On my first investment home, they wouldn't give me a building permit unless the ground was putting out 8 gallons per minute.

I wouldn't risk the $30 per gallon paint either. 

All my items were stored in plastic 25 gallon storage containers with locking lid.

Substantial amount of water (probably a gallon or so) trickled down the mud room through the light fixture in the ceiling.

Need a 15,000 gallon cistern.  

tenants pay electric, landlord pays heat (used $4,500 gallons last year) -- there are 2 efficiencies and a 1 bedroom and four 2 br, so changing over to LP monitors over time at 1200-1500 per unit will change the heating cost.

Over 16,000 gallons above avg.

I can only imagine the disaster if the oil tank corrodes through and leaks hundreds of gallons of diesel into your basement. 

You can either put it under your name but charge it on top of the rent to each tenant,only keep one water meter connected (instead of multiple ones on same property) and pay it your self and charge higher rent in lieu of that and last, i saw once someone that have some kind of water meter clock connected on the line and can see how many gallons they spent per month, but then you would have to calculate each month the price per gallons consumed,etc.

Cost are not much more than oil , I have 1 house all electric baseboard , tenant complained about bill of $ 400.00 , I walked to the neighbor next door ( a friend of mine same type house) got his electric bill , it was $ 225.00 AND he went thru 110 gallons of oil at $ 440.00 , The tenant didnt complain again .