Water bill?

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

Hey homeowners -- I'm trying to determine what's a typical quarterly water bill for a two-adult household in our area. If you're willing, could you please comment