The fact is that tenants will become a lot more careful and aware of their water usage when they are the ones footing the bill.

See zoning, usage, availability, pricing. 

Explain that the work was shutdown inappropriately and of course the city is responsible to compensate for that error.

I'd add a link but the new moderators seem to consider it inappropriate marketing (go figure).BTW - when you see somebody write something helpful, give it an upvote.

We know the water passed through the meter because the water company was able to read the usage on the meter and bill for the excess usage!  

Try contacting the water company for historic usages.

Lower income areas get more usage, EBT is a huge driver of usage.  

A few thing to pay attention to:Some cities/counties have strict regulations around AirBnB/VRBO so make sure the location you chose allows that usage of the property When you do short term/vacation rentals you also create a business.

Hello there, Have you considered changing the zoning / usage ?

#AskBPSo I have an opportunity on a mutli and playing around with the rental properties calc here on BP (unlimited usage is why I upgraded to Pro - worth it).