RUBs - This is a bullshit system to be added to your rent with. This is basically saying “on top of what you’re paying to use, you’re to pay what EVERYONE else in the building uses!” even if it’s divided up. I get fucked over every winter for example, because I use electric heaters in my apartment and nothing gas-related. I’m still smacked with $48 ~ $62 of usage, despite that. This raises my rent up and makes it variable.
No-Bite Management - Management who lets nearly everything go, despite them trying to sound strict. You may be in a bit of a rivalry with a neighbor who likes slamming things or having loud music, obviously breaking lease agreement, who makes you wonder why they’ve gotten away with it as long as they have. You record, you report but management does next to nothing. They tell you to your face that the only way they can move forward, is a police report. Now that kind of thing should be reserved for more escalated and involved cases, not something management could deal with when they were the ones who made up the terms of the lease agreement.
Pets - From experience, people are AWFUL with their pets. Mostly dogs, I’ve never seen anything go wrong with cats, unless the owners don’t care enough to let them run around until they’re kidnapped or ran over. But dogs, they just let them go and go with the barking. Not to mention the dog shit on the ground they refuse to pick up.
If you use electric heaters and have gas, your a fucking idiot costing everyone money.
…What?
Don’t be rude dude. But you’re correct. Not using your payed for part of the gas just shifts your neighbors gas cost in part to you. Using electric heating costs you the power in top.
Don’t you have electricity meters?
It sounds like its multiple apartments share utilities.
But electric heat is extremely expensive compared to gas, just about everywhere. So while they are bitching about gas, they are actually costing the others by using space heaters.
Without shared utilities, the others wouldn’t be impacted. So I’d say that’s the issue, not the space heaters.
Also, if you heat with electricity, at least some of that power is from renewables, depending on your contract potentially all of it.
And while normal space heaters are “only” 100% efficient, heat pumps can be several times as efficient*. That makes them even cheaper than gas.
And I thought split AC was pretty much the norm in the US. Modern split AC units can usually be run in heating mode as well.
*) Exact numbers depend on the temperature difference to the outside unit.
Problem is heat pumps don’t seem to be very widespread, so this is more theoretical point, imo
Every AC unit is a heat pump. They are pretty widespread. You just need one that can run backwards. But that’s also rather common.
No, AC that can run backward is much less widespread, because it’s more expensive