Duplex Water Metering

[Art Maydan]

I bought a duplex that was a gut rehab and I was told everything is metered separately, and the gas and electricity are. I got the first water bill and it’s $900 for 6 months. I called and they said that if I get a bi-annual bill, it’s not metered. My lease states that tenant pays all own utilities, so I’d like to have both units metered separately. But if there’s no meter, then I don’t know if the piping is split and I assume that would be expensive to do. I didn’t see a water meter on the exterior of the building, but I read that they could be internal. I don’t know what to look for.

• Is there a way to know for sure whether the property is set up to be metered as a duplex?
• How much would it cost to have piping split?
• If I decide not to split it, should I just get 1 meter since it’ll still reduce the overall bill and increase rent next time?

Thank you!

[Michael Gansberg]

@Art Maydan, I love the theory of separating the water, but in practice, it sucks. You tell the tenants that they now have to pay for their own water, the tenants tell you, "Great! How much does my rent go down by?" So I expect your return on investment will be dramatically lower than you expect. Like "checking account" low. Upfront costs? For serious plumbing work- ohh yess, it hurts soo good.

Why not just force the issue by using less water? Most toilets are 1.6 gallons per flush- there's one at Home Depot called the Niagara Stealth that uses only .8 gpf, I've linked it here. The average showerhead uses 2.1 gallons per minute- I put a 1.75 gpm version in my rentals, and haven't had a complaint. It's $11, I save on the water usage, and my residents save on the hot water usage(I don't recommend going down to 1.5 gpm- that low, and you'll get complaints.) Try this one, though there are plenty of similar ones that'll do the job.

For faucets, I recommend using anything with the Watersense label, or putting in aerators. Aerators usually cost a few dollars(literally- like $3 or $4 each at the hardware store, or less on Amazon,) but can reduce faucet usage pretty dramatically. If you make all of those changes, your usage should drop by over 30%, with a similar reduction in your bill(not one-one, because there's probably a fixed fee for the connection and then usage charges after that.) Think about it- all of the stuff I listed- for a duplex- should be about $250-$300 per apartment in materials, something similar in labor...And you'll save maybe 30% of $1800/year, about $540. That's money, baby.