Morgantown apartment operating costs are shaped by a set of local charges that owners elsewhere may not expect: a per-unit rental registration and inspection program, a city fire service fee billed by the square foot, Morgantown Utility Board water, sewer and stormwater rates, a municipal business and occupation tax, and West Virginia’s Class IV property tax for non-owner-occupied real estate inside city limits. Each is set by a specific ordinance, statute or rate order, and most changed within the past two years.
This guide goes line by line through those costs using the city’s fee schedule, budget documents, utility rate ordinances and state tax publications, and closes with what they add up to for a typical small apartment building.
Who rents in Morgantown
Morgantown is the county seat of Monongalia County and home to West Virginia University. The Census Bureau’s QuickFacts profile estimates 30,293 residents on July 1, 2025, against 30,347 in the 2020 Census. The owner-occupied housing rate for 2020–2024 was 43.7%, so a majority of occupied homes in the city are rented. Median gross rent over the same period was $937.
The university is the main reason. WVU reported a fall 2025 headcount of 23,532 students across the institution, including 18,390 undergraduates and 5,142 graduate students. A student-heavy renter base shapes operating costs in specific ways: more turnover, more move-in and move-out work each summer, and closer attention from the city to occupancy limits.
Rental registration and inspection
The City of Morgantown requires every rental property inside city limits to be registered. According to the city’s rental information page, registered rentals are inspected “once every 3 years” under the International Property Maintenance Code, and owners “must make corrections to any code violations found within 20 days of the on-site inspection.” Failure to correct can lead to citations, condemnation or both.
The program is not new. The city’s Code Enforcement division says housing inspections began in 1979, when there were about 3,500 rental units in operation, and that it now employs four building inspectors, four rental housing inspectors and two compliance officers.
The 2026 fee schedule
The city updated its permitting and inspection fees through Ordinance 2026-25, with the schedule effective September 16, 2026. The rental-related lines include:
- Rental registration for multi-family buildings: $25 per apartment.
- Rental registration for one- or two-family rentals: also $25 per apartment.
- Boarding or lodging houses: $15 per bedroom.
- Reinspection: $25 per appointment per unit.
- Missed inspection appointment: $20 per appointment per unit, which the schedule says includes failing to coordinate with tenants to grant entry.
- Condition of sale inspection: $75 per appointment.
For a 20-unit building, registration alone works out to $500. The reinspection and missed-appointment charges are where costs can climb, because they are assessed per unit. An owner who fails to arrange tenant access for a building-wide inspection could face a charge for every unit that could not be entered.
The $75 condition of sale inspection is the line most relevant when a building changes hands, since it is tied to a transfer rather than to the regular three-year cycle.
A fire inspection fee that is not yet in effect
The same schedule lists a Fire Department inspection fee for apartments and other residential structures of $50 for 12 units or less, plus $50 for each additional 12 units. A footnote states it is “effective only upon adoption of plan for regular inspections,” so it is not being charged yet. Owners budgeting for future years should note that it exists on paper.
Paperwork the housing code requires
The city’s housing code, Article 1751, sets out what a registration application must contain. It must name the owner and “the agent, operator, or other person to contact in case of emergency.” Applicants must also state that they have notified the Monongalia County Assessor that the property has been converted to rental housing, Class IV realty. Renewals are due at least 30 days before the existing letter of compliance expires, and knowingly giving false information is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $100 to $500.
Occupancy limits and the cost of getting them wrong
In a college town, occupancy rules are an operating issue, not just a zoning footnote. Under Morgantown’s planning and zoning code, two unrelated people may live together in single-family zoning districts, and legal pre-existing nonconforming units may have no more than three unrelated persons. In other districts, the West Virginia State Building Code sets occupancy.
The penalties are steep relative to the registration fee. Under the housing code, over-occupancy must be reduced within 20 days of a citation. Fines run $200 for a first conviction and $300 for later ones, and each day beyond the 20-day period counts as a separate offense. For owners of older converted houses and small walk-ups near campus, verifying the permitted occupancy of every unit before signing leases is cheaper than any fine.
