Water bill is outrageous

[Dan Sieg]

Hey guys. I recently picked up my first rental property and got a smoking deal on the home. There are tenants already in place. Upstairs unit and downstairs unit. As per their leases already in place I am responsible for the water/sewer part of their utilities. I just transferred that over to my account today and asked to receive a statement showing the history of the water bill. To my surprise I saw a massive fluctuation between extreme highs and average lows. One month was as low as 30 dollars (about on par with what I paid for my personal home last month) and another month in that same year was as much as 348 dollars!! Average for the last 12 months is around 125 dollars. Again... I paid 35 last month for my personal residence. Does anyone have any ideas how in the world a water bill can fluctuate so much? It's not like electricity where the temperature and the season will cause it to rise and fall at different intervals. It's water. Am I naive to think it should be much more consistent? I know mine always has been. Also, how can I go about changing it over to being the tenants problem so maybe they'll learn to be a little more responsible with their usage?