Thursday, October 10, 2013

The Benefits Of Water Submetering

By Catalina Nielsen


Water submetering involves installing meters into individual units within multifamily developments such as condominiums, apartment communities and mobile home communities among others. Typically, multi family properties have either a master meter for the entire development or one meter for each building. People living in the property are required to pay the water and sewer bill, which is usually divided evenly by the number of units within the property.

In a situation where a property is sub metered, the cost is divided according to the consumption in every unit. This is a very fair method of sharing the cost because residents only pay for what they have consumed. Property submetering comes with several benefits. To start with conservation is encouraged because residents try their best to consume less in order to reduce their bills.

Installing submeters in a property is also beneficial for property owners because it helps reduce expenses. Owners of properties usually incur high expenses in the form of bills and they do not have control over them since it is the residents who control consumption. After submeters are installed, the residents become responsible for their own bills. In this way, owners are able to reduce their overhead especially in cases where utility expenses are included in the rent.

The fact that tenants will be willing to reduce consumption after submeters are installed in a property means that wastage will be reduced, which will be of benefit to the environment. According to studies supported by the federal government, the installation of submeters in a development that can reduce consumption by twenty to thirty percent as residents will be ready to inform the property managers about leaks and avoid letting water run freely when no one is using it. A large number of tenants love submetering since they pay less after lowering consumption.

If you install submeters in your property, the rates your tenants pay will change with utility rate changes. This will help you maintain your margins because you will take out the cost of utilities from rental rate calculations. For this reason, you can be more competitive by lowering your rental rates.

The process of installing submeters in a property is straightforward. You just have to contact a submetering company and install the equipment needed for the system to work such as reading equipment, meters and transmitters. The company will then access the individual units in order to install the necessary equipment. This equipment can also be installed on the outside of your property if you find this to be convenient.

After the equipment is installed, it is tested and the company that installed it will be responsible for reading the meters, disbursing the bills and collecting the payments. It will serve the role of managing the system in a similar manner to the way phone and electrical companies work. The company will also handle the questions and concerns of the residents.

The submeters are usually placed in areas that can be easily accessed like electrical closets in public areas. For this reason, the employees tasked with reading meters do not have to get into each individual unit to read them. Your will get your monthly utility bill as usual but the water submetering company will provide every tenant with his or her individual bill.




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