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If you had two identical looking houses for identical rent, one could cost $100/mo to heat/cool and the other could cost $300. This isn't really something that renters are realistically able to discriminate on.

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I would support a law that makes this a required disclosure in rental listings, like asbestos. In some cities, commercial buildings are issues a public facing grade on their energy efficiency. Why not other forms of commercial real estate like multifamily?

The status quo is the energy costs are hidden and only revealed one month after you move in.

In the EU this is already a thing: if you want to sell or lease a building, you must disclose an energy certificate.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=LEG...

>This isn't really something that renters are realistically able to discriminate on.

Surely they can ask for what the expected utilities are? Failing that, asking for what the trailing 12 month's bills were.

Good luck with that. If you’ve got the runway and free time, maybe you can find a corporate landlord with a conscience. For small rentals, utilities are in the tenants name so the landlord might not even know.

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