Water and Sewer Bills - 4 Plex in Riverside, MO

[Hitanshu Shah]

Hi All 

We Own a 4-plex in Riverside MO (Platte County). There are no seperate meters for Water and Sewer and hence these utilities are paid by the landlord. However, since the last 4 months the water usage has almost doubled and hence the water and sewer bills have also doubled causing a huge dent in my cash flow. I am working with my PM comany to investigate water leakages or tenant misuse but beyond that any suggestions on how to handle this situation? 

What would it take to have four seperate meters for Water? The Water Utility company is Missouri American Water and the Sewer company is KC Water. Would they help in investigating why the water usage is now double?

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Thanks!

[Drew Sygit]

@Hitanshu Shah in Michigan either the water companies WILL NOT install more than one meter or they make it prohibitively expensive.

See if water company provides daily water usage reports, so you can trace back to when the usage spiked. 

Was it related to additional tenants? A new tenant MoveIn?

#1 cause of high water usage is "running" toilet. Have your PMC send a handyman to check that all flappers are seating correctly when the toilet is flushed and it's not getting hung up on the pull chain.

Other than that, check state & local laws to see if you can legally split the water bills between tenants based upon number of occupants or number of bedrooms.