has anyone successfully re-metered water on a multi-unit?

[Robert C Capps]

Hello All-

I've been watching my water bills on a few four-plexes continue to grow and grow.  No leaks that I'm aware of and the buildings are not that old (late sixties).  Pretty sure I just have some very heavy water consuming tenants and the city prices for trash (which is included in the water bill) have gone up considerably.

My question is whether or not anyone out there has gone through the process of putting in individual water meters for a multi-unit so that they can bill them back directly to the tenants instead of paying the water bill for the whole building themselves and if so can you recommend any plumber who did the work for you and give an idea of what it costs?  My understanding is that it could be around $5k to do this, but with current water bills I would likely break even on that cost in around 18 months.  A call to the MKE water department said that they would provide the meters for free, I think it's just some kind of permits to be pulled and then the complexity of the plumbing pipes (splitting out both hot and cold, per unit).

I feel like this would actually be fairer to the tenants as well, as I am going to have to raise everyone's rent to cover the water bills and feel like it would be more equitable to divvy them according to their individual usage.

If anyone has any experience with this or ideas, I'd love to hear them.  Thanks very much in advance.

Rob