Last summer we completed a submeter meter project for my 42 lot mobile home park. The city offered us meters and to direct bill the tenants if we installed meter pits. We installed and paid for the meter pits and all connections for the meters. There is a master meter (city-owned) in the front of the park. All the lots are now metered with city-owned meters and the city bills the tenants directly for their water/sewer. They have also continued to bill me for the difference between the master meter and the sum of the lots they are billing. I have no outlets for water in my park. All the water goes straight from the master meter to tenants. However, in their billing, they continue to bill me for both water and sewer. The city council for water/sewer can’t seem to grasp the concept that this is not fair. I feel legal action is necessary. We had a leak and it has cost me 1000’s in waste charges. Trying to get the board to see it my way and come to compromise but they insist on me showing proof that I am fixing the leaks but has nothing to do with how they bill me. I am not sure there should be a master meter at all. Need some help and direction with this one.
City wants the best of both worlds; Sub-metered and a Master Metered MHP.
That’s a switch on the typical City abandoning their “sub-metered” mobile homes and billing the MHP owner only based on a master meter. Fist thing, If your city is charging you base fees for the master meter, then also charging your residents base fees on their sub-meters, and if that’s the case: That’s not fair.
Here is my take on your situation, based on 25 plus years of sub-metering:
1.) The total sub-meters usage will never match the master meter usage (due to the size and accuracy of the meters).
2.) Older larger Master Meters typically don’t measure “catch” very low flow/water usage; which should benefit you.
3.) Meter readers make “mistakes”, and/or estimate readings routinely.
4.) Review on-site your MHP, residents sometimes bootleg water taps for their washers/gardening/car washing etc.
I suggest you audit the City’s bills by reading the master and sub-meters on the same billing cycle. FYI, a typical home uses @ 4,000 gallons, so the total MHP’s sub-metered use should be @ 84,000 gallons a month
Monitor your master meter’s leak detector., at some point the detector should stop spinning.
Regarding paying for thousands in sewer cost, due to a common area water leak, almost all municipal suppliers will waive the sewer portion of you water bill if a repair is completed.
Clever move by the city. At the very least, you should be able to make the case for not having a sewer portion of the bill: any water “used” by you (i.e. leaks or illegal taps by tenants) certainly shouldn’t have a sewer portion attached.
Regarding the water, see the response above