I am in search of a 2 bedroom apartment (a real one). A common recurrence is the demand for the tenants to pay for their own hydro.

Why is this such a hot trend in Hamilton?

Any facts? Theories?

It's not just Hamilton, it's anywhere. Landlords do not want to pay $1000.00 just because people want to have 1 hour, hot showers, 3 times a day.

Originally Posted by dmzz

It's not just Hamilton, it's anywhere. Landlords do not want to pay $1000.00 just because people want to have 1 hour, hot showers, 3 times a day.

Hydro is electricity.

Funny thing is all ads includes water.

People like to abuse electricity bad when it's included. They'll never turn off their lights, crank the AC or heat, etc...

Landlords do not want to pay for Hydro hoggers. Many landlords are finding that when they pay the hydro the tenant tends not to care how much they use, Hydro is expensive.

Originally Posted by phln3

Hydro is electricity.

Funny thing is all ads includes water.

Its just because of how the buildings were wired when they were built in the 60's/70's. In those days water/sewer was flat rate so meters weren't installed in every single unit as that would have been a huge expense for no gain (at the time). Some modern buildings do have individual metering for water (in downtown Vancouver I've heard of a couple) but its still quite rare.

I can definitely understand the abuse reasoning. Yet when you compares ads in Mississauga and Brampton, utilities is not even mentioned because it is expected to be included.

Thanks for a little history on water metering. Good to know.

I think some apartments aren't even affliated with hydro company so you are pretty much on your own to set it up. Of course, there will be a hydro company for you but it could be seperate from your monthly apartment bill. Hydro is electricity so you can save it by not using appliances when you don't need them, minimizing heat for cooking only when needed, changing lightbulbs to energy effcient ones, and so on.

In addition to the other reasons mentioned, the hydro rates are constantly going up across Ontario to the extent where most apartment owners would be loosing money by including it.

As fore-mentioned, wasteful ways of tenants and profitability but more importantly grow ops. Grow ops being set up in rentals is a HUUUUGE liability for a landlord.

Hmm

I guess students are irresponsible with electricity.

Managed to find apartments that includes all utilities. They tend to be farther from the University though.

Typically you will no longer see hydro included. This is due to several factors, the two most important being the requirement for individual metering. In the past bulk metering was allowed in some multi-unit residential dwellings. Not so any longer. All new multi-unit dwellings must be individually metered. Secondly is time-of-use and competitive distribution rates. The rates are now variable across the time of day and many large municipalities have instituted these rates already. Secondly, the option of subcontracting submetering and energy distribution is made available to landlords. In an effort to save themselves some money, it is in their interest to submeter now and have you pay your own hydro. Then they do not need to risk you using all kinds of energy during on-peak hours and creating a loss for them based on forecasted utility costs that they would have otherwise included in your bill. They simply pay for common ammenity areas. Also, hydro rates are increasing more than 3% per annum. The maximum rent raise allowed by the landlord tenant act is 3% per annum, so you could have some elderly person who's home all day using power on-peak but who has been there so long they are paying half of what you pay for rent and the landlord would take a big loss, but by charging you for your hydro directly, they don't get caught in that loophole.

Air conditioning.
My parents used to rent out a house in Hamilton and the hydro bill was RIDICULOUS in the summer.

This isn't just the case for students. From what I've seen, most rentals (house or apartment) don't include hydro in the rent.

Most places won't include it, since students tend to take advantage of pre-paid utilities. The only thing that most houses seem to include is the rent for the hot-water heater.

Originally Posted by afireinside

As fore-mentioned, wasteful ways of tenants and profitability but more importantly grow ops. Grow ops being set up in rentals is a HUUUUGE liability for a landlord.

Cool, your first post is about growing marijuana.