Water Meters and RUBS in St. Louis, MO

[Michael Novak]

I just found out while analyzing a multifamily (3 units) property in St. Louis that water billing for the entire building is condensed into one. My agent tells me that water is not metered in St. Louis (city) and is instead based on the number of toilets in a building. A few questions:

1. Is this common? I've never heard of this before.

2. Any investors in STL know if the city allows installation of separate water meters? Or are they strict about maintaining a common bill?

3. Would utilizing a Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS) make sense in this scenario (assuming the city allows it)?