But the bottom line for tax reform (a la the Fair Tax) is to fundamentally do away with the tremendous drag that our government places on wealth creation to fund its offerings, rather than to place the burden on consumption.

To check for water consumption you need to inspect each unit and look for dripping faucets and running toilets.

The most common source of higher water consumption (at least what I found) is a toilet running constantly... and it is a $10 fix.

Trump could do to Stimulate the failing Economy, is to eliminate the IRS and just have a Consumption Tax.

I suspect there was high alcohol consumption preceeding our phone call.

We execute a "Utilities Budget Agreement" as an addendum to the lease, which works are follows:1) We identify all the utilities (hydro, gas, water/sewer, cable, etc) and services (snow removal) which are to be governed under the agreement and set an amount which will be paid, in advance, into the budget fund each month by the tenant;2) When the utility bills arrive, we pay them and forward an electronic copy to the tenant so they are aware of their resource consumption.3) Every three months (quarterly) we reconcile the amount paid into the utilities budget against the utilities bills incurred.  

Phillip:Thankfully, the garburator/garbage disposal is predominately a US affection.Dollars and cents aside, there are many other reasons not to use them:1) they increase the amount of organics that reach the sewage treatment plant which, in turn, increases the plants consumption of oxygen ... which, often results in more active bacterial matter being flushed/released from the system into waterways;2) increase the amount of solid residue which needs to be removed from the treatment plant and disposed (usually in landfills);3) they have been linked with the increase in toxicity of the water supply (this is not a fault of the machine itself, but rather the user); 4) they also tend to increase per-household water consumption.Under sink garbage disposals are no longer permitted in many locations.As a landlord with student rentals, they are simply an invitation for more service calls and higher repair costs.

Ken I understand your thought process and you are talking about 6 units.I can tell you what you say and what you plan to do makes sense but good luck with that.I have already been down the road you are going to travel with the water issue (20 units).If you believe tenants will comply to being made uncomfortable with the washer/dryer issue and on top of that start paying the water on a pro-rated amount without crying foul you are dreaming.Ken when I mentioned water rates I was not including the trash just water and sewer.You would need multifamily billing rates from your water department for water/sewer and consumption history for each month.It's possible you have a really cheap water and sewer use rate for your area.In that case consumption can be high and the bill can be low.You would need to look at then if the water authority was looking to up the water rates soon or by how much it has been rising year by year.They just upped here so they could have funds to improve an aging water and sewer system.Each city and county will have different water resources to draw from and different age and use demands of their current system.All of that will affect the rates.If I was a tenant such as one of yours and you told me the bill was 350 by 6 is 58.33 a month and I felt I didn't use that much water and was paying for someone else's use I would say take a hike on that.Ken BTW what is the purchase price on this property??

In addition, it is reported this generations mindset is set more towards living an experiential life as opposed to one of consumption of possessions, unlike that of the next large group of renters. 

I'm envisioning loud parties, routine drug selling and consumption, roommate issues, etc.