Landlords to begin disclosing cost of heat

Portland Press Herald
Tux Turkel
December 10, 2006

Watching television in the winter is a process for Sarah Hines and her roommate. They close unoccupied rooms in their Portland apartment, tuck under blankets and sit by an electric space heater.

Even during last week's cold snap, they were reluctant to touch the thermostat. They rarely set it above 60 degrees, anyway. The $200 a month natural gas bills that arrived last winter were real budget busters for the two, who were students at the University of Southern Maine.
Still, it was an improvement. Hines got a $400 bill one month a couple of winters ago, before the landlord insulated the roof over their two-bedroom unit. Drafty windows are being replaced this winter, too, and that should help.

Hines said she likes her apartment and landlady. But she wishes she had known about the energy situation before first signing a lease.

"We might not have taken the place if we knew it would be that expensive," she said.
Now renters should have this information.

A recent law requires Maine landlords with year-round homes and apartments to fill out an energy efficiency disclosure form and have new tenants sign it. The form summarizes how a home's heated and what has been done to weatherize the building.

The idea is to give renters a sense of how much they'll pay for heat, hot water and electricity. Over time, supporters say, the new law also should encourage landlords who want to stay competitive in their rental markets to upgrade heating systems, insulation and appliances.

"Energy costs can be significant," said Dan Skolnik, a steering committee member at the League of Young Voters in Portland. "It's important that tenants go in with their eyes open."
The league was among a handful of interest groups that helped craft a compromise during the last legislative session.

Tenant rights advocates wanted stronger language to force landlords to make specific energy upgrades by certain dates. Landlord groups opposed that requirement, favoring market forces. What evolved were suggested standards -- such as insulating attics by 2015 -- coupled with the mandatory disclosure form. The Maine Public Utilities Commission will monitor the law to see how it's working and report back to lawmakers in 2008.

Right now it's too early to say. Many property owners -- including Sarah Hines' landlady -- are still learning about the disclosure law. Most renters probably haven't heard about it.
But many residents and small business people will be affected by this measure.

Maine has 534,000 housing units, according to the Maine State Housing Authority. One in four of them -- 145,000 -- is occupied by renters.

Nearly 92,000 households pay more for rent than they can really afford, the agency estimates, based on median incomes. And 70 percent of the low-income renters identified heat with fuel oil or kerosene; 20 percent use electricity.

Many of these residents live in older homes, as well. So unless they've been extensively renovated, these homes lack the modern insulation and tight construction to keep expensive heat from escaping into Maine's cold air.

Government programs have helped build hundreds of new rental units in recent years. The most recent projects meet strict energy codes. But cities also have thousands of old apartments and Rep. Herb Adams, D-Portland, said he often hears from renters who move into homes with leaky windows, poor insulation and electric heat.

"People are unaware of how much that's truly going to cost them," he said.

The disclosure form, Adams said, will help renters shop for housing, just as the government's energy guide sticker helps consumers compare the operating cost of refrigerators.

SOME LANDLORDS LUKEWARM

The disclosure form requires owners to provide information about heating systems, insulation levels, windows and doors and appliances. The form also highlights an existing law by which renters can get the prior year's electric and gas costs by calling utility companies.
The group representing landlords has mixed feelings about the new requirements.

The law may help consumers, agreed Carlton Winslow, vice president of the Maine Apartment Owners and Managers Association, but it places a burden on landlords. And in today's sagging housing market -- at least, in southern Maine -- vacancy rates are relatively high. So apartment shoppers have choices, he said, and landlords have an incentive to keep their buildings updated to be competitive.

The group's members lease 60,000 units across the state. They range from one-room apartments to single-family houses. Some leases include heat and hot water. Either way, energy costs are factored into the rent.

One problem with the disclosure form, Winslow said, is it can be hard to determine how much insulation -- if any -- is inside old walls and ceilings.

"A lot of this is guesswork," Winslow said.

Winslow owns 28 units in Portland. He has a good sense of the energy status at a 65-year-old house he's renovating, because he's doing the work himself. Winslow figures he'd be able to rent the four-bedroom house for $1,500, plus utilities.

On the third floor, Winslow ripped out plaster and found no insulation. He installed fiberglass batts in the knee walls, sloping roof and ceiling. The next step is to face it with foam board -- the old framing isn't deep enough to meet modern insulation levels with fiberglass alone.

Winslow has replaced old windows with thermopane glazing with low-e coatings. In the basement, a high-efficiency boiler feeds six different zones and heats water. Winslow is still debating whether it's worthwhile to insulate the cellar walls. And he's keeping the home's orginial arched wooden door.

"That's too much of an architectural feature to mess with," he said.

TRICKY TRADE-OFFS

Property owners need to maintain a balance when making energy improvements, observed Shirley Gaudet. She and her husband own the six-unit building in Portland where Sarah Hines lives. They charge $800-$900 for two-bedrooms.

The couple removed a large, old boiler and put in individual units that provide heat and hot water. They insulated the roof last year. This year they're replacing windows as part of a lead abatement program for old buildings. They plan to install new siding, but Gaudet said insulating the walls may be too expensive in the 100-year-old building.

"You try to do a little at a time, so you're not increasing the rent," she said. "You need to walk a tightrope between how to make it comfortable and affordable."

Gaudet said she wasn't familiar with the new disclosure law.

The lack of awareness doesn't surprise Skolnik at the young voters organization. Groups that represent tenants will probably need to send out mailings and press releases to get the word out, he said.

For its part, the landlord association is highlighting the law on its Web site (www.maoma.org).

Meanwhile, Sarah Hines is trying to stay warm in her apartment.

Last winter, she and her roommate kept the thermostat around 55 degrees, except when they had visitors. They relied on the focused warmth from an electric space heater. That increased their power bill, but was cheaper than running the boiler.

Keeping a cool home led to a novel experience at Thanksgiving, Hines noted.
She put on a pot of water to boil in the kitchen, aware that humid air feels warmer than dry air. Then she left for a while.

"I had made fog in my kitchen," she said. "It was two to three feet thick and the air was warmer inside the cloud then outside."

Staff writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at: tturkel@pressherald.com