Water Metered VS. Non-Metered
Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2014 · 22 posts · 6 votes
Water Metered VS. Non-Metered
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Real Estate Broker · Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 5k+ votes
11y@Patrick Howe - Chicago is one of the only major cities which does not require owners to have a water meter. But they are pushing to have owners voluntarily install one and it is free to do. The program guarantees that your water bill will not go above what it was the year before you added the meter, and that guarantee is good for 7 years.
Non metered water is charged at an unlimited rate and billed every 6 months. When I was non metered my annual water cost was $1950
Once I got metered I was billed every other month and my average water cost is about $600 a year
You can request to be metered at https://www.metersave.org/
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33 Replies
- 4yJunior BaezPro MemberMember since 2021 · 1 post · 0 votes
Quote from @John Clark:
"The 2 flat is metered so it changes slightly for each month based on tenant water usage. I should look at adding a second meter and hot water heater and move the water bill over to the tenants so I could save almost $1000 a year. "
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You'll have to branch your service line before the meters in order to do that, and alter the sources for your lays for the second apartment. Should not be too much of an expense, but count on a few thousand dollars, anyway.
John have you submetered in Chicago? I have been offered a 6 unit apartment. But, I had 2 major concerns. For 1, it's not metered & 2 will I be able to submeter the property. The person selling me the property said it's "illegal" to submeter the property, but that doesn't make much sense.
- Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes4y
Quote from @Junior Baez:
Quote from @John Clark:
"The 2 flat is metered so it changes slightly for each month based on tenant water usage. I should look at adding a second meter and hot water heater and move the water bill over to the tenants so I could save almost $1000 a year. "
-------------------------------------------------
You'll have to branch your service line before the meters in order to do that, and alter the sources for your lays for the second apartment. Should not be too much of an expense, but count on a few thousand dollars, anyway.
John have you submetered in Chicago? I have been offered a 6 unit apartment. But, I had 2 major concerns. For 1, it's not metered & 2 will I be able to submeter the property. The person selling me the property said it's "illegal" to submeter the property, but that doesn't make much sense.
I'm not talking about a second meter after a first meter. I'm talking about branching a main service before the meters and having one meter on each branch with no prior meter on any line.
- Member since 2025 · 17 posts · 17 votes1mo
Hi is the city free water meter program still active. What do I do if my building does not have a water meter? Thanks
- Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes1mo
Get the meter. City guarantees you will save fifty percent over a seven year period from what unmetered would have been. I saved over that when I switched a two-flat to metered from unmetered.
Make the switch, you will not regret it. - Member since 2025 · 17 posts · 17 votes1mo
But the city does not have the program and you have to replace the lead lines?
- Investor · Pacific Northwest · Member since 2026 · 538 posts · 302 votes1mo
This is an old thread, but there’s a part of it that still matters for underwriting.
I wouldn’t look at the meter as simply “will my bill go down?”
You’re changing the nature of the expense.
With a flat bill, the cost is ugly but predictable. Once you’re metered, you’ve replaced that fixed cost with a variable operating expense tied to actual behavior inside a building you don’t completely control.
That can absolutely be better economics, but I’d want to know what I’m buying before making the switch.
How many people actually live there?
Are the toilets and fixtures efficient?
Any running toilets or slow leaks?
Who pays for water under the leases?
Can the garden unit legally be occupied, and how does its usage affect a building the city recognizes as a two-unit?
That last part caught my attention. If you’re paying a flat rate based on a legal two-unit classification while actually providing water to three occupied spaces, the flat-rate arrangement may be doing something economically favorable that isn’t obvious from looking at the $900 bill alone.
On the other hand, metering gives you information. A sudden jump in usage can tell you about a leaking toilet, broken line, unauthorized occupancy, or some other operational issue long before anybody calls you. There’s value in that beyond just the utility bill.
I’d pull a year of the current flat-rate cost and compare it against realistic metered consumption for the actual number of occupants, including sewer and every other charge that follows water usage. Then stress it with one running toilet and heavier-than-normal tenant use.
If metering still wins comfortably, great.
But I wouldn’t switch because somebody with a different building saved 60%. Their tenants aren’t using your faucets.
And because this discussion goes back ten years, I definitely wouldn’t make the decision based on the old MeterSave incentives or guarantees quoted earlier without confirming what the City is offering for this specific property today.
The meter isn’t automatically cheaper. It makes the cost measurable. Whether that’s cheaper depends on what’s actually happening inside the building.
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