Landlords, Tenants, and Condo Owners

Landlords, tenants, and condo owners in 1- to 4-unit buildings are all welcome to participate in Renew Boston. Either the building’s owner, a condo owner, or a tenant may sign up for a no-cost Home Energy Assessment. This can be done as a single unit only, but two- and three-family buildings within the City of Boston may qualify for bigger subsidies if all the units that need weatherization are assessed and insulated at the same time. Read more details at https://www.renewboston.org/whole-building-incentive/.

In a property with some units that are low-income and some that are not, Renew Boston can help coordinate all parties and funding sources to maximize the energy and cost savings available for the entire building. Renew Boston’s Whole Building Coordinator can help facilitate efficiency upgrades in buildings that need support. Please feel free to contact Loie Hayes at 617-524-3950 ext 155 or [email protected].

What are the first steps?

When scheduling your assessment, please inform the customer service representative that you are a renter or an owner in a 2- to 4-unit building, and that you would like to coordinate Home Energy Assessments for all the units. To speed up the process of getting your whole building insulated, use this handy worksheet to collect all the utility account numbers in your building before you call. You can also share translations of this worksheet as PDFs in Spanish, Vietnamese, Haitian Kreyol, Cape Verdean Creole, and Chinese or as MS Word documents in English, Spanish, Haitian Kreyol, Chinese, Cape Verdean Creole, and Vietnamese.

What should we do if one party does not want to participate in the program?

Individual units are welcome to have a Home Energy Assessment without cooperation of the other units in the building. Also, Renew Boston will try to help any landlord, tenant, or condo owner that needs assistance in talking with other residents or owners in a 1- to 4-unit building. While efficiencies and incentives are highest when all units in a building are weatherized, you can proceed without all units if neccessary.

What if my building has more than 4 units?

While Renew Boston is limited to buildings with 4 or fewer units, the Mass Save Multi-Family program will help larger buildings to become more energy efficient. Please call 1-800-594-7277, or go to Mass Save’s multi-family section on their website for more details.