Duplex with one water meter. We keep the water/sewer in our name so they cannot shut off the water and leave the other res hanging dry.

Problem: the last few months have had high water bills $3-400 including sewer. I send my guy over each time - nothing to see, meter not flowing.

Yesterday received a $1500 water.sewer bill.

My guy found a leaking flapper that look super weird - in 46 years and tons of toilets I have never seen one like that. The rubber had warts all over it like a squash or a frog. OK, obvious leak.

Apt 2: a 2 button flusher in the "kids" half bath. Dad says the button was stuck down. He finally realized the wooshing sound he heard in the quiet of night was water FLOWING!

I feel this water/sewer bill is based on USER ERROR, like leaving the sink or hose running, and the res should pay, minus the normal usage.

What says the Mr LL Forum Board of Directors?

Hmm. Is it in your lease that if tenant does not report wooshing sounds in the quiet of the night, they have to pay the water bill?

I'm guessing you pay the water bill and one reason you do is there's not separate meters? And are you saying there were two separate issues in each apartment? Seems it would be difficult to determine how much each party pays.

When I have a large bill I always pay it, then go on a hunt to find the culprit. I wonder why your guy didn't see the meter moving?

Frustrating.

I mean... "duh"...whooshing sound...

But.....I'd pay it.

AND I'd like to figure out why my handyman didn't see meter flowing.

AND, I'd raise rent, knowing I have a tenant without basic common sense that would save me $.

Sending the handyman over there to look for a leak because last few bills were over 300 handyman should have have put food coloring in the tank of the toilets and this would have leaked to the bowl pretty quick with the flapper leaking, as it was.

Sometimes we need to send the professional plumber over to do the repairs and not put trust in the handyman.

Years past looking for water leaks I would put a small blade of grass on the old meter lined up with one of the dial hands and tell the tenant not to use the water for a several hours and when I came back if the dial was not in line with the blade of grass I knew there was a ghost leak at the flapper. Fast forward today I use the iPhone and take a picture of the digital meter and come back to see if the meter matches the picture.

Wart appearance would lead me to believe something was added to the water bowl that attacked the rubber. I once had a tenant add chlorine to the water bowl and it ate the rubber.

Your guy at fault, not checking obvious, flapper and fill valve.

I'm with Ken, but we don't change until necessary.

When we go on call like that standard procedure replace flapper and rubber disc in Fluidmaster. Use Fluidmaster almost exclusively. Cheap, easy repair, dependable.

My guy is A+.

He opened the meter pit each time to view the meter. Our meters have a tiny triangle that spins obviously with even a leaky flapper. No spinning.

Checked the interior -sinks, tubs, toilets, basement…did not examine the weird flapper because the bowl water did not show leakage.

We will study the plumbing to consider adding a sub meter for one apt. City will not install a second meter.

BRAD

Hate to say it, but I think this bill is on you unless you can prove the entire usage was due to the leaky flapper, which 99.99% it was.

Then as you mention, add a sub-meter. The only kicker is now you have to read it every so often to keep an eye on things, so that if you get a huge bill again you can compare the current reading to the one from 30-60 days ago.

We installed sub-meters on a duplex that had a similar issue. Got a $600 water bill one month. Aaaagh! It cost us $300 for a licensed plumber to do the job. Now we read the meters monthly and back-bill tenants for the water and sewer by percentage used. Haven't had another incident since. That was... 10 years or so ago? The meters have more than paid for themselves many times over.

It's likely the flapper sealed on some flushes (like when your plumber was looking for water loss) and didn't seal on other flushes.

I buy flappers in the 12 pack and replace them religiously every vacancy and if no vacancy at least every 3 years.

I think a shared bill is also on you. Here, it absolutely would be. We also can't separate shared water in old houses converted to apartments unless they are getting an entire gut job overall due to the cost that you probably would never recoup.

1. Make sure it's not a coding error at the office. We had this happen with the new water meters they put in at our most recent duplex. It uses Badger Meter software. We kept getting astronomical bills with only one person upstairs, two people downstairs and no washer hook up downstairs...no leaks.

Come to find out they coded it wrong at the water dept office.

The decimal point got moved to the left one space where it should be.

LisaFL,

We always disconnect exterior faucets when we buy a new property.

I learned my kessonnwhen a vandal turned a spigot in winter and walked away. The gound was crozen so it found a tiny gap between the dirt and the foundation and put 6" of water on the finished lower level.

So simple yet so damaging.

We tell them to go to the car wash.

I have no pools allowed even in the properties where they pay for the water.