The city fire service fee
Morgantown funds part of its fire department through a fire service fee charged on buildings. The city’s code, as published in its February 2021 codification supplement, sets the fee at 9.42 cents per square foot of space within each structure per year, plus 5.95 cents per square foot for each floor above the third. It is billed in two halves, due August 15 and February 15. Paying the full year early earns a 5% discount, a 5% penalty applies to late payments, and unpaid fees can become liens on the property.
The rate has since gone up. The city’s FY27 budget book notes that “in July 2025, the City implemented a one-time 15 percent adjustment to the Fire Protection Service Charges,” and projects FY27 fire fee revenue of $4,881,175.
As a rough illustration only: at the 9.42-cent code rate, a three-story, 15,000-square-foot apartment building would have owed about $1,413 a year. Applying the 15% adjustment brings that to roughly $1,625. Owners should use their actual bill, but the point is that this fee scales with building size, not with rent or occupancy.
Water, sewer and stormwater from MUB
The Morgantown Utility Board provides water, sewer and stormwater service. Its current rates trace to three ordinances that Morgantown City Council approved on August 24, 2021: water rose 13%, sewer 12% and stormwater 18%, each followed by 3% inflationary steps for the fiscal years ending June 30, 2024, 2025 and 2026. MUB’s rate change page summarizes that schedule, and local reporting described the July 2025 increase as the third and final inflationary adjustment.
Based on the ordinance text in the council’s August 24, 2021 agenda packet, the rates in effect since July 1, 2025 are:
- Water: $6.36 per 1,000 gallons for the first 60,000 gallons a month, and $4.16 per 1,000 gallons above that.
- Sewer: $10.69 per 1,000 gallons for the first 60,000 gallons a month, and $9.18 per 1,000 gallons above that.
- Stormwater: $7.58 a month for a single-family home; other properties pay $3.03 per 1,000 square feet of impervious area.
Combined water and sewer for the first 60,000 gallons comes to $17.05 per 1,000 gallons. If a 20-unit building on a master meter used 60,000 gallons in a month, the water and sewer charge would be about $1,023 before any fixed charges. Large buildings on a single meter also benefit from the second tier: beyond 60,000 gallons a month, water drops from $6.36 to $4.16 and sewer from $10.69 to $9.18 per 1,000 gallons, which lowers the blended rate for the highest-usage properties. Owners of master-metered buildings who pay water and sewer for tenants carry that cost directly, so leak detection, low-flow fixtures and a clear utility clause in the lease all show up in net operating income. Stormwater adds a separate charge based on roofs, driveways and parking areas.
Electric and gas rate changes
Electricity in Morgantown is supplied by Mon Power, a FirstEnergy utility. In mid-2026, the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved a scaled-back, two-step increase for Mon Power and Potomac Edison in place of the $188.4 million the companies had requested: $37.9 million effective August 1, 2026, and $37.6 million effective June 1, 2027. Reporting on the order put the average monthly residential bill rising from $137.86 to $145.52, a 5.6% increase.
Where tenants pay their own electricity, that increase mostly reaches the owner through common-area lighting, laundry rooms and vacant units during turnover. In buildings where electricity is included in rent, it flows straight to the expense line.
On the gas side, the PSC approved a settlement for Mountaineer Gas adding $5.2 million for pipeline replacement, effective January 1, 2026, which reporting estimated at $1.55 a month, or 1.93%, for an average customer. Owners should confirm which gas utility serves a given building, but the direction of both utility bills in 2026 has been upward.
Business and occupation tax
West Virginia cities can levy a business and occupation tax on gross income, and Morgantown does. The city’s quarterly B&O tax return lists a classification for “Rents, royalties, etc.” at $1.00 per $100 of gross income, with a $4.69 credit. Late filings carry a penalty of 5% for the first 30 days and 1% for each additional 30 days, plus interest at 8% per year.
