water metering just started and

2021/05/21

Our water metering just started and we are supposed to have 12-18 months of data before we actually have to pay the new rates. Scott: Ill also show you the inside this. So you pay your water utility and you collect it from the tenants? Anything above that, youll be billed for, right? So you can do it different ways but you have to have the equipment in there, and you have to follow the law if youre actually going to bill them. Wow! Your toilets are going to have to flush less than a certain amount per flush. For $100, if you want to have that outside water, at least you could measure the usage, and if you werent, you know your tenants are, so --. Female Audience 2: Thats why its [unintelligible 0:11:44].

You can also read it on the day a new tenant moves in to generate the last bill upon move out. Thats actually a pretty useful metric to use. A lot of water is being wasted from tenants using and waiting for that water to get to the third floor and at that point in time, you as a landlord is saving money because youre not standing there waiting for the hot water to come. When I re-piped one of my buildings I ran separate sub-meters to each unit. Finally, you must have approval from the local Board of Health for the install. So well just go through the table of contents who pays for the water, when can a tenant be billed, when cant they, the public housing tenants have to pay for water, can landlords shut off the water. Starting now, youre new tenant. If you Google water submeter law booklet, youll come up with a hit that gets you to this presentation right here. Peter: Whats the logic behind the fact that a tenant cannot waive that and allow it to happen while theyre in there? Male Audience 2: Is that in the last slide? Submeters are great for keeping track of what your tenants are using and Im going to give you an example. meter water read simivalley Hes a plumber. If you want to go and spend the money to install the meters so that you can personally know where the usage is, I don't think the law prevents that. So if sewer is billed as a percentage of submetered water, the cost of sewer can also be sub-billed to renters. Thats what you would have a common submeter. One, you can put a valve out in the front of the meter, one after it. I see some hands going up. Massachusetts landlords must meet several criteria in order to charge tenants for submetered water usage, including: hiring a licensed plumber to install meters; including the intention of charging tenants for water in the rental lease; using or installing low-flow faucets and showerheads in bathrooms, faucets in kitchens and low-flush toilets; and, importantly, only starting with a new tenant (i.e. Rich: It has the name of the law at the top. One bright point is that the Massachusetts legal regulations also apply to wastewater or sewer service charges. As our landlord panel, can you guys hang around for a couple of minute afterwards because I know there are people who have questions for you? Its a long payback, right, to do water submetering? I do that everywhere. They have to be accurately measured, and there are certain things about the tenancies.

Rich: I hear that rates are going up in a lot of towns. You have to have water-conserving devices. This is just a ton of different questions and its very informative.

Rich: Real quick because this part is really, really, really important to avoid problems. Female Audience 2: [unintelligible 0:11:36] the water? Log in or get access for as little as $3. Thats why it is. [0:15:07]. My other duplex I live in I make my tenant pay me directly a set amount each month and pick up the rest. It was $1,750. Your faucets, youre going to have a certain flow rate. But a lot of it comes down to people relations and how you explain things and how you are with people and that really means a lot more than a lot of this other stuff assuming that you are all in compliance with the law anyway. Im guessing no one hasnt actually drive this yet.

