

Turn him in for that set up, once you know for sure you are paying for more than your heating costs. He may be alright if he pays for the heating costs and you don’t have a separate water heater. He definitely can’t have everybody on one heater and have a tenant paying the heating cost. Having a pressure drop when others use water doesn’t mean another apartment is on the same heater as you.

3

B, without question

4

I don’t know whether you should do A, B, C, or Other, but this is a good point – I think the pressure drop just means another apartment is on the same incoming water pipeline as you, not necessarily the same heater.

5

What **emilyforce **said. I live in a four apartment building, and while we each have our own water heater, there’s only the one pipe from the city water supply into the house. If we all try to shower at the same time, we each get stuck under a nice warm drizzle.

6

Are you sure the water heater is electric and not gas? The neighbor may have just misunderstood what the landlord meant by it not changing the amount of the electric bill…

Otherwise, I think you’re jumping ahead with A, B, and C. I’d try to be completely sure of the situation before making accusations. Where is your water heater located? Can you ask the landlord if you can see it? If he says no, then you might be right. If he says yes and there are three others next to it, then you don’t have to worry about it.

7

Actually I don’t think this is correct, simply because I am living in NY and my apartment building has everyone connected to one massive heater and the cost is built into our rent. We have also had the department of housing and various members of the NYPD and FDNY out to check out our water and gas situation (there was a bit of a snafoo in the gas line and it had to be repaired) and not one of them has ever mentioned that we should all have individual heaters. Are you actually receiving a bill stating you are paying for hot water or just a utility bill that states gas/electric?

8

If the water heater is in your place, shut off the water when you leave for the day and see if anyone else complains. If the water heater is not physically inside your place then I’d really start to wonder about it.

9

I think that the lawyer’s comment may be slightly out of context.

Are you being billed directly for your utilities? This is usually where requirements for separate heaters/meters/etc in rental units come into play, since each tenant has a right to expect a bill only for what they’ve used (which is impossible unless you have separate meters). So I could see it being illegal to have one water heater for multiple units when the bill is sent directly to the tenants and split two or more ways.

This is why a lot of the older rentals in Toronto have an arrangement where the tenant is billed directly by the power company for their electricity usage (since separate meters are installed for each unit), but include heating/water within the rent (since they have steam heating systems and use one giant boiler in the basement for that purpose). If all your utilities are included in the rent, though, your landlord could plausibly claim that increases are due to other expenses like building maintenance, higher taxes, or any one of a dozen other reasons.

It does look like your landlord lied to you about the water heater, which makes him a liar and a jerk. Unfortunately, that’s not enough justification to go with Option A or B… sorry.

10

I wonder if the lawyer the OP is referring to didn’t mean a standard household water heater, as opposed to a boiler of the type you’re describing.

11

Shoot, missed the edit window…

You may find this PDF of NY Tenant’s Rights useful (I assume it’s a legit doc, given that it comes from a State website). You’ll note that while there is an entry about the requirement to provide hot water, there is no mention whatsoever of each unit being required to have its own heater.

12

Sorry to take so long to get back with some details:

Utilities are not included. I am paying for the electric that heats the water. Because my neighbors had the same problem at the same time with the hot water drop out I am 100% sure that it is not our incoming water that is being split, but rather the heated up water.

As an aside I forgot to mention… I went with my landlord once into the basement to reset some breakers. One was faulty and kept on tripping. I always like to know where they are anyway (though they’re only accessible through my downstairs neighbor’s place he’s pretty chill and doesn’t mind the couple times I’ve had to reset one).

In the basement I saw two water heaters. I didn’t ask him about it, it just didn’t come to mind when I was focusing on the breakers, but later I asked people I know in home construction. My building used to be one big home in the 50s or so but was cut up into four places (I love the place, really strange architecture because of it). The people I asked said it was unlikely that two would be in the basement and the other two in the apartments, especially considering the two apartments on one side are exactly mirrored on the other side of the building and I can’t seem to think of where a water heater would go in my place.

13

You get an eletric bill, from the landlors ot the power company?
Because you are getting an electric bill does not mean that you are paying the power bill for the hot water heater.

One thought are you really getting a electric bill stating how many KWH you are using? does the building have five electric meters or one? Does the landlord get the power bill for the building then devide it by 4. Please describe your power bilol.

14

Getting pictures before you decide to pursue an action would be good.

15

It could be the landlord paying. He could have weighed the option of re-plumbing the house to have 4 separate water heaters, and decided it would be cheaper to keep the plumbing as-is, maybe add a water heater to take up the slack, and include the charges in the rent.

Before trying to put the screws to him, I’d make damn sure that I’m paying for someone else’s hot water. You’ll burn up whatever goodwill you may have with him by accusing him of cheating you. Goodwill is nice to have when you move out, it makes it easier to get your deposit back.

16

I like the idea of shutting off the heater for a weekend to be sure that you are supplying the other apartments.

17

Nuke it from orbit.

It’s the only way to be sure.

18

Apparently, it’s in the basement, not in his apartment. And with two heaters serving four apartments, it seems clear that he is sharing with someone.

19

The place has four meters (I’ve always wondered where the electricity to the light in the shared hall came from, but its a minor issue, I don’t really care). I pay a bill to the city electric company, not to my landlord. Electric is paid for by me, water is included in the rent.

The water heater is a HUGE power draw over time. To pay for it twice over for two years would add up substantially (actually, I’m sure more, my downstairs neighbor doesn’t work and is home all the time… I can imagine he uses quite a bit of hot water when you add it all up compared to me, who is mostly at work or asleep)

On a side note, I actually have a very good relationship with my landlord. In almost two years I’ve had to be late on my rent twice (I was shorted a few shifts by a mistake in the staffing office paperwork both times) and he was agreeable to me paying a week late.

I’m pretty sure I’m just going to end up writing it off… I’m in the end run of living in the place anyway, somewhere barely over 6 months after a couple years, and I’m thinking I’ll just MAKE SURE I don’t have this problem ever again. Rather than taking someone’s word for it that’s trying to get me to rent the place I’ll ask to see the actual heating units and the piping.