Just completed adding 71 water meters to my older park. Present lease states that “water is included”. Obviously, will give residents 30+ days notice prior to charging them for water. Question–should I construct a new lease adding the water provision or should I just have them sign a simple addendum stating they will be responsible for their water usage?
Ask your MHAO. But in general, landlords are allowed to change lease terms by distributing a new lease to each tenant and letting 30 days pass. You can ask your tenants to sign. 90% of them will not. But the lease will become effective in a month or so. Document that you distributed the leases. Evict any tenants that do not start paying for water (or otherwise complying with any other new lease terms). You’ll just need to document to the judge that you followed the law and posted the leases and waited the legally required amount of time for them to become effective.When we are in situations similar to yours with a new property acquisition to which we are installing water meters, we believe it is the right thing to do to offer all our residents one-time free plumbing repairs - regardless of whether they are in a ROH or POH. We will fix any leak in their house at our expense. It is then fair to ask them to begin paying for the water they use, and it is the right thing to do environmentally (you’ll find usage will fall approximately 1/3 due to conservation).To your continued success,-jl-
Hello Jefferson, I like your tip about offering to repair any leaks in your residents homes when you are installing water meters that is a nice thing to do and it shows the resident you really care.I am wondering when you install water meters are there instances where the water company will pay for this? Or is this expense always on the park owner? What is the typical cost per unit for this?I appreciate your time!Adam
In Ok. there is a park owner I know that starting using water meters and a resident complained to the state–the park owner since he was reselling the water had to document water lines with an engineer drawings and the sizes of the line etc. and have an agreement with the city as to the legality of his actions. and set up his own system with the state. In our case we are approved by DEQ as a state approved water system and if we choose to bill separately for water we legally can. We choose to not meter since on over 130 units our daily average is less than 7,000 gallons per day and our cost is less than $200 per month including chemicals plus upkeep on pumps and equipment.
Adam -I’ve never heard of a water company paying to install water meters on private property. I explored this with one of our Oklahoma properties, and the utility company said I’d need to pay a $2,000 ‘administrative fee’ to become a member of the water company (co-op), plus another $500 for the meter. So that’s $2,500 total - per house, not for the entire park. I can’t afford $2,500/house for meters to pass along the billing to the water company. So I installed $200 meters and read/bill the tenants myself.As long as you do not make a profit on the water, you do not fall under DEQ regulations.Good luck,-jl-
I was just explain what my friend HAD to do in OK.