The Core Difference
Submetering puts a physical meter on your unit. You're billed for the kilowatt-hours or gallons that passed through it. Use less, pay less — the same relationship as a normal utility account, just with the landlord or a billing company in the middle.
RUBS — Ratio Utility Billing System — has no meter on your unit. The landlord divides the master-metered bill using a formula based on square footage, occupant count, bedroom count, or a blend. Your bill reflects your apartment's characteristics, not your behaviour.
Who Each System Favours
Submetering is better for you if you use less than average for your unit size — you travel, you're out all day, you're careful with heating and cooling, or you live alone in a larger apartment. You capture the full benefit of using less.
RUBS is better for you if you use more than average — a big household, someone home all day, heavy AC use, or an apartment full of appliances. Under RUBS, part of your consumption is effectively subsidised by lighter users in the building.
That's the honest summary, and it explains why the debate isn't really about fairness in the abstract. RUBS is not a worse deal for everyone; it's a worse deal for efficient households and a better one for heavy users. Submetering reverses that.
Why Buildings Choose RUBS Anyway
Mostly cost and feasibility. Submetering means installing physical meters in every unit, which is expensive and sometimes impractical — older buildings often have plumbing or electrical runs that serve multiple units, making a per-unit meter physically impossible without major work. RUBS can be implemented in days with no hardware.
Property management guidance is fairly open about the other reason: RUBS is a way to recover utility costs without capital expenditure. That's a legitimate business consideration, but it's worth knowing that the material written about these systems is overwhelmingly aimed at the party doing the billing rather than the party receiving it.
What's Regulated and What Isn't
The formula itself is largely unregulated — no law dictates which method a landlord must use, and it can differ by utility within the same building. What generally does apply across most states:
- The billing method must be disclosed in the lease before signing.
- A landlord generally cannot convert included utilities to RUBS mid-lease without tenant consent.
- The total billed to all tenants combined cannot exceed the landlord's actual bill, though a separately disclosed admin fee is usually permitted on top.
That last one is the practically useful check, because it's arithmetic rather than judgement. Our apartment utility bill checker runs it against your own statement, and the renter's guide to RUBS covers what to request in writing.
Neither of These Is a Shared Meter
Worth separating out, because it's the one situation with real legal weight. A shared meter is when your own individual meter also serves something outside your unit — a hallway light, a common water heater, part of another apartment. That's prohibited or tightly restricted in many states, with remedies that can include the landlord being required to take over the account.
If you have your own meter and the bill is impossible for your usage, that's the thing to rule out before anything else. Ask the utility or an electrician to trace the circuit.
What to Ask Before Signing a Lease
- Is the unit submetered, or is billing allocated? If allocated, which formula, and does it differ by utility?
- How are common areas treated? Pool pumps, hallway lighting, laundry and irrigation are operating costs, and best practice is to deduct them before allocating.
- What's the admin fee, and where is it disclosed?
- What did a comparable unit pay over the last twelve months? Reasonable to ask, and a summer and winter figure tells you more than an average.
If you're an efficient household looking at a RUBS building, factor the allocated charge into your rent comparison as a fixed cost rather than something you can manage down — because under most formulas, you can't.