San Diego cracking down on landlords overcharging tenants for utilities

Recycling and trash bins line an alley in Ocean Beach File photo by Thomas Melville Beach Bay Press San Diego is moving to ban landlords from overcharging tenants for city utilities after renters accused property owners of charging more than their fair share For years San Diego renters have demanded more transparency from landlords over how they calculate the utility bills they charge tenants The city is now responding to their calls by ramping up renter protections especially as it expands the utility fees it charges San Diegans The new tenant protection is now one step away from becoming law after the San Diego City Council unanimously passed the ban Tuesday morning It now just demands Mayor Todd Gloria s signature to take effect which may happen as early as August Any way we can save folks money is a worthwhile effort reported Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera whose office proposed the ban at Tuesday s vote What utilities are tenants responsible for Sean Elo-Rivera Photo by Salvatore Giametta The city has historically charged property owners for water stormwater and sewage services all costs that landlords may pass onto tenants Since July the city also added a new contentious fee on trash pickup a move that has been studied since voters narrowly passed Measure B in Elo-Rivera s office introduced the new renter protection because his association worried the trash fee would create more opportunities for landlords to overcharge tenants for a profit The new trash fee won t apply to large apartment buildings which have to pay for private trash pickup but it does affect smaller complexes like townhouses and duplexes What rights do renters have under the new protocol While state law already prohibits landlords from overcharging tenants several San Diego renters have for years suspected that landlords and third-party utility billing services have been charging them more than their fair share They just haven t invariably had the information to prove it The issue went to court in after a handful of San Diego tenants filed a class action lawsuit against the company Conservice a popular option landlords turn to for calculating and charging renters utility bills Renters accused Conservice of lacking transparency because the company refused to supply renters with copies of their landlord s utility bills so tenants could verify whether they were being overcharged The new renter protection would require landlords to give all tenants a letter detailing their right to review the landlord s city utility bills and formula used to calculate each renter s utility charges Photo courtesy of Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera The new renter protection aims to give San Diego renters those information The ban would not only make it illegal for landlords to charge tenants more than what they pay to the city for utilities excluding late fees but it would also give renters the right to request the landlord s utility bill and the formula used to calculate each tenant s utility charges Landlords must also disclose to renters any fees they re charging for third-party utility billing services under the new agenda There is a massive power imbalance that exists between tenants and landlords Elo-Rivera noted at a May council committee meeting about the new renter protection Large corporate housing companies exploit this to charge renters whatever amount on their utilities they can get away with because the tenants do not have the power to fight it nor the luxury to move without potentially uprooting their lives Utility overcharges part of cost-of-living predicament As the council has considered the revision over the last scarce months tenants have championed the new initiative because it requires landlords to be more transparent For those tenants hefty utility fees are just one component of San Diego s cost-of-living emergency Housing costs in America s Finest City have ballooned to become various of the highest levels in the country Natalie Raschke a homelessness advocate at San Diego nonprofit Lived Experience Advisers is no stranger to the issue She and family were homeless for over two years after she and her husband lost their system jobs during the pandemic Now Raschke s family rents an apartment in Mission Valley There Raschke explained a council committee in May that her family pays a monthly trash fee of to a third-party billing amenity over double the highest pickup fee as of now charged by the city These hidden fees have got to stop Julie Porter Raschke s colleague and a fellow renter explained the council at a meeting last month about the new tenant protection It has to be transparent know upfront what you re going to be paying instead of nickel and diming for this water fee and that sewer fee and that trash fee As of June Zillow records indicates that the average rent in San Diego was nearly a month over more than the national average Elo-Rivera painted the new renter protection as a narrow way to make one aspect of San Diego s cost-of-living more affordable for renters A San Diego house for rent Staff Times of San Diego Despite this landlords and their advocates like residents plan consultant Craig Benedetto criticized the overhaul as a approach searching for a issue Benedetto informed a council committee in May that he didn t know of any cases of utility overcharging among the landlords he works with at his consulting firm California Strategies He acknowledged however that it could be workable other landlords were overcharging renters