Shared Utilities
Contents
In some Downtownian.com buildings, certain utilities are shared among all residents, leading to a single collective bill for the entire property. Understanding how these utilities are billed and split is key to managing your monthly expenses.
Shared utilities are essential services provided to the entire apartment building that are typically billed to the landlord or property management, which then allocates the cost back to the individual tenants. Common examples include:
- Water and Sewer: Used by all apartments.
- Electricity and Gas: May power common areas (hallways, laundry rooms, heating systems) or, in older buildings, may not be separately metered for individual apartments.
Understanding Prorating
Prorating is the method used to fairly divide a shared bill among multiple parties. Instead of splitting the bill equally, prorating uses a specific formula to assign a proportional share of the cost to each tenant based on a relevant metric.
The concept is that the portion of the bill you pay should reflect the portion of the utility you are using, or the size of your unit relative to the others.
How Prorating Works
The total cost of the utility is divided by the sum of the metric (e.g., total bedrooms, total leaseholders) across all units to find the cost per unit of that metric. That cost is then multiplied by your unit's metric to determine your final bill.
| Your Bill = | Total Utility Cost | × | Your Unit's Metric Units |
| Total Metric Units in Building |
Utility-Specific Prorating Methods
The method of prorating depends on the nature of the utility:
1. Common Area Utilities (Electricity and Gas)
Common area utilities are utilities that service the building's infrastructure (or utilities where one meter services the entire building). They are often prorated based on the size of the unit, which is typically represented by the number of bedrooms. The assumption is that larger apartments (more bedrooms) generally require or use a larger share of common services.
- Metric: Number of Bedrooms in your apartment.
- Calculation Example:
- Total building electricity bill: $300
- Total bedrooms in the building: 15
- Cost per bedroom: $300 / 15 = $20
- Your 2-bedroom apartment's share: 2 \times $20 = $40
2. Water and Sewer Utilities
Water usage is often tied directly to the number of people living in the unit, as people are the primary users of water (showering, cooking, flushing). Therefore, water is prorated based on the total number of individuals in the unit.
- Metric: Total Number of Residents listed on your apartment's lease.
- Calculation Example:
- Total building water bill: $200
- Total residents in the building: 25
- Cost per resident: $200 / 25 = $8
- Your apartment with 3 residents: 3 \times $8 = $24
