Pricing Out Tenants, Unfair Utility Billing
July 15, 2025 - Review from Apartments.com
I've lived in Qualman for 2 years, and I really love this building. My neighbors are incredible people and the building has a lot of charm. We pay for electricity, gas for the stove, and internet on our own accounts. Recently, Cornell & Associates switched us from flat utility rates of $50 monthly (sewer/heat/trash/ water) to Ratio Utility Billing System aka RUBS. My first RUBS bill was $260!!!! Cornell says that the bill is divided by usage, but this is misinformation. They take the building's ...
utility bill and divide it up using bad math and charge us for common areas and vacant units that we shouldn't be paying for. If you are out of town for a few weeks, you'll still have to pay high utility bills.
Several of my neighbors had to move out because their housing costs increased so much. When these tenants moved out, Cornell increased the listing cost by 17%. Because this is an old building, there are issues with bursting pipes, water leaks, and radiators overheating the units (we have no control over the heat). The building manager also manages 7 other buildings, which sets him up to fail, in my opinion.
Cornell & Associates manages over 200 buildings in Seattle. They will do anything to extract from tenants and line their own pockets.
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