Lessons from the AU model

Sean Donelan sean at donelan.com
Tue Jan 22 10:54:59 UTC 2008


On Tue, 22 Jan 2008, Mikael Abrahamsson wrote:
> I know of places in my nick of the world where all those are flat-rate. When 
> the usage difference is small enough, metering is not effective.

Ahh, the key phrase is "usage difference is small enough."

> Typical dorm here includes power, water, (gas is usually not used, but most 
> of the places that have gas charge ~ USD15 per month per apartment for gas, 
> flatrate), and heating. Basic cable included in rent. I also know of quite a 
> few regular apartments that have this model. In my apartment I pay for power. 
> Water, heating and basic cable is included in the monthly fee.

But what if the usage differences were large.

If there was one tenant that left the hot water running 24 hours, 7 days 
a week; so other tenants complained they didn't get enough hot water. 
One tenant plugged in maximum wattage heaters on every circuit and left 
them on high 24 hours a day; left the television volume turned up to the 
maximum 24 hours a day; and so forth.

Should the response from the landlord to install bigger hot water heaters, 
more electrical circuits, rebuild all the walls with increased sound 
proofing, and pass the cost of all those improvements to all the tenants
in the building?  Or, would the landlord consider asking one tenant with
unusually high demands to leave or raise that just that tenant's rates.

If you were the neighbor of such a tenant in a building, would you be
pleased that your monthly fees were being increased or that one tenant
was using all the hot water and generating a lot of noise all day and
all night?  Or might you complain to the landlord about those problems.



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