She had her boyfriend tap into the electric meter somehow and they caused $1,500 worth of damage that the owner had to pay for. 

adding meters to the current 2-family property in question isn't an option cause of crossed water and electric lines between 1st and 2nd stories, and a single water heater.also wondering how long of a stay do landlords allow before a guest is considered a occupant?

Everyone has a different "right" meter. 

4- Finally what price range / square meter / type of property (house VS Apartment) would you look for. you as an investor that will appeal to the Market. 

Ursula B My thoughts exactly...such short notice of the change.KyleFrom the outside of the house it looks like the meters are in order.

But the main reason is that the flipper actually fixed the property and raised the rents to the highest point possible (and convinced the renters to pay for their own water--despite there being only 1 meter). 

The water provider will not read and bill sub meters.

In a duplex unit, I would have left the washer/dryer hookups and would have separately metered the units if I could.

Also, multi-family does not necessarily imply there are utility bills to pay.We have a triplex in NYC where we pay gas (heat), water/sewer, and common area lights, another triplex where we pay only water (gas is metered per unit with separate boilers), and 5 duplexes in NC where we pay no utilities at all (Everything is metered for the individual unit)

Purchased for $240k with plans to raise rents through rehab and decrease expenses by sub-metering water and managing professionally.