300 unit apartment complex - High Water Bill

[Austin Nelson]

Hello,

We manage a ~300 unit apartment community in Birmingham Alabama. We purchased the property in Oct 2019 and the average water bill for previous ownership was roughly $24K per month or $90 per door. Since then, our bills are nearly 40K per month, $140 per door.

We have done leak detection 3 different times. Replaced two of the lines that had small leaks. Did water walks for the entire property 3 different times. Just can't seem to understand the issue. This issue was going on prior to covid so we don't believe it has anything to do with residents being home. The odd thing about the whole issue is that last month, our bill dropped back down to $24K but jumped back up to $40K this month.

We have hired a new leak detection company to come out just to see if the previous company missed anything but it just doesn't explain the 800K gallon different in a month time frame.

Has anyone had any issues like this in the past and what was the cause of the issue?