Multi Unit Plumbing Problems

[James Bynum]

So, if you've read my other posts, my family bought a money pit of a triplex in December of 2015. 

So far we've had to completely redo the bathroom in unit 2's shower due to there being floor to ceiling mold that was hiding behind the walls. Well as we were finishing that part up, not 1 but 2 water heaters went bad, so we just dropped another $1,000 for 2 new water heaters and installs.

During this process we realized that water bleeds over between apartments. We found this out because when unit 2's water heater went out completely and was not producing any hot water, we are still able to get hot water from the faucet, aka we are getting either unit 1 or unit 3's hot water.

These are pretty old units, we pay the entire water bill that isn't split up per unit. One unit is a duplex and then the other one is a single family, all on the same lot. I'm just trying to figure out if this is a common problem and I'm not the only one dealing with it. And 2, what possible affordable solutions can be taken to properly separate the units, so they are truly independent. 

Obviously it's not fair that a single person in 1 unit could be paying the electricity for the 6 people that live next door.