Most people here think the RUBS doesnt really cause people to conserve water. RUBS = charging people based on home size. With most lots being the same size, I could simply charge based on that and basically achieve RUBS.
With sub-metering + outsourced billing, I think we will have less people making excuses or complaining.
So I talk to one company (Multifamilyutility) and they say the difference in actual water usage on average between RUBS and individual meters is only 3%-4%, and heâs worked there for 25 years.
Can I trust that number? I dont see an incentive for them to distort this number from reality (Esp since they can make more money by installing meters).
Coincidentally, we have a park on RUBS and the tenants hate it. The prior owner set it up to charge based on occupants. Tenants hate it because when a visitor comes, they feel the visitor is causing the neighbors water to go up and they complain about who comes and goes.
We will be submetering that property and converting it from RUBS to meters. I am very curious to see how our usage goes down, but I think it will be more than 3 to 4%.
If the City is requiring a special/their meter that can be read per their requirements itâs just not gonna be cost effective. Find a good meter and install it under the home. Use heat tape or cover it with a utility box and put insulation in the box - most meters have a peripheral counter that attaches to the outside of the home for easy reading.
Do you have a park manager or a helper? Have them read the meter each month and send you the readings. Create a simple spreadsheet that auto calculates the usage amount and adds it to the lot rent amount (adding this meter reading to the spreadsheet for 33 units will take about 10 minutes). Take the total and upload it to your software - just about any type of software will accept a simple excel spreadsheet upload. If there is currently no field in the software for âutilitiesâ ask your software provider to build/add it⊠if they donât or canât just skip and upload the total owed.
This whole process should take approx 15 minutes once you do it a few times if youâre uploading the spreadsheet⊠I have 71 tenants and donât have tenant management software. It takes me no more than 15 minutes to enter the data onto my spreadsheet and another 60 minutes to text each tenant their bill (I use google voice for texting - itâs basic but free). Via text, the tenant gets their beginning meter reading (previous months reading), ending meter reading (current months reading), total usage, total water/sewer bill, lot rent, and total bill. Because they are getting a text, they have a record of what is owed on their phone - there is no invoice to get lost. Hereâs what the get)
October 2021 Invoice
Lot 1
Beginning meter reading 10,000
Ending meter reading 12,500
Total usage 2,500
Water Sewer Bill $75
Lot rent $280
Total owed $350
My suggestion is to not have the park manager read meters. Too often, they miss the read date, canât find the meter in the snow, decided to skip a month, etc. Go with a WiFi system and you can download the reads 24 hours a day from the internet.
how much more will a WiFi System cost and where can i get more information on this?
There are a variety of posts on this forum from companies who provide these services. We currently use Metron Farnier based in Denver. Costs vary depending on your type of requirements but they can be from $80 to $300 per meter plus a monthly service fee per meter. Additional costs with a crew for collection services, but we do that on our own.
I have called every company I can find. Some ought to put a list togrther because they are often hard to find, but yes Metron is prob the biggest, but tenants pay quite a bit more per month, and quite a few that hate it.
thank you very much mpark
Of course they hate it. You take something that was free and start charging. Our experience is that they complain for the first 3 months, then it becomes the new normal. Everybody understands it is fair and reasonable.
I know this is an older post but in case it helps, here is a photo of a home that has an individual water meter under the home. The cityâs price to install meters that would be read & billed by the city was $2200 EACH and that was 2 years ago. I could not do that as these homes had enough repairs to solve that moving the water bill directly to tenants was not worth the cost when I already was billing the water to the tenants myself based on their usage of the water as reflected by the homeâs individual meter. Even getting a company that did submetering was not practical for me as I only had 8 habitable homes and the cost of the new meters was better spent on the house repairs.
Approximately each 6 mos., or when there was a tenant change, I would pay a small fee for the water meter to be read. I had the water billing calculations from the city and I would calculate what that house owed approx. each month and add a few dollars just to be sure in case they had a month of lots of water use. Their water payment was paid in addition to rent and only changed every 6-8 months. (if I tried to change it every month these tenants would likely lose track of what they owed for the upcoming month. This frequency allowed them to make fewer mistakes on what was owed.)
It was true what others have said that as soon as they were informed they would be paying for the water they used the propertyâs water bill went down a bit. (naturally if there were more than 8 homes it would have gone down more). The Previous owner had a fixed price set in the lease for water and naturally the tenants could use all the water they wanted and still pay that amount.
These meters are analog meters and were installed by an earlier owner. However, not all were installed correctly â be sure the person installs them Before the outdoor faucets because a few homes could fill up their baby pool without the water being tracked! Those meters had to be moved. I did not have a ârealâ plumber do the moving as they were too booked up. Instead I had a handyman that knew enough about plumbing to cut the lines and do the moving around. Maybe you can find a handyman if the plumbers are baulking at the task?
Basic Meters Manual Read
Create a Notice : Every resident is responsible for their own water/sewer use.
Each resident is invoiced (with their rent) a typical MH usage of 4,000 gallons per month.
Upon move out, or every six months, City bills you, you credit or bill resident for the difference.
