I've got a (legal) 2 family house in Queens.  Right now, the electric is split and the tenants pay for their own usage, while I pay for the water and gas for the whole house.

All the water bills for 2018 added up to about $600, so I'm not really concerned with that.  However I spent about $2,000 on gas.  Has anyone ever had the gas lines split, so that each tenants will have their own account with the National Grid and pay for their own usage?

I'm sure it won't be cheap, but even if it's $10k, that'll pay for itself in 5 years.

I'd also be interested in splitting the water too, if it was really cheap to do so, but I'm assuming that at a savings of only $600 a year, it'll take an unreasonably long time to pay for itself.

First, the process to install separate gas meter requires you to file engineering plans with the dept of buildings, have a master plumber pull a permit and then separate the piping so that there is a direct separate line of piping to each unit.  Depending on how the current pipes are run, this could mean haveing to run all brand new piping throughout the house, keeping in mind that codes for gas piping have become much stricter over the years. The piping must pass a pressure test observed by DOB.

Your plumber also must open a service request with National Grid to provide another gas meter, and they will come out and do their own survey and require authorization from DOB (given as the permit is signed off). From my experience, National Grid may take the opportunity to require a newer or upgraded gas service (pipe from the street to the house) and there are requirements about where a new meter might be sited.

Once all that is cleared, you can get your new meters.

However I would point out that the #1 use of gas in a building is hot water and heat. If you have a common boiler and hwh that supply that, you would need to plan to install separate heating units into the individual apartments, so that the tenants pay their own heat and hot water. Otherwise you are stuck paying the majority of the gas - the cooking gas only runs $30/month per apt max.

As for water, again, you need to have segregated piping to each unit.  You can install a submeter on each branch to the apartment, read that every 3 months and bill the tenant back.  It doesn't require a permit, but it is only cost effective if the pipes are separate. (For instance, the pipe feeding the lower kitchen may also feed the upper kitchen in a duplex, and likewise for the bathrooms. It would be very hard to separate those effectively.)

Good luck.

@Hanna Edwards gave a very good explanation of the process. Having separate meters is great and for a long term property hold is a solid investment. The real money saver as she mentioned is when you have separate heating and hot water for each unit on those meters. Many times homeowners think this is not possible due to the space limitations adding a water heater and boiler to an existing mechanical room presents. However there are many  economical solutions which can fit in the existing space if laid out properly. Feel free to PM if you have questions.

Best of Luck,

Alex Furini, RA

Isn't the landlord supposed to cover heat and hot water?  

@Tyler Brown

Its a complicated permitting process for sure, but not only will you save money after a few years, it’s also a good way to increase cap rate without increasing rent. Might be a messy construction process so potentially time it up when you have a vacancy in at least 1 unit.

@Tyler Brown Why not just bake the cost of the water and gas into the monthly rent and call it a day.

Originally posted by @Will B. :

Isn't the landlord supposed to cover heat and hot water?  

 @ Will B.: Landlords are not required to cover the cost of it can be segregated to the specific unit. In that case they are only required to provide the equipment and maintain it in working order.  You see it more often when a unit has electric heat, but if a unit has its own gas fired appliances on the meter specific to the unit, then the tenant pays for it directly (and gets to control their heat also, which some prefer).

@Kevin: yes most landlords bake a percentage of the heating bill into the rent as they have no way to separate out the direct costs.