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Updated almost 7 years ago on . Most recent reply

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Lak Chilam
  • Conyers, GA
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multifamily is residential or non residential for water billing ?

Lak Chilam
  • Conyers, GA
Posted

Hi,

My property is in Atlanta. we have a water main meter(8in) and getting 9000$ permonth for 64units property. I know which is very high, my property is listed as non residential as per water company since meter is 8in, currently I am paying as a landlord full monthly water bill and all my profits this bill is eating.

I ask the water company my property has submeters if i make those active is the water bill going to reduce by making the property as residential? they mentioned that still one main meter which is 8in so its not going to reduce, i mean each tenant gets 140$ monthly which is ridiculous. any suggestion to reduce the water bill ? or even if I charge back to tenants i don't want they feel burden such a high price.

Thanks, Lak

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Frank Chin
  • Investor
  • Bayside, NY
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Frank Chin
  • Investor
  • Bayside, NY
Replied

I don't know the water rates where you are. But as you, I thought my water rates were too high, and originally thought there were leaks. But I did a walk through of the property, checked all the sinks and toilets, didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and I was going to have a plumber come and take a more careful look.

I owned several triplexes and duplexes in the NYC area, and water bills for duplexes increased from $280.00/ 3-months 10 years ago, to $580/ 3-month on the last bills, and I thought of major leaks. But they have everything online now, and further checking indicated my water usage per month was calculated as 344 gallons per day for the property. 

So I wondered, is that high? The next thing I did was to research the average water use per day per person, and found the average person uses 80 to 100 gallons a day. I got six people living in this duplex, so daily usage should average 480 to 600 gallons per day. Based on this, the 344/ day figure came in on the low end, and I concluded I didn't need plumbers checking leaks after all.

So my suggestion is for you to check the number of people actually living in the property, including unauthorized tenants, and the average daily water usage. Originally the water department provide the usage by cubic foot, which I then have to covert to gallons, and divide by the number of days in the period. Now with the online info, they provide average gallons per day figure.

After this if the usage is out of line, then have plumbers check for leaks.

Years ago, in my triplexes, I found many tenants had unauthorized people not on the lease living with them. I found this out when my hot water tanks which has a useful life of 10 years conked out in six. If it happened to one, no big deal, but this happened to several of them. While the tanks are still under warranty, my plumber made a comment I must have double the number of people living in the place than I thought while he submitted the warranty claim. He said the optimal life of a 50 gallon tank is for five people, and I must have more than 5 people living in the place. So following his hunch, I found one tenant with his parents not on the lease living with them, another apartment, a single tenant with a girlfriend not on the lease living there, same story with the remaining apartment, 2 additional tenants. I have a total of 10 people living in the place, whereas the leases show five. 

So after that, I kept a careful eye on the number of residents living there, and water usage actually went down.

So before you go crazy about residential vs commercial, sub-metering etc, have these issues checked out. Sub-metering is another issue altogether depending on how common it is in your area and the expense of doing it. If no one in the area charges separately for water, I wouldn't either. Checking for leaks and the number of residents is a more practical first step.

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