Water Submetering on a Small Multi-Family Property??

[Kevin Wattenbarger]

I am in the process of building a duplex on Panama City Beach, FL . The parcel is in an unincorporated (Bay County) portion of Panama City Beach with water and sewer being supplied by the City of Panama City Beach. PCB Utilities will only allow one potable water meter per tax parcel at this point. Given that fact I am building a duplex, only one potable water meter will be servicing the property. I would have gladly paid the extra meter and impact fees to be provided an additional meter but that was not possible. All of my other rentals have separate meters (including water) with each tenant paying their own utilities directly to the provider. I want to consider sub-metering the water. Does anyone have any product or process recommendations? Is it feasible to submeter on a single duplex? Is there a specific process to automate the readings? If so, what other equipment and cost are required? Is it accurate? If the options are to have meter manually read each month, I don't know if the extra effort will be worth it vs just trying to build water into the monthly rent. Any recommendations?