I am considering water submetering.

This is an apartment with 4 units A B C D.

Built in the 1950s, it has only one main shutoff. This is a real pain because if I need to service one unit may be change out a valve in unit B, I have to shut water to the entire building.

Ideally I would like to be able to shut water to individual units off, and possibly install sub-meters so I can pass them the water bills. When they don't have to pay for water, then I see car wash parties every weekend using my water.

I know traditional submetering require you to locate the branch where water enters each unit. Kind of like a hub and spoke?

In my case I do not have such a system. During the last two years in maintaining and repairing stuff I have a pretty good idea how the water line runs. It is a 3/4" copper line that runs through unit A B C D in that order. Some areas it goes below the concrete slab and pops up somewhere in another manifold. Something like this.



Now, I have identified locations A, B, C, D and it is possible to get limited access (behind wall cavities). Is it possible to submeter something like this?

In other words, I know and have access to a point "1" where it is downstream of A, but upstream of B,C,D,laundry. I know point "2" where it is downstream of A,B but upstream of C,D,laundry. And point "3" where it is downstream of A,B,C and upstream of D,laundry, and point "4" where it is only upstream of laundry.

The usage of Apt D can be calculated by subtracting the flow out from the flow in, right?

Is there a way to do this?

In related news, I came across this.

[soneter.com]

There is no detailed information on this, but I am intrigued.

Anyone knows anything about it? It claims to be able to do submeter without cutting into the line at all.

I did some research, a while back, into similar technology to determine flow in heating systems. If you know the flow and you know the circulator being used, you can determine the head of the system. Anyway, what I found was frightfully expensive. Give them a call, and let me know.

When you sub-meter, do you become a water provider? Are you, as a reseller liable for the waters you resell? How will you bill for the water service? Based on pure gallons per use or will you add admit fees for taking the time to read the meters and determine the charges for water. Would you have to register as a water utility company?

Just Asking.
Best Wishes

There are different ways to do it.

Typically the landlord still pay the utility provider the entire bill.

There is a service that installs meters into each unit or apartment, that meter can be read via wireless RF anywhere in the country and by knowing the usages of each apartment the water or electric bill is then divided up according to usages each each tenant is billed on their respective usages. They are not paying you the landlord as a water provider, they are reimbursing you for their usages.

i believe it is illegal in MA for a landlord to do what you are doing.
condo's in the same building can be metered and charged seperately but apartments can not.

Thanks Sum. So you are saying that you can be a reseller, without responsibilities. I find that both interesting as well as argumentive. Keep in mind that I say that, not being a Florida resident. I am aware of the install and reading process, but I don't understand the theory of your reimbursement. Are you stating that the utility company that provides your building will allow you to do this?
Needless to say, I find it interesting as it is not allowed in my community.
Best Wishes

Packy and Wheelchair,

This is a very complex question to answer.

Submetering is legal in most states provided that you do it "properly".

The rules are different from state to state, city to city. Furthermore, the rules that govern water submetering may not be the same as electric or gas submetering, or internet/cable TV/phone. On top of that, it is often depending on whether it is residential or commercial, and what is defined as commercial can be confusing, for example, a residential building with more than 4 units can be classified as commercial for that purpose.

In most cases, is best to think of submetering being permitted but with restrictions, and those restrictions changes from locale to locale.

Wheelchair, the utility company does not know, that you as the landlord or building owner is installing the submeter equipment because it is downstream of the meter. For the most part they don't care, except for cable or internet. Obviously you cannot have one cable account, with one modem, then run different ethernet wire to each apartment and give each tenant free cable or internet...that to the cable company is cable theft, but that is a different matter altogether.

One fairly common rule that must be satisfied in many locales is the non-profit rule. That says you the landlord can bill the tenants individually for their usages, provided that you can accurately measure the usages, and provided that the submeter system is used for the purpose of dividing up the bill. It cannot be used to derive profit. You cannot pay the utility provider $300 and then bill each of your six tenants $70 each and make a profit of $120, nor can you hire an outside firm to do the submeter billing for you, and you pass the fees you pay this outside company to your tenants, and there are also varying rules on common usages. For example in my situation, I cannot take the laundry room usages and bill them because there is no way I can measure who used how much.

Packy, MA actually allows water submetering but have very strict rules.

[www.mass.gov]
[malegislature.gov]

In some states, the rules are so restrictive that from a practical standpoint, it might as well be considered illegal. One example would be hosebibs. Since many locales require accurate measurement of each tenants' usages, then when you have outside hosebibs, how could you tell what usages it has and who used it? You can't. Not unless you lock every hosebib with a key and give each tenant exclusive access...or you install a submeter for each hosebib and put that on "common usages", or you just cap all hosebibs.

Here is a summary by state on submetering. However it is still overly simplistic.

[www.ncsl.org]

At the end of the day, tenants do pay for the water directly or indirectly. Due to complex laws on submetering, the landlords would then just include the water usages into the rent by adding on a flat fee.

In Florida, they actually allow other allocation methods besides submetering. Meaning I can divide up the bill using other methods, such as a family of 4 would pay twice the usages of a family of 2, or by number of bedrooms, or by square footages...as long as the rule of division is written into the lease agreement and acknowledged by both parties.



Edited 2 times.

It is really irrelevant because each meter registers the usage down stream so you would have to start at the laundry and subtract that usage from the bill, then do the same at each upstream meter, until you finally wind up with the balance which would be "A", but HE would be stuck with any errors in computation or metering.

Actually I have a branch before apt A to irrigation, so I need to put in a submeter downstream of irrigation and before entering apartment A.

The usages can be calculated like you said.

The question is whether it is worth the effort to do it. I do see from a maintenance standpoint, if I ever have a under the slab leak on the copper line, this can help me pin point it to some degree.

sum, for cripe sakes, there are 16 pages of mass regulations concerning sub-metering. every single paragraph is written to protect the tenant.
so, it is a suprise to me that sub-metering is allowed but it is not a suprise that the law is written in such a way that the landlord has no rights.

[malegislature.gov]

Packy, that's why I said even if it's technically legal to allow submetering, it may not be practical to do so in some states.

From my brief reading for MA, it requires the submeters to measure EXCLUSIVE USE. This means if there is a hosebib on a branch somewhere, the use cannot be exclusive unless the bib is capped off permanently and locked.

The other gray area that could throw a monkey wrench into this is many cities utility bill roll the water, sewer and sanitation into one bill. You can claim exclusive measurements on water supply lines. How do you claim exclusive use on the sewer line? The utility companies just assumes sewer usages = water usages, but then filling up a swimming pool, washing cars, irrigation etc...cannot be "accurately" calculated, nor can sanitation usages.

It's easier just to add $50 to the rent and forget about it.

Doing it your way would mean there is only "exclusive use" for the laundry at the end of the line.

Thank You Sum

Best Wishes