Private utilities lines, yet serviced directing from the city

Hi everyone.

Quick question.

Personally, I want to avoid master meter gas and electric as a first time buyer.
The park I am looking at the city bills the gas and electric directly.
However, the park owns the gas and electric lines and the city is only responsible up to the entrance of the park.

Is this normal? Should I be cautious of buying a park where the parks owns and is responsible for gas and electric lines, even though it is not master metered.

Nope, something is wrong here. You can’t have it both ways. If you own all the lines starting at the front of the park, then that’s a master-metered system and the park is doing the billing to the tenants via sub-meters or RUBS. If the utility company owns the lines, then they do the billing. I would re-confirm that this is a direct-billed park and you own the lines – I’ve never heard of that in 20 years. However, on a direct-billed system you DO own the connection from the meter on each lot to the home – is that what you mean?

The agent says that water/sewer is sub metered and and the the city handles everything else, and its all billed direct.
Although, the city is only responsible for the gas lines up to the front of the park. Its the parks responsibilities to upkeep the lines within the park. Then she mentions the gas lines have never been tested.
I asked her if its master metered gas or electric and she said no. Its all direct except for water/sewer.
I ran it by her a few times and she still says this is the case.
Now that you are telling me this is not normal, Im going to verify with the city.

You definitely need to verify this with the city, as I’ve never heard of this before. For one thing, the city does not typically get involved in electricity and gas, only water and sewer. Have you talked to the gas company and the power company direct? They may have a different story.

Sub metered utilities (water, gas, or electric) are not unusual, however calculating the correct bills for each tenant can be a nightmare, companies like Southern Water Management provides accurate Meter Reading, Billing and Collection services. An owner can have a complete turn key system or just select what services they need. For example you may just need accurate bills for the manager to collect from the tenants. E-mail me if I can be of further help.

Dan Helton
Dan@SouthernWaterManagement.com