Best Way to Charge Tenants If You're on a Well.

[Dustin Mollard]

Hi, I have 4 doors on a piece of property in Auburn, California and currently I am paying for the water. I was curious if there are people out there charging their tenants for well water, and if so, how are you regulating it. All 4 doors are on the same line. 

Should I figure out how much is reasonable in my area to charge and add it to the rent?

I was hoping to charge for how much they use to create an incentive on saving water also prolonging the life of my pump.

Any information would be great.

Thank you,

Dustin  

[Clark Kirkpatrick]

You can hook a meter up to each water heater to get a good idea of how much each tenant uses. It's not perfect, but it's inexpensive and might be good enough.

I'd look at your local laws as well, since the water is actually free from a well - it's just the upkeep that you have to pay for, so of course you want to incentivize being nice to it if possible. But it's not just passing utility costs on to the tenant like it would be with electricity.