Utility Language Changes to Oregon Forms Collection
On Wednesday, December 10th substantial changes to the Multifamily NW Forms Collection went into effect concerning how utilities are represented across the Rental Agreement and the Bill-Back Utility Addendum.
These changes come from more than a year of deliberations from the Forms Committee, collaborating with Tenant Tech and Andor Law. The goal was to reduce housing provider liability from Oregon’s cumbersome utility statutes, and better communicate the rights and responsibilities of utility allocations with the many variables and pitfalls surrounding the bill-back of utilities to renters.
Now the standard M001 OR Rental Agreement & M201 OR Single-Family/Condo/Multiplex Rental Agreement has streamlined utilities section to convey four critical categories:
- Prompts listing of utilities the Owner/Agent pays for and does not bill-back to renters
- Prompts disclosure for utilities that the resident pays that directly benefits the landlord or other residents. Typically, this can be a shared garbage service or an electricity utility when common area coverage is tied to a resident’s account.
- Disclosure that the resident shall pay for all other bills directly to the utility provider or reimburse owner/agent for utilities according to the Utility Bill-Back Addendum (Form M047 OR, or another explanatory form from the Owner/Agent.
- Prompt to specify whether yard included in the lease will be maintained by Owner/Agent or the Resident.
The M047 OR Utility Bill-Back Addendum has the monumental task of providing a template to legally disclose the many different strategies used by varying housing providers to tally and assign utility costs to the renter when direct billing from the utility provider isn’t feasible.
At the top, the Utility Bill-Back Addendum provides five spaces to define examples of billing methods incorporating Flat Fees, Sub-metering and Ratio Billing (RUBS). For TenantTech subscribers of the Rental Forms Collection, the billing methods, or allocations as they’re called, are entered at the property level of the software for disclosure on the form. There are separate sections for each utility, or grouping of utilities such as water, sewer/storm water as their billing changes from district to district. This template also includes utilities for Electricity, Garbage, Heating, Gas/Propane, Oil, Internet and Cable TV, Direct Satellite or Video Subscriptions. There is also room for customization with three separate Other Utility sections including a space for additional written terms disclosures.
If a housing provider is unsure of which billing methodology to use in each utility bill-back scenario, it’s critical to seek out the guidance from your landlord/tenant law attorney.
With rising utility costs and the difficulty at times for renters to be billed directly from the utility providers, this form is very helpful to make sure renters are responsible for the utility cost from their own consumption. Again, be sure to work with your landlord/tenant law attorney to ensure these forms are filled out correctly, and that regular bill-back invoices are being sent to renters to keep you in compliance with Oregon’s laws.
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