“What protections do tenants have against outrageous increases when allocation methods are used?”

“Dear PoPville,

I’ve lived in an apartment in Capitol Hill for a year and a half. The apartment uses an allocation method to calculate water/sewer, which is “50% occupancy 50% unit square feet.” My bill has consistently been about $20 for water and $40 for sewer. For September, I received a water bill for $90 and sewer bill for $156 – 4 times the usual amount.

What protections do tenants have against outrageous increases when allocation methods are used?

For context, this apartment shares a building with a food hall. The building has chronic plumbing issues and they recently started construction on a new commercial space in the building. We received the below email from our property manager on November 1st, the day the bill was due.

“This month, our water/sewer usage increased by 38%. This was a shock to us and we reached out to Conservice to take immediate action. Unfortunately, Conservice informed us that the billing was correct and directed us to DC Water. We have opened a ticket with DC Water and are awaiting a response. If, DC Water finds any discrepancies, we will request credits that will be added to the following billing cycle through Conservice. We are asking you pay the utilities and clear your balance until we are able to understand why our water bill surged to the extreme amount. As we understand that this is a big difference, please reach out if you need to schedule a payment plan for these utilities.“