All utilities will be included as a standard with FSP Homes. The reason for this is the ability to charge more. I would assume that HUD will require that you pay 35% of your rent since the utilities are included and you don’t have to worry about things like electricity or internet. The reason for this is simplicity, and savings. If I can pay all of the apartments, then I will definitely get a bulk discount that you as the tenant will not. You are not going to have 600 telephone services. The realty will.
Electricity/Gas
Simply put, there is no way to setup individual meters for every residence. If there were 4-5 units, then yes. More than 600 – not so much. In Pennsylvania, I must have separate meters if I was to not include the utility. This will mean there will be 1 meter per residence + 1 for the common space. The store fronts will have their own electricity meter. In addition to electricity, there will be battery banks that will provide enough electricity to allow for the gas generator to turn on to provide for electricity. This is great for appliances, and desktop PCs since there will be no sudden cut (even 2 seconds) for the backup system to turn on. As you will expect, there will be no separate meter for gas.
Internet
The communications closet is locked. Simply put, there is nothing in the closet that would benefit the tenant. If they need a particular ethernet line to be POE?, then they will make a house call. All apartments will receive a dedicated FiOS? connection. Each connection is unique, and not shared with other units. The network server will handle all LAN? traffic, and connect you to the internet via the WAN? connection. You will not receive a free website nor email. For these solutions, you will have to look elsewhere.
Sewage
Sewage is usually handled by the water authority. However, below the basement will be a gray water collection system. This will provide water for the toilets, and any outdoor space with grass. This will reduce the amount of gray water going through the sewage, and design to reduce and reuse. It is not like you are drinking water out of the toilet, and you probably should not allow your dog to drink from the toilet anyways. Water from the dishwasher, laundry washer, and toilet is considered as black water, and will go straight to the sewage.
Telephone
Every unit will have a Grandstream WP810 or better in their unit. This can be used exclusively for the intercom system, or be used to make domestic phone calls. The tenant will have unlimited US calling, and will have to have an international call block to not cost extra. You will receive your own telephone number, and you will be required to setup your voicemail especially if you are going to give the number out to people. Since the phone is a wifi? phone, and there is a building wide network for the telephone system, this will mean you will be able to take the phone out of the apartment while you wait for a person to meet you at the public foyer. If they call the home number, the WP810 will ring even though you are well beyond your personal wifi range. This is because the phone is tied to the building wide telephone network, and not your wifi connection.
Television
I will work with Verizon to provide for FiOS Basic TV. This will give 125+ channels, and the requisite on their part will be that they will not require a cable box. Instead, they simply plug the TV into the TV Wall of the room, and have television services. Some TVs might require a channel scan, and some will allow you to select cable for the channel scan. This will be done to provide for all of the channels you would have access to. If you find that Verizon is not giving you the channels you would want, you can look into other IPTV? services for the channels you would want. You would need a smartTV for this feature though.
Trash
Even if the local community will provide for trash collection, there is no way they will be able to support for so many residences. With that said, I will need to make contracts with another waste management system. I will think that I might need 5 dumpsters, and hopefully collect once a week. One dumpster will be required to be placed in a certain position as this is under the penthouse’s trash chute. Tenants will have to take their trash to the dumpster. This is an unfortunate circumstance for so many units.
Water
An average human consumes about 4 liters of water a day. This is very close to 1 gallon. This will mean hundreds of litters are being consumed daily. In addition there is water used for laundry, washing dishes, and bathing. Showers typically use less water than tubs, so that would be helpful, however there is still hundreds of gallons of water consumed by the apartment.