I want to talk to you, too, because I replaced 19 toilets last year, but I still like my water bill to go down. Were doing a good job here. I have a landlord [unintelligible 0:17:12]. That was going to be my next question. How many people have done it as part of major renovation and had the walls opened anyway? Theres a variability, obviously but $60 a month. Thats the bulleting that we wanted to share and we will try to get a licensed plumber to talk about this at length in the future. He was talking about 60 gallons per day. Now all the buildings that have been remodeled within the last 15 years is required if there was a permit pulled for it, requires a shutoff for each individual floor. (o) Landlord must rebate tenant if there is a plumbing leak. Learn to use the monthly rent invoice/water bill form. Thanks, Sewer cost is usually dependent upon the amount of water used so it should be easy to figure out.Keep in mind in order to separate out the water you will probably need to run new cold water lines, The water lines to each apartment are easily accessible from the basement parking area. I learned about this law that passed in Massachusetts. If you calculate that out, that comes out with Worcesters water and sewer rates right now, thats about $20 a month per person. Okay. Well, you know its probably a good idea to try to pick people who are going to pay stuff anyway. Scott: What I wanted to say was the thing about this, the way I talk to my tenants about this is I explain to them that its to their benefit because youre living in a building with a whole bunch of other people. Male Audience 4: As long as youre not charging them. Then read the meters once a month and send them a bill. Damn 350 is a lot for water dang. I just found this main slide here, you can kind of see the general concept that your main water supply comes into your house typically in your basement and then with the city has a meter and they can elect most of the times I think electronically read the meter. Now Im going to stand by here afterwards and give you a lot of examples how to save water, okay, through your tenants. Without submeters monitoring each of your renters water usage, you have no idea which tenant is running up the bill, or even if its a collective problem among more than a single renter. Once tenants know they will potentially have to pay for the water, they become more cautious not to waste it, said Harry Paul-Emile, a landlord in Framingham who installed water submeters for his rentals about 10 years ago when he noticed his water bill continually increasing without knowing why. If you want to talk to me after, you got it. That means physically checking each meter youve installed once a month, or at least installing a camera pointed at the meter for remote readings. Smart meters that are able to send usage data to your phone or other Wi-Fi device can be a big time saver. For tenants part, too, some appreciate the transparency of seeing a monthly bill and paying for their water usage directly. My tenants seem to like that concept. Okay, thats a lot of the room, okay so that means that if the other half of the room has buildings of other sizes as well. you can add a sub meter and check it yourself. The Legislature Needs to Hear from You: OpposeLocal Control of Housing Policy, Search Eviction Records by Address (Beta), Statewide Rental Real Estate Networking and Training.

So you can see the apartment 1, 2, 3, and the common area.

As soon as it leaves the tap, its wasted water. If youre interested to learn more, search online for Chapter 186 Section 22, which authorizes the submetering in a lot of detailed language and the State Sanitary Code as a few paragraphs of additional information. I have two buildings in Worcester I bought that had quite a bit of deferred maintenance, and I decided I wanted to do kitchen and bath renovations. There is a range of reading options, from manual on-site readings to smart meters with wireless capability that can send online readings, provide analytics and optimization. Male Audience 1: [unintelligible 0:10:11] property. Once a quarter at the first of November or the first of February, I go out and I read the meters, write them down, record them in my meter reading sheet, and then I have an invoice form that I fill in. Those are the one you can afford to bill back. Please let me know because Id like to know what this costs. Scott: I have this on some slides. If you are looking at three people in the house, $60 a month, $180 a quarter; thats what youre talking about. That becomes wasted water. After the city meter is your main line and the trick is it depends on how your plumbing is. No public housing at all. I have not seen any craziness in terms of water usage since. Member dues support this mission. Now I am from ohio and water is cheap so i don't worry about it. The meters read like a car odometer. This is where the submetering will come in useful. You could say that, Okay, look this is what Massachusetts is targeting per usage. Doug: Sixty dollars a month, yes. Do you have to have a common area submeter? The new tenant was not relocated involuntarily from another dwelling unit in the same building or the same complex. You cant move somebody from the third floor down to the second floor, call it a new tenancy, and start billing them. Youre still going to have to float that bill to your municipality. Now, sure the renters can tamper it and take it out, but if they don't know that its there or theyre not malicious, youre going to get a signal from this battery. These are installed at the shutoffs with compression fittings and/or threads. Would you like to be notified via email when somebody replies to this thread? Down side is there is no connection to their costs and usage. He called me up and we had to find out where all those water was going. This has never been a problem because the city utilities bill has never gone above $250/mo so I just wrap it into their rents, but last year new meters were put in and it appeared as though their water usage skyrocketed (funny, this happened everywhere in my town, and the citys response is well it looks like youre using more water! Same thing for apartment 2, same thing for apartment 3, and then the outside faucets and any common area water goes through a separate meter. Yeah, $8,000. Seems like it would save you a whole lot of headaches and add to resale a bit. You can see its described in these pamphlets, so I can talk about gallons per minute, but youre not going to remember it anyway, so theres no point. George: Well, Im always against putting steel cocks on the outside of the house for tenants because you drive by your property -- and I have one property. I don't know much about the law. The plumber thats here could tell you this, look at the situation to see if its going to be feasible because depending on how things are run, it could be more feasible than it might not be feasible. Utility submetering has been around since the 1920s but was not widespread until the energy crisis in the mid-1970s, which prompted an increase in submetering for gas and electric usage. It also would help if you can put up the submeters, you can tell which floor to focus on if there is somebody running a Laundromat at our apartment. Anything else and you'll have to do the "billing" for water usage to your tenant directly. Grumble grumble). Scott: Hi, everybody. Better Communities. Depending on your area I would do the split meter, and next time the lease renewal is up, I would make them buy their own water. I swear I read something on here once about their being a cheaper way, and using some kind of splitter?? That's until they found out I still rent out the condo's and own 100%. Submeters must be installed behind, and be subordinate to, a main meter monitored by the water provider. Rental agreements are month to month. If you had installed water submeters you would quickly be able to check the meters and determine which unit used all that water, then take action. Slides are available only for members in good standing who are logged in. I'm in the same boat myself. of course this all depends on how the pluming inside is set up. Cheaper nicer safer happier brighter more private, where people want it.

