Oh boy, oh boy; this question is a biggy, and the answer in your face is going to depend on who you ask. If you ask your apartment manager, you’re going to get one, and it’s going to be painted heavily with the brush of profit and convenience as they see fit to do so, even if it’s in stark contrast to the law. When I moved in to Heatherwood, I saw the rates they wanted to charge me for their Bulk Cable account through Comcast, so I headed straight for the Dish… and was told I couldn’t have one. Turns out it isn’t that simple, so if you have an apartment and want a satellite dish, you need to know a bit more about your rights.
Charito Domingo told me that I was forbidden from having a satellite dish at my apartment unit. There was some truth, some lies, and a missed opportunity in there, so here’s the break down.
Truth:
They have every right to restrict me from nailing anything to the outside wall or any common areas, or running anything through any part of the complex I don’t have exclusive access to.
Lies:
I was told it was forbidden. I called them on it, and they could tell I wasn’t a common fool, so they withdrew to a secondary defensive line, claiming instead that I “could put it on my balcony, but that I would be legally required to acquire a renter’s insurance policy with a specific rider to cover damage that my satellite dish might cause.
There isn’t any addendum to a renter’s insurance policy specific to covering damage caused by a satellite dish. They know that, but more importantly, they know that you’re not going to get a renter’s policy. They aren’t a very good deal, since they cost as much as a home owner’s policy (which covers hundreds of thousands of dollars), even though they cover far less (about $10,000, but it’s extremely difficult to get paid out on claims.) Either way, this request is bogus, because a tripod or bucket-mounted satellite dish on your balcony can’t possible cause any more damage than a lawn chair or barbecue, and those are perfectly acceptable… hell, a barbecue can burn the building down, and that’s fine… so what’s the real issue here?
You can have satellite in any apartment by law so long as your dish doesn’t exceed 20″ in diameter and you don’t damage the rental structure. if you meet these standards, your land lord has no say in it. You’ll want to set up your dish on a pole mounted from a concrete filled bucket, or a tripod, but that’s about the legal extent of their say in the matter.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a rule that forbids local governments, apartment managers and condo homeowners associations from enforcing unreasonable restrictions regarding the installation of small satellite dishes. If your manger says it’s “against policy” or “too ugly,” that isn’t a reason to forbid it. For more information visit the FCC website.
Missed Opportunities
If I was in senior management, and I really didn’t want people to use satellite dishes, but also didn’t want to foster a greater ill-will from tenants, especially in a property with already strained tenant relations, I would make a list of all apartments that are already ineligible for satellite television dishes, and treat them differently. In the case of my apartment, they could have told me in plain terms I was eligible, and that I should look in to getting one, because it wouldn’t have helped me.
In order to have and use a satellite dish, you have to have an unobstructed view of the southern sky, since that’s where the satellites reside in the space above the earth. Why go to war with tenants that can’t get satellite anyhow? Why tell outright lies to people like me who couldn’t benefit from the alternative either way? If you really want to push your pro-cable agenda, start with the swing-state voters that can actually go either way, and forget about those of us without the benefit of fair competition.
Possible Reason for the Lie
There are many reasons why an apartment manager, even the managers at Heatherwood Apartments in Mill Creek, Washington, might want to persuade you against the use of a satellite dish. It’s easy to imagine that it’s an eyesore for the property, even though that’s not a legal basis for the restriction of use. It is possible that damage could occur in use or installation, especially if it’s handled improperly. The more likely reason is that Heatherwood Apartments (and I can’t speak for other properties) has negotiated a bulk-rate from which they earn a tremendous premium.
Bulk cable rates are commonly negotiated by the owners and operators of large multi-family properties like Heatherwood. In the case of Marvin Gardens, where I briefly lived in the late 1990s, they had done exactly this. They were able to get basic cable for any rental unit that wanted it for $10 per month. From my conversation with Jennifer, the bulk cable manager at Comcast responsible for managing Heatherwood’s connectivity, I learned that $10 is still a fairly common rate for the cable service offered by Heatherwood. The difference in the rate, as she explained, is pure profit to the apartment managers. I told her how much it costs at Heatherwood, and she was surprised, because she’d never heard of a complex charging any more than that (though admitted she’d heard of some that charge exactly that much.)
So if you’re pulling a net profit of $30 per apartment on cable, and you have 400 units taking cable, that’s $12,000 per month in additional revenue for the property… with this in mind, how strongly would you discourage your renters from seeking an alternative?
What the FCC Says
From FCC SITE: “The rule applies to antenna users who live in a multiple dwelling unit building, such as a condominium or apartment building, if the antenna user has an exclusive use area in which to install the antenna. “Exclusive use” means an area of the property that only you, and persons you permit, may enter and use to the exclusion of other residents. For example, your condominium or apartment may include a balcony, terrace, deck or patio that only you can use, and the rule applies to these areas. The rule does not apply to common areas, such as the roof, the hallways, the walkways or the exterior walls of a condominium or apartment building. Restrictions on antennas installed in these common areas are not covered by the Commission’s rule. For example, the rule would not apply to restrictions that prevent drilling through the exterior wall of a condominium or rental unit and thus restrictions may prohibit installation that requires such drilling.” (original text here.)
If you’re in an apartment building, you may face resistance or retaliation from management if you try to install a satellite dish, and many installers won’t even set it up without a letter from your manager indemnifying them from legal ramifications. You’re unlikely to get it just by asking, but if you arm yourself with knowledge of the law and a dogged perseverance handy, they’ll have no choice but to relent.
In my case I neither had the information, nor the conviction to pursue my rights. Instead I had to wait until I’d moved in a few months to notice that there were indeed a number of tenants with satellite dishes, and simply feel resentment against the management for their bold and indefensible lies.
Tags: cable, charito, comcast, fcc, heatherwood, illegal, intimidation, law, profit, satellite