All Forum Posts by: Matt Le

Quote from @Gregory Wilson:

The average US household uses 9000 per month. And that includes areas where water is REALLY expensive or really horrible, unlike Louisville where water is not only cheap but clean and plentiful. Your experience is unremarkable. And, as a Condo project everyone is sharing in the water bill by allocation of the HOA fee which should be increased is common area expenses have risen.

The water may be cheap and voted the best taste in the USA, but the sewage portion of the bill is not and a large amount is based off the water volume. Our gallons used for 2020-2023 were typically around 20,000 a month. No new tenants or move-ins. The average household may use 9000 gallons a month, but these are condos with 1-2 people in them at most. Last month's bill was 43,000 gallons for 4 units... that is 10,750 gallons a unit. The average person uses 3000 gallons a month. Sure we could just increase the HOA fee $200/month for everyone and continue wasting water. I guarantee the month after the meters come on, the person responsible will fix their leaky toilet or cut back on consumption. Why should everyone else living there subsidize the bill for someone else?

I am the president of a HOA in a 6-unit condo building looking for a solution. Louisville MSD just increased rates 7% again and this year we are averaging $700/month between water+sewer bill which has basically bankrupt the association as all prior years were budgeted for half of this. Somebody, likely a long term tenant in the building, is using excessive water or won't fix their toilet flappers. Cheapest bill this year at $350, most expensive at $1200. I own 2 of the units for STR that I kept empty last service period just to get a gauge on things and the 4 other units still managed to use a combined 43,000 gallons which makes a $860 bill total that is split between Louisville Water@$321 and Sewer@$539. I know somebody will read this in 10 years and probably thinks this is now cheap. Lol

The two big companies I found on Google are ThinkUtilityService & GuardianWP. I haven't contacted either of them for pricing yet, but if anyone can share their own experience from installing sub-meters it would be helpful.. especially if there are any locals. Each unit in teh building has their own master water shutoff valve, so I can't imagine it will be that difficult to get some hardware + automated billing system through someone. I would like to be hands off as much as possible.

First post on here, so go easy on me please :P