Peter: Say somebody is already there and they think its a great idea but according to the law, it has to be a new person. Thats the biggest cause with submetering just locate in making sure we have three separate cold lines going to each apartment, okay? Why would we have to run new lines? In my case, were renovating, taking out all the old plumbing, so its easy. Pretty clear where each one goes. To view all of this presentation, you must be logged-in and a member in good standing. We dont have it. Female Audience 1: I just got my water bill yesterday for this quarter. Its all explained in this booklet, okay? In comparison with most other states, the Massachusetts law (see M.G.L. Scott: Yeah. But no matter what data reporting system you use, youll spend time recording meter readings, calculating costs and writing and delivering invoices to tenants. And by doing so, you might just avoid a nightmare scenario down the road. Rich: All right, so were making use out of these people from New Jersey tonight [laughter]. I own a duplex and rent out both sides, but there is only one water meter. Its a 25-page booklet that you can find on Google. Male Audience 5: I have had submeters for 30 years, and the way I did that, not to charge the tenant at all. For landlords only interested in monitoring and potentially reducing water usagewithout directly charging renters for waterthere is nothing in the state law that restricts installation of water submeters at any time. You just adjust that on a spreadsheet. Where did you guys look into to buy your submeters? I do charge a flat fee for water and add it to rent. Basically, this is where Ive learned all the things that I needed to do for --. It just helps out with service. Rich: Like over here, there is a common area submeter on Scotts slide here. Has anybody opened up the walls specifically to do water submetering? All right, look theres a website, TrueSubmeter.com, which is the first search results, so I think it gets some traffic, but I didnt give me a quote in time for tonight. Im paying for that water. How many people have heard about this before? Anything thats got downstairs, it needs a faucet hooked up to it. Thats how they send you your water bill. I dont need to [unintelligible 0:11:55]. Still, cost aside, the bigger obstacle to installing water submeters for many landlords in Massachusetts is the state law. Scott: You just Google submeter, youll see a whole bunch of stuff out there. The only good hands off way is to get another meter installed. In my particular case, my tenants dont have an issue with it. In this all-too-common scenario, the water bill arrives and for some reason, without warning, you owe thousands of dollars. Tenants are also more likely to report leaks under those circumstancesthus avoiding nightmare scenarios.

