TENANT FIGHTS:
COLLECTIVE POWER IN ACTION
Real victories against RUBS abuse—led by tenants
who refused to stay silent.
Virgil Square Tenants Association
The Virgil Square Tenants Association is approaching eight months on RUBS strike, paying rent but not their RUBS utility bills.
Virgil Square Apartments is a 141-unit property in Koreatown owned and managed by Equity Residential, one of the largest landlords in the country. The tenants had been frustrated for years about high and varying utility bills. Many of them were told when they signed the lease that utilities would be around $50, but once they moved in, they would receive bills of $200-$300 each month.
They began organizing, and in April2025, the tenants association demanded that their landlord turn over the bills so tenants could see why their charges were so high. The landlord ignored that demand.
In May 2025, the tenants held a press conference demanding Equity Residential stop charging unverifiable utility fees.
In June 2025, Equity Residential lowered the water and sewer bills by half.
In August 2025, Equity Residential returned more than $25,000 to the tenants for what they admitted were “higher than expected” charges–but they have still refused to show tenants the bills, even though they are legally required to!
Victory Tenants Association
In April 2025, tenants at a 16-unit property in Van Nuys on Victory Boulevard received a “utility addendum” informing them that they would begin to be charged new utilities charges. They received charges of hundreds of dollars at irregular intervals and unexplained “admin fees” (sometimes multiple per month).
In combination with annual rent increases at the maximum allowed by the Tenant Protection Act, these new utilities charges meant that some tenants experienced what was effectively a 17% rent increase.
One family’s rent was raised more than 25% over the course of about eighteen months.
The tenants organized a majority tenants’ association in their building and sent a letter to the letter demanding that RUBS be ended–or, if the landlord refused to do that, that the landlord turn over the bills and explain the charges in detail.
Within a week, the landlord responded saying they had decided to “end the RUBS experiment” and would reimburse tenants.
One tenant had a charge of more than $1300 removed from her account.
This victory never would have happened if the tenants hadn’t organized – since many tenants had individually complained and been ignored.
Congratulations to the Victory TA!