Investor · Porter Ranch, CA · Member since 2015 · 10 posts · 5 votes
I own a 10 unit building in Oceanside CA. Along with my property manager we noted instances were residents are clearly being wasteful (washing cars, not reporting leaks, multiple occupants etc.,.) Where practical, we have taken action to enforce rules but with the spike in water costs in CA and the call to conserve , I'm curious to know if any landlords have effectively used RUBs or similar methods to bill water to tenants. How has it worked? I recall there was a bill SB 7 Wolk that was being brought up in CA last year but heard it got stalled? This has become a significant expense in my building and rising - looking for any feedback or guidance from fellow BP community, particularly in CA. Thanks in advance!
Developer · San Diego, CA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
@DeWayne Lewis We have retrofitted about 1/2 of our buildings with water (and, where necessary, electric) sub meters and are billing all usage to tenants. The only RUBS property we have is a duplex.
In all cases, we have tenants pre-pay the utilities to us each month, then actually read the meters quarterly or bi-annually. Most get a small credit on their rent because estimated is higher than actual usage.
It's like tax refunds - people illogically prefer the refund rather than paying less each month. There's lots of psychology to utility usage, it seems.
Investor · Madison, WI · Member since 2012 · 242 posts · 61 votes
10y
I'm not in CA, but when water is free I can tell you tenants use 10 times as much. We use to pay all water and had a tenant go get one of those cheap frame pools that are 12' or 14' around. Every few days they were just dumping the whole thing and refilling it instead of cleaning...
Sub metering is the way to go if you can, or in WI we can even just define in the lease that water will be split equally among all tenants - which can help some tenants keep other tenants using excessive water in check since they know they are all splitting the bill.
Thanks for the guidance and support. I vaguely recall a local vendor informed us it was not economically practical to install submitters on a smaller building as ours (10 units). Relatedly, I like the idea of simply dividing the bill and allocating to tenants but I think there is a local statute requiring the allocation be based on some methodology e.g.., RUBS. In any case, I feel I need to so something as leases expire because our water costs have increased significantly the past year due to tenant abuse, and rates increase 18% starting 1 Jan !
Thanks for the guidance and support. I vaguely recall a local vendor informed us it was not economically practical to install submitters on a smaller building as ours (10 units). Relatedly, I like the idea of simply dividing the bill and allocating to tenants but I think there is a local statute requiring the allocation be based on some methodology e.g.., RUBS. In any case, I feel I need to so something as leases expire because our water costs have increased significantly the past year due to tenant abuse, and rates increase 18% starting 1 Jan !
It may not be feasible to submeter each unit, but consider whether it makes sense to submeter portions of the building (for example, 1 submeter for every 3 units). I don't have direct experience in this area, but I would think it'd be MUCH easier to implement a RUBS and have your tenants keep each other in check (as John K mentioned) if the number of tenants sharing a bill is as small as possible.
Good luck! I feel ya on the upcoming rise in water rates!