Hey everyone, the park I’m looking at has all city utilities, everything is submetered except sewer and water which the park pays +/- $12000 annually for.
I plan submetering the water and sewer ASAP and have questions regarding the process:
Any recs for a service provider? And what is the cost for installation and is there usually any monthly fees associated with the service?
Is submetering on private property something that the city would have to approve?
I’ve calculated and submetering will average $30/month/tenant, what’s a good way to introduce submetering and not get too much push back? It’s not a lot of money but it will mean an increase to their expenses.
My 2 cents - before you mule submetering out to a service provider you should try to do it yourself - it’s not much work other than the up front installation.
Get three quotes from plumbers but it’s usually around $150 per meter ($75 for the meter and $75 for installation with meter box). The city won’t need to approve this. Then have your Park Manager read the meters for you on a monthly basis. Reconcile the master meter bill against your submeters and you should be able to see actual usage, and also notice if you have any major leaks. Send your tenants a bill with a line item for rent and then actual water consumption as of the 20th or so of the month. You will see consumption go down 25% or more once you bill for actuals.
If after a few months you still want to unload the activity then you can have a service provider onboard it for a monthly fee and they will handle billing and collections for you. Do a search on this forum and you will see a couple recommendations from other Park owners, and also get a few unsolicited sales pitches too.
I’m an out of state/country owner so I thought the easiest would be to hire it out, that way if there any maintenance or reading issues or any issues with the meter itself it’ll be less of a headache to deal with. But you make it sound easy to DIY submetering.
What about introducing it to the tenants? Any tips to ease the pain for them?
Some people have the meters installed and send notice to the tenants that next month they will be billed for actual water usage and receiving a bill from Management. The nice people give them the first month free so they can see how much they’re using and that gives them a heads up that they may have leaky toilets, etc they need to take care of before the next month. You are going to have sob stories about this regardless of the approach you take - someone will have a high bill a couple times and want you to forgive it, but you shouldn’t.
Even if you hire this service out you will hear sob stories via your Manager, and also will have to Manage the service company to make sure they’re reconciling the water bills properly too. You might as well increase your bottom line and do it yourself or hire someone you trust to do this - like your kid or even an internet based person for minimum wage. Have your Manager email you the spreadsheet and you can throw it up on Google drive for spreadsheet synching…
You should not concern yourself with easing the pain for your tenants. Tenants only see things one way. The landlord is rich and gouging us for more.
Treat all decisions you make like a band aid. Do it fast and get it over with. The pain will pass.
ABT Water has been installing water meters for manufactured housing and in the water industry since 1992. We started primarily as a water treatment company and eventually developed into a complete water management services company. Our services include but are not limited to:
Utility submetering
Water meter installation
Utility management services
Automated meter reading
Utility billing services
Working out individual consumption when it comes to water is vital if bills are going to be fairly and correctly distributed. As one of the leading water submetering companies in the country, we are committed to enabling our clients to enjoy a wide range of premium water management services. Not only can we offer water submeter options suitable for a variety of different properties, we also provide smart metering and a selection of utility management services. When you need a highly experienced organization to undertake your data management, water treatment, utility billing or submetering, we can help.
I think we would be able to help you out here,
You can email me:
Gabriel@abtwater.com
or give me a call for a free consultation
1800.697.9096 EXT 14
I would like to introduce myself, I’m Dan Helton, president of , Southern Water Management, which provides water sub metering services; to multi-tenant property owners (like MHPs, apartment complexes, condos, and shopping centers) were there is only one main water meter, we provide metering technology and services to bill (or monitor) each individual tenant for their own water consumption. Based on our 20 years of sub metering experience, water and sewer usage drops 25% to 35% with sub-metering.
Southern Water Management (SWM) has been providing water sub metering and utility cost allocation services to multi-tenant properties since 1995. We provide smart water sub metering equipment (AMR meters and data collection), Utility Auditing, Meter Reading, Billing and Collection (know as R/B/C) Services. We primarily provide the means to bill tenants monthly for their individual utilities; charging a monthly billing fee, that is either paid by the tenant or by the property owner. Secondary, we reduce water and sewer consumption; And provide additional revenue to the owner. We can provide our services to any were in the US and currently have customers in Florida, , North Carolina, and in Ohio and Illinois (d/b/a Mid West Water Management)
Data collection (9METER READINGS) can be done manually or via Radio Frequency, cost is approx. $150 per unit, and the monthly billing is $3.75, billed to the tenant. Basically the owners only out of pocket cost is the initial meter and installation…
We’re here to answer your questions concerning water sub-metering.