Anyone recollect what Im looking for? Jim: I think they dont want you to kick out they dont want to have the event of having the meter put in as an event that allows you to kick people out to order to start charging for the water. I write in my lease that the tenant is paying for water, how I do it, how I submeter. All right, thats good news. Contact the city to get the form they want you to complete (usually a state form but may have been modified). It prints out the PDF file and I email that to my tenants and I include in their next round of payment. The citys meter might measure in 100 cubic foot units, for example, while the submeter you purchased may measure in gallons.

Anyway, so we have George Chapman here who is kind enough to come and talk to us. You have a tenant, you cannot do that because youre changing their money. I go by the area and I see them washing their car. Our general consensus, I think is if you do have the walls opened, you should do it if no other reason that you get a slow payback for which you avoid that disastrous scenario where someone is running a laundry or theyre running the water bills up. Now he switched over from a well to city water when Wal-Mart went in there. The law is pretty specific about it. Add in the cost of conservation measures such as buying and installing low-flow water fixtures in each rental, required by law since 1994. Beyond the finances, landlords also must consider the added time they will now have to allow for taking readings. Each meter is about $100, and a plumber could install one in about 45 minutes. George: Well, thats one you have to locate where the main line comes off of and goes up to the first floor, the second floor, and the third floor. To view all of this presentation, you must be logged with webinar access. Assuming its not set up that way, then what? Weve actually asked the judge about this and they enforce this stuff if it ever comes up. Male Audience 2: Id say that payback schedule is probably reasonable, but I havent done major renovation anyway, so I just. The transparency, for them and their tenants, of knowing exactly how much water is being used per unit, promotes a better, more trustful tenant-landlord relationship while helping to reduce water waste. I just wanted to see how much I was using. If thats your setup, make sure to place it in adequate lighting for camera visibility, or install a timed lamp, too. Read state sanitary codes. Please elaborate. Anyway, now the average monthly bill is $350 so I raised their rents accordingly, but I just got notice that the waste collection bill is set to go up significantly in a few months. It doesn't quite cover the amount but offsets my costs with minimal head ache. Even considering a base rent reduction of $50 to make the pill less bitter. Rich: All right. Female Audience 1: Thats the house I live in and nobody is ever home. Basically, one of the keys that you have to have low -- in 1994, I think the plumbing code required certain flow per minute for showerheads, faucets, toilets gallons per flush, low flow stuff. Rich: But youre allowed to change the rent, so if you want to charge more money, maybe rent is the easier way to go. Other thing and you definitely cant just create a new lease with an existing tenant. We went it. Modify your rental agreement to contain a submetering clause and a space to write the meter reading into it at lease start. Also, one side of the duplex uses far more water than the other (as evidenced by the condition of the yards and the existence of raised garden beds). https://caanet.org/kb/water-submeters-rental-property/. Scott: Yeah, so right here. All right, so Scott, this is something that youve done and youve implemented. Expensive utilities like electric and gas. Jim: [unintelligible 0:08:00] The main idea here is like everything with Massachusetts law, its heavily in favor of the tenant, so they have dotted every I, crossed every T to make sure that the landlord is not taking advantage of the tenant. I heard about all the horror stories of huge water bills and multifamily houses with one meter and no ability to know where the water usage is. Does anyone? Its in my lease. Better Policy. Hang on. Otherwise you also have to get a separate meter for the yard too. You cant just if you have an existing tenant, you cant just start doing it. With that, were probably going to have some questions at the end. Hes going to tell us a little bit about logistically what its like to get this done in different-sized buildings. I may look into a separate water meter when the mother/son changes but until then it's 50/50. Jim: I bought a whole bunch of them from surplus from a water utility in New Jersey.

Did it work for you according to this payback schedule? Now two segments in a row, weve gone overtime, so I apologize for that. You have to have the first floor, second floor, third floor and the common area. Rich: Thats a really important point in general that Scott is making is theres what you can do legally and what you cant do legally.