Landlord Ripoff Utility Scam RUBS Tenants Wrong Way

LA RENTS - Landlords have found a new way to bypass rent control restrictions to ripoff their tenants.

This landlord scam involves third-party billing companies that bill each rental unit separately for utilities such as electricity, water, sewer, gas, garbage, or other charges linked to the rental unit's use and occupancy.

What is RUBS?

RUBS, short for Ratio Utility Billing System, but better named as the Ripoff Utility Scam, is a method of dividing and charging tenants for the cost of master-metered or unmetered utility services, along with utility expenses for common areas in a multi-unit property.

About 19% of LA’s RSO units are master-metered, including Park La Brea, the largest apartment complex west of the Mississippi River.

RUBS charging typically relies on formulas that estimate each rental unit’s utility usage using factors like the number of occupants, bedrooms, square footage, or other criteria.

Are There Tenants Protections for RUBS?

The Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) permits landlords of units covered by the LA Rent Stabilization Ordinances (RSO) to implement RUBS, as long as tenants are notified about RUBS when their tenancy begins and the details are explicitly included in their rental agreements or leases.

In contrast to the RSO, which controls rents, the city’s newly enacted Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance (JCO) only provides eviction protections. State law forbids the City from controlling rent hikes for non-RSO units.

Non-RSO rental properties older than 15 years are regulated by the JCO and the state’s Tenants Protection Act of 2019, capping rent hikes at 5% plus the increase in the cost of living or 10%, whichever amount is lower. However, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 does not specify if utilities count as rent, thus permitting the use of RUBS.

How Do Tenants Know If the Billing is Correct?

In many multi-unit buildings, tenants pay landlords or third-party billing services for utilities without receiving detailed proof of the amounts billed. Tenants cannot verify the accuracy and fairness of charges without having access to meter readings, billing rates, or the cost division method.

Tenants have found it difficult to obtain information from their landlords regarding the calculation of their utility bills, including the formulas for their individual shares and the actual property utility bills, preventing them from verifying the accuracy and fairness of the charges.

It's crucial for renters to have transparency to verify accurate billing based on their actual utility use.

RUBS Should be Banned

The City of West Hollywood prohibits RUBS. Other cities like Santa Monica, Oakland, and San Jose have imposed restrictions on RUBS.

Unfortunately, the City of Los Angeles has taken no action to stop the RUBS ripoff.

In February 2023, the Los Angeles City Council passed a motion instructing the LAHD to provide recommendations on regulating RUBS within 60 days.

It wasn’t until December 2025 that the report got released. LAHD, correctly, recommended that the city ban RUBS in rent-stabilized units and add transparency requirements for its use in non-rent-stabilized units.

The recommendations were supposed to be discussed at a Housing and Homeless Committee meeting in May, but the meeting got cancelled.

LA City Council members need to hear from you demanding that they take action on these recommendations and prohibit RUBS for RSO units and restrict it for other units.

(Larry Gross is Executive Director of the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES), a Los Angeles-based organization advocating for tenants’ rights, affordable housing, and economic justice.)