Because the return does not explain on its face how residential leasing is classified, owners should confirm with the city’s finance department how their rental income is reported. If the rents classification applies, the tax would be about 1% of gross rents, or roughly $1,000 for every $100,000 collected.
The municipal service fee
Morgantown also charges a municipal service fee of $3 per week, or $156 a year, on individuals who work within city limits. It falls on workers rather than on property, but it applies to on-site managers and maintenance staff employed at a Morgantown building, which matters for owners who run payroll.
Property tax under Class IV
West Virginia assesses property at a fixed fraction of value. Under West Virginia Code § 11-3-1, property is assessed annually as of July 1 “at sixty percent of its true and actual value.”
Apartment buildings inside a municipality fall into Class IV, which the state defines as all real and personal property situated inside municipalities, other than Classes I and II. That is why Morgantown’s housing code asks registrants to confirm they have told the assessor that a property has been converted to rental housing, Class IV realty: the classification determines which levy rate applies. According to the state’s 2025 classified assessed valuations report, Class III and IV rates are four times the Class I rate, and the statewide average Class IV levy for tax year 2025 was 2.95 per $100 of assessed value.
Applying that statewide average to an apartment building appraised at $1,000,000 gives an assessed value of $600,000 and a tax bill of about $17,700. Morgantown’s actual combined levy, which includes county, school, state and city portions, will differ, so owners should use their own tax ticket. The city’s budget book notes that municipal property tax rates are limited by the state constitution to $0.25 per $100 of value for residential property and $0.50 per $100 for commercial property, so the city’s own share is a small part of the total bill.
Turnover costs and the deposit deadline
High turnover makes deposit handling a recurring cost center in Morgantown. Under West Virginia Code § 37-6A-2, deposits must be returned within the applicable notice period, which the statute defines as within 60 days of the end of the tenancy, or within 45 days after a new tenant occupies the unit, whichever is shorter. When a unit is re-leased within about two weeks of move-out, the 45-day clock is the one that runs out first.
Adding up Morgantown apartment operating costs
For an owner evaluating a building, Morgantown apartment operating costs can be sorted into fixed local charges and variable ones:
- Fixed by count or size: rental registration at $25 per unit, the fire service fee per square foot, and the stormwater charge per 1,000 square feet of impervious area.
- Driven by value: Class IV property tax at 60% of appraised value times the combined levy.
- Driven by revenue: the city B&O tax, if the rents classification applies.
- Driven by usage: MUB water and sewer, electricity and gas, wherever the owner pays them.
- Driven by management: reinspection and missed-appointment fees, occupancy compliance and deposit administration.
A sample tally for a 20-unit building
To see how the fixed local items compare, take a hypothetical three-story, 20-unit, 15,000-square-foot building appraised at $1,000,000 and collecting $240,000 a year in rent, using only the rates described above:
- Rental registration: 20 units at $25, or $500.
- Fire service fee: about $1,625 a year after the 2025 adjustment, as estimated earlier.
- B&O tax, if the rents classification applies: about $2,400, or $1 per $100 of gross rents.
- Property tax at the 2025 statewide average Class IV levy: about $17,700.
Even in this simple example, property tax is several times larger than all the city fees combined, which is why the assessed value on the county’s records deserves the closest review. The figures are built from published rates; a building’s own bills will set the real numbers.
The local items are small individually but add up, and several of them, including the fire fee, the MUB schedule and the electric rate order, have risen within the past 18 months. Running a building’s actual bills through our NOI calculator shows how each one flows into net operating income.
Practical next steps for owners
A short review of an existing Morgantown building usually starts with three documents: the most recent fire service fee bill, the last 12 months of MUB statements, and the current letter of compliance from Code Enforcement. Together they show building square footage as the city has it, actual water usage per unit and the inspection status of every apartment. Owners comparing Morgantown with other markets in the state can find more context on our West Virginia market overview, and local pricing context is on our Morgantown market page.
