Residents in a Kalaeloa neighborhood — who have been hit with utility bills as high as $800 a month — should get some relief soon.
The owner and manager of Kalaeloa Rental Homes has installed individual water and electricity meters at each home to give the residents control over their monthly bills. Previously, many of the homes didn’t have meters, and bills were based on square footage and number of occupants.
Last month a dozen renters gathered at the Barbers Point Bowling Center for a meeting hosted by state Rep. Andria Tupola (R, Kalaeloa-Ko Olina-Maili). They wanted to know why their electricity, water and sewage bills were so much higher than typical Oahu bills.
One couple with a daughter who said they are gone all day and rarely use air conditioning had a $751 bill in August, including $500 for electricity. A typical bill on Oahu for residents using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity was $134.73 in August.
“I was so happy to hear that (Kalaeloa Rental Homes) implemented a new energy metering system,” Tupola said. “I’m grateful that they quickly took action.”
“I am in tears right now,” said Kristina Johnson, a Kalaeloa Rental Homes resident, in a email to Tupola. “Absolute relief right now. I feel like we won.”
In a letter sent to renters with October’s utility bill, Kalaeloa Rental Homes said residents could opt to use the installed meters starting Oct. 1.
“The ownership group and management team remain committed to understanding the community’s concerns, improving the situation as whole and remaining in communication with all of you,” Kalaeloa Rental Homes said in the letter.
Boston-based RockPoint Group LLC is the owner of Kalaeloa Rental Homes, and Charleston, N.C.-based Greystar manages the property.
The rental homes are made up of three neighborhoods: Makai, Mahana and Kaimana.
The neighborhoods, which were built as military housing, used to have water, sewage and electricity paid by the Navy and didn’t have separate meters.
The Navy still provides water and sewage service to the three neighborhoods. The management company pays the Navy for all the units and then bills each renter based on the square footage of their home and the number of people living there. With the new meters, renters will pay based on their use.
The electricity bills are a bit different. One neighborhood, Kaimana, gets its electricity from the Navy while the two other neighborhoods, Makai and Mahana, are served by Hawaiian Electric Co. Makai and Mahana renters didn’t have any problem with their electrical bills, but Kaimana residents were seeing unusually high charges.
Kalaeloa Rental Homes said in the letter that using the information from the individual meters will allow the billing to be based on each unit’s actual monthly use, giving residents more control.
“The ownership group has been working for months on the purchase and installation of new water and electrical meters for every home throughout the community,” Kalaeloa Rental Homes said. “Those meters are now functioning and providing real time information about each home’s actual usage levels.”
The company said it spent $300,000 on individual water and electrical meters.
“This project has taken time and required over $300,000 of new ownership investment,” Kalaeloa Rental Homes said in the letter. “We were planning to announce these changes once all of the details were finalized, but due to recent events, we felt it was important to notify you now.”
In addition to the new meters, renters in the Makai neighborhood will be getting a refund of the unusually high water and sewage bills they got in recent months.
Rockpoint and the Navy found a large waterline break at Makai. Kalaeloa Rental Homes said in the letter that the break may have been responsible for the rising costs Makai renters had been seeing.
“Once the break was discovered we were able to shut off the broken section,” the company said. “In consideration of the community’s continued patience as the situation improves, the ownership group has decided to waive all water and sewer charges for usage in the months of August and September.”
