I'm paying too much for water! Can I split water meters?

Question

In 2015 I spent $16,742 on water for some of my rentals. There is only 1 water meter feeding multiple units so I cannot tell which unit is using how much. I can usually tell who may be using more water than the others based upon past usage and diligent record keeping. I have thought of paying to split the water into separate meters feeding each unit and then having the tenant pay the water. I know this would be touchy to have a tenant start paying the water since they rented the place water paid. Can you provide me with suggestions on what I can do to put the burden of water payment on the tenants rather than the owner? Thanks.

Jason Bowles · Answer

Personally, I would only do it upon the expiration of the base lease and treat it as a you would a rent increase. As your 12 month leases expire, renew with the new terms. Provide an estimate or average of expected water bills to your tenants and maybe even consider offsetting that amount with a partial reduction in base rent.

James Erickson · Answer

The properties are primarily duplexes and triplexes. The water meter is usually in the alley and 1 water line goes to and then splits off to the various units.

James Erickson · Answer

Thank you, I would not be able to do it if they have an active lease but after their year's lease is up it goes month to month so I would be able to do it then.

Luc Boiron · Answer

Depending on how the units are split up, it can be easy to put a separate meter for separate billing. It can also be expensive.

You can also use sub-meters. It really depends on how the properties are plumbed. If the plumbing for each unit goes directly from the utility room without being split into multiple units in the walls, then you can simply put a sub-meter for each unit in the utility room. When you set it up, you can then bill the tenants for their usage proportionately to their bill.

As for getting the tenants to pay it, you can make it part of the lease as tenants move out. You can also simply split the bills (say a new tenant moves in, you tell them they will need to pay 1/3 of the water bill back to you every month if the property is a triplex). The difficulty can be if some tenants will then complain that their neighbours have kids and use more water, so they should be billed less (etc).

I would start by trying to understand why the water bills are so high. Can you make sure aerators are on all faucets? Low consumption or dual flush toilets? Low flow shower heads in all units? Depending on the use of it, you could even plumb down the 1/2" pipe going to the outside hose to a 1/4" pipe for a short distance, like 3". This would restrict the amount of water flowing out the hose if the tenants love to use the hose for their kids to play in an washing their car.