4 Unit Apartment Building with one Water Line

[Robert M.]

Hello All,

I currently own an apartment building in which has four units. Unfortunately the building has one water meter and line which provides free water to the tenants. I had new tenants move in and I believe they are letting friends stay over night and are preparing food for a business. The reason for this belief is due to my total water expenses jumping from a total of $175 a month to over $400 a month! I looked into having individual meters added to the property to push the expenses to the tenants, but it cost $7,500 per meter ($22,500 total). Because of the cost it doesn't make sense to install individual metered units. 

Does anybody know of other methods I could use to track usage and bill tenants for excessive usage? I was hoping there were devices that I could use to track water usage and include the charges in their rent. 

Open to suggestions. 

Thank you,

Robert