Hello Roosevelt Landings Neighbors,

For those of you who were not able to attend Monday’s meeting hosted by our lawyer, Bill Salo, please read this email to catch up on the billing situation.

In 2008, our landlord wanted to make extra profits and applied for submetering. RLRA’s President Joyce Short was instrumental in the fight against it. 5 buildings are affected by this same case, and we are all in this together. Combined, this makes over 2,000 households. In 2008, the PSC commission was about to approve submetering, but thanks to Joyce’s efforts, it was put on hold, before being approved in 2009 with 10 conditions. For example, the landlord had to replace refrigerators, seal the outside walls, and more. The buildings were built cheaply with no insulation. In some cases there are even holes in the wall, where you can see to the outside. The prior landlord sold the buildings to current landlord (L&M) in 2019. 

L&M didn’t do anything until 2024 when they applied to submetering approval, but instead of applying for a new approval, they tried to resuscitate the old application. In 2012, new regulations passed. The state’s highest court has said that if you adopt rules, the public is entitled to believe that you are going to follow your own rules. The rules say that if a building gets approved for submetering but the submetering does not commence within 5 years, it expires and they need to refile a new one. The PSC applied NONE of their rules.

Usually, an approval document for submetering is 4-8 pages long. First, they set a rate cap above which the building can’t charge. Ours doesn’t have a rate cap. Second, need to subtract the electric charge from rent, which didn’t happen with our case. The PSC should have said that they need to subtract something from our rent instead of charging us twice. Instead, they used HPD and DHCR numbers, which table of values they use as allowance for utilities like for subsidies. That figure should have been in addition to a reduction in rent for subsidized tenants. 

April  2025, PSC issued their order permitting submetering which 251 pages long, instead of the usual 4-8 pages long. Normally the landlord has to be a HEAP vendor, but our landlord was allowed to escape that. There are also many other things that are minor problems. The order says landlord has to do nothing, and can just start charging. Why did this billionaire get a sweetheart deal? Maybe there is corruption. The governor appoints commissioners of HPD, they decide what happens. Within 30 days we had petitioned to reconsider, but they took 9 months to deny the petition. They said that the 2011 order occurred before 2012 rules, therefore 2012 rules don’t apply. 

We are suing them in court, under what is called an Article 78 petition. This type of case has no jury, just a judge. There is very limited discovery. We have our case pending. 

We have a grace period until April 7th and we are going to ask for a new TRO this week.We told the judge the harm this is doing, and showed him the high bills, many of which are in the $500 range, with some exceeding $700. 

Our preliminary injunction is still pending, and we are also asking for a permanent injunction, and declaratory judgement that landlord is unfit to be a submeterer. There was a fatal fire in Roosevelt Landings because a baseboard heater caused a fire that killed our neighbor. 

There was also recently a carbon monoxide death in The Crossing. L&M is a slumlord and unfit to submeter. They are our electricity provider and we have no choice to switch. They are charging us 1.5% monthly interest on unpaid bills, we should not face this. We are going back to Judge Farrell to file a second request for TRO this week.\

There is a dispute process for your electric bills. We will get an email out with the dispute instructions, which could delay your due dates for a couple of weeks.

Are you harming the case by paying the bill? No. Hopefully, we win and get that money back. But if we lose, we’d have to pay arrears. They forced us to sign lease riders over the last few years. They cannot evict you for failure to pay electricity, but they are making us sign lease riders saying that electricity charge is a lease condition, just like obstructing hallway etc. You won’t be evicted for failure to pay electricity, but could be evicted for violating the lease condition. They are sending 10 days’ notice to read and sign the lease. 

In lease rider, cross off paragraph 18, in all caps. It might not be enforceable, but we might try to fight it in court. 

For those who got bills in children’s names: it’s against the law. If not given SS# consent, it’s illegal. If you or someone you know has received their Metergy bills in a child’s name, please email me immediately as we need their information to build a case.

As I have said many times, we cannot advise you to not pay your bill. However, please be aware of the risks of not paying (1.5% monthly interest, credit report affected eventually, lease violation actions taken against you, eventual utility shut-offs). Paying your bill will not negatively affect our case, like some have believed. The due date for the bills is shown as March 24th, but there is a 20 day grace period extending this to April 7th. Note that all fee-free payment options take around a week to process. If you have any questions please reach out.

In solidarity,

Zach Ephron

Roosevelt Landings Residents Association