A utility-billing dispute in San Diego escalated after a renter sought documentation for water, sewer, and trash charges under a 2025 city ordinance. The tenant says the request was followed by a pay-or-quit notice and an ensuing eviction fight.
The episode reflects a broader concern raised in multiple tenant complaints: a transparency law intended to clarify pass-through utility costs may be hard to enforce in practice.
Here's what to know
Records obtained by Voice of San Diego show seven complaints filed between December 2025 and August 2026. In those filings, renters said landlords or property managers did not provide the utility documents required by San Diego's Residential Utility Fee Ordinance, and two tenants said their requests were followed by eviction threats or notices.
Under the 2025 ordinance, landlords have 10 calendar days after a written request to provide the building's utility bills and the calculations used to determine a tenant's share.
The measure was meant to shed light on a common apartment billing practice in which residents are charged through formulas rather than by their exact usage.
In that June 30 complaint, one renter wrote, "I have been given a pay or quit notice because of non payment. I am currently facing eviction over this and have made past payments under duress."
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Elsewhere in the complaints, tenants said their requests were ignored, records arrived only after long waits, or important information was redacted.
The allegations have not been independently verified, and City Attorney Heather Ferbert's Office declined to say whether any of the cases were under investigation. The complaints were filed with the Housing Protection and Civil Code Compliance Unit launched in August 2025, which says it has since received around 800 complaints.
More background
A common setup in multifamily housing is ratio utility billing systems, or RUBS, which split water, sewer, or trash costs using factors like unit size or number of occupants instead of separate meters for each unit.
Under that arrangement, tenants can wind up paying for shifts in building-wide usage and, in some cases, for charges they say should not be divided among all residents.
One complaint dated May 6 said trash charges jumped from $208.91 to $311.67. In a separate case, a tenant alleged that "misuse of trash" and "Recycling Contamination" fines were spread across all residents.
Those increases came as the City Council approved water and sewer rate hikes of more than 30% over two years, along with new trash fees. Attorney Gilberto Vera with the Legal Aid Society of San Diego said: "RUBS is causing housing destabilization. You already have high rents, and then it's hard for you as a tenant to budget when your utilities change, they change and go up and down every month."
What's being done?
San Diego's ordinance gives renters a legal right to request the underlying bills and the formula used to calculate their share, and the City Attorney's Office says it can pursue civil action when complaints point to repeated violations or a broader unfair business practice.
"Passing a new law doesn't necessarily always mean tenants are protected. Enforcement that has to go into effect, so that landlords know, 'Hey, not only is this a new law, we're going to enforce it, and if you don't comply with it, there's going to be consequences,'" Vera said.
Where can I learn more?
Disputes over utility charges and landlord retaliation have surfaced in other rental fights, too. They include eviction threats, disputed electricity and water bills, and extra fees tenants say they were unfairly made to cover.
• In San Francisco, a landlord attempted to evict several tenants after a laundry-room dispute that helped spur legislation.
• A renter discovered a landlord was using the apartment's electricity to power a pool and freezer.
• A renter pushed back after a landlord demanded $75 more to charge an electric vehicle.
• In the Czech Republic, a landlord threatened a dramatic increase in tenants' energy bills.
• A tenant said a landlord's truth behind the water bill included paying for wasteful lawn irrigation.
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