So, the 4 plex I own has a common water meter and I pay for the water. I have noticed utilization increasing and of course the water bill going higher. Anyone ever retrofitted their place to have individual unit meters or some form of submetering system? The only way to make renters be more aware of water usage is the old skin in the game strategy. I would consider lowering their rent a tad if they had to now pay for their own water usage going forward.
I know EBMUD offers rebates for this too so it makes financial sense to do it.
If anyone has a local contractor who does this kind of stuff, PM me with the contact info. Thanks!!!
I think you would have to ripe out all the old pipe and all the walls since it could be like spaghetti setup. I am sure if the place is open up - it would also trigger all kinds of “code” upgrades but yet it is still under rent control in SF. I highly doubt it is practical otherwise most old SF apartments landlords would have converted by now.
Oakland actually and while still rent control in play I can do this if it makes sense to. My contractor went under the crawl space and thinks it is doable in terms of how the water comes into the building and then divides out to the four units. I just need a licensed plumber or an outfit that does submetering to confirm or proceed with next steps.
How would one structure the switch over to existing tenants? Usually water is included so if I’m a tenant I would never switch over to an individually water.meter apartment setup.
I think it is also cost prohibitive for existing tenants - every water outlet needs to be cap and re-routed. Which means all the walls near the outlet and the paths need to be traced… Maybe convert apartments one by one in-between vacancy?