Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS) is how many multi-family housing communities fairly divide the cost of shared utilities. RUBS usually includes water, electric, gas, and trash. RUBS splits the costs of utilities through a formula. As a billing system, RUBS can be used to bill residents for all resident-specific utilities.
What does this mean for my community?
Many apartment communities are already using a RUBS program to bill residents for trash pickup. What many managers don’t know is that they can save on operating costs by incorporating all trash-related costs into their RUBS program.
How does this work?
The total cost of waste control at an apartment or HOA community is rarely limited to trash hauler costs. In reality, waste control at most communities consists of:
- Trash Hauler Costs
- Large Item Removals
- Cleaning Trash Areas
- Pressure Washing Trash Areas
Often managers will hire a porter service. Since the porter service usually cleans common areas in addition to the trash areas, therefore, their entire fee must be classified as an operating cost. The key to using RUBS to save money on operating costs is to separate trash area maintenance from the general common area cleaning costs. By separating waste control costs from general maintenance costs, residents can be billed through RUBS for all trash-related expenses.
Sincerely,
Broomer