Water and trash bill, landlord or tenant Philadelphia

[Lana Lee]

Do you landlords in Philadelphia pay for water and trash in duplexes or put it on your tenants? Do you charge just for water usage or the whole bill? Is there City regulation on that? And how do you split the bill if there are different quantity of tenants in each unit?

Thank you 

Lana

[Kristina Heimstaedt]

Hi @Lana Lee. I can't speak for PA. However, in California it is impossible to try to subdivide and to determine who is using how much water especially when some tenants travel for work and others work from home and have pets that they bathe in showers. We just assume that it is included in the rent, pending it is for a multi unit. In order to reduce the water bill, we use airaters (? dunno how to spell it), bleach down some of the drains on a yearly basis and or a mainline cleanout depending on the level of trees on the property. This seems to help us reduce the number of plumbing related calls as well as reduce the water bill as most tenants use water as a way to force things down a drain that is not perfectly clear. It's not proven, but logistically it makes sense.