Hi. My roommate and I live in New York City and the heating and electric bills are our responsibility, but the heating bill is outrageously high (more than $700 every winter and over $500 for late winter/early spring). My roommate and I have entered into a payment plan with our gas company, but even that isn't enough to fight off the bills at our door; we've also gotten the landlord to replace the 90 year old boiler and heating infrastructure in our apartment and the landlord isn't willing to do much more.

My questions are as follows:
1) Does the landlord have a right to put such bills on the tenants? I've yet to hear other landlords doing so in my research.
2) If the gas bills are very high what can the tenant do if the landlord isn't willing assist his tenant in helping paying them off?
3) Can the local government or any government office in the housing department conduct an inspection to see if the landlord is screwing over the tenants?
4) Is the only real option to move out and look for a better deal?

Thank you for your time.

Contact the building dept and ask them these questions. When I lived in NYC a million years ago I only paid my gas bill for the gas stove and no heating bills ever. Maybe things have changed. Maybe the landlord is illegally charging you the bills to heat his apt house. Check it out with the building dept - they're the ones who definitely will know. And yes, you can ask the building dept to come and inspect th premises. The landlord just might have something illegally rigged to make you pay for the heat.

From my experience renting in Texas and California:

1. Yes, it's perfectly legit to have the tenants pay for the utilities. The apartments I've rented wouldn't even let me move in without proof that I had had the utilities put in my name.
2. Move.
3. I am not sure on this one. There is probably a department somewhere that will. Keep in mind that you are apparently living in an old building, if the boiler is 90 years old, and old buildings are not necessarily efficient. When I was renting in Austin, I had an apartment where the utilities were 28/month. The next year I moved to a different complex and had them go up to 100/month, for the same size unit. The big difference I could see was that I was getting hit by both morning and evening sunlight in the second place, which will skyrocket the AC costs in Texas. The first spot had neighbors on both sides, so the insulation was better.
4. If the landlord has fixed the boiler and the heating infrastructure already, moving is probably the only option left.