So I'm tired of paying for water and having my tenants waste it. I have a duplex and I pay for water due to there only being one meter. Tenants leave it on outside all the time as their kids play through it. Occasionally it is fine, even frequently. On these hot days, they have their kids outside playing in it, but they will stop playing in it, leave for a few hours, and then come back. We are talking hours and hours each day. I have tried talking to them, and it stops for a few weeks, but then it goes right back to where it started. Have any of you had the city install a separate meter in a multi-family? Thoughts?

In NYC the govt can lien the house if the water bill is not paid. So I picked up some DLJSJ75C from watermeters dot com. I have them installed in two of my duplexes.

The problem will be that you need to read the meter every month and bill it out to the tenant. If you are hands on and are at the duplex often, it works out pretty well.

I tell the tenants I am responsible to fix the leaks but you are responsible to tell me there is a leak. The water bill is a nice incentive.

Its the leaks that hurt me, had a running toilet $95 of water in 3 days.

I own a property with many houses on one very large lot. The City Housing call these houses apartments and I had one water meter for everyone. Some tenants like to wash their cars while others have a play pool for their kids. Never mind the lease states they can not use enternal hose bibs.

I had the same issue once...house and a separate apartment (used to be a double car garage, converted...lot nicer than it sounds). Got a $600 water bill once month for tenant who had a bad flapper and never reported it. Same tenant had run up a $150 bill before...same issue.

Uh...not. Split the lines at the street and installed double meters. Cost a pretty penny, but fixed several issues, one of which is that the original lines were never buried deep enough to begin with. Plumbing company was surprised I'd never had a frozen line before.

a water meter only costs about $78 plus installation . It'll be worth your time and effort. TEK Supply .com

Tapping main in street with second meter from city may cost $3k or more. You will be surprised at the cost...then you still have to split plumbing in your building, at additional cost

I would get creative and find a way to submeter with a single city meter

Note...removing hose taps helps, but tenants can also hook up the hose to a faucet with a special adapter which Costs five bucks At home depot !!

City water bills can get that high with a small leak, like a toilet flapper? Never paid a city water bill in my life. Always lived on well water and any city water property was a single that tenants paid.

574-Brad: Yep. It is a penny/gallon in NYC. Even if I drop wells (been thinking about it) the city will charge $0.43/day just to have the account. AND you can't close the account. The water quality is very good, no need for filters or the like.

Wasn't there a thread on filters? wasn't it was like 17$ for 1700 gals, that is .01/gal. Do you use filters for the houses on wells?

I was at work the other day and had to help a customer who was looking for an adapter for her kitchen sink so she could fill the kiddie pool at her apartment. I asked if it was okay with her landlord. Oh, yes, no problem, she says. We ended up with an adapter to go on the shower arm.

I haven't seen a turnkey water meter with a wifi/wired connection on it yet. I've cheated on two of my meters, I hung two cctv cameras over head and can read it via the internet. I have cctv camera and internet at this multifamily, so two more was an easy addon.

Hi guys.

I share the multi with a tenant, I receive one fat bill of $310+ monthly. This is becoming the norm, it is absurd. Two people in each unit, that's it.

Checked for leaks etc, all seems good.

Our city meter is indoors in the basement, and with two separate water heaters, I wonder, what's the best way to monitor usage?

Have two city meters, re-pipe the one unit of the tenants, and enjoy two separate calculated bills from the city?

I feel that when combined, the rates jump because we reach and exceed a certain limit. So when split, the rates should automatically be lenient... am I dreaming?

Will the instant savings and that derived from the fact the tenant is now aware of what he uses and pays for, will this settle the cost ($4k+) of two city meters?

Since the meter is indoors, would we need to split from the street? Maybe ignorant here, why not split from inside, and then re-pipe the plumbing...?

As for in-line submetering using one City water meter, does this puppy check hot and cold?

Thanks for helping out.

Since we garden and hose the sidewalk frequently, we need an outdoor spigot. But it is locked with a gizmo special to garden hoses. We do not allow tenants to wash cars, kiddie pools etc. Yes we have one water meter , we pay it.

Im in a deal for a 12 in nyc, they have a 9800$/year water bill. They never seen the dep website. So I know I got some toilets to swap out.

We once caught our neighbor's tenant washing his car with our hose.

We quickly found a garden hose lock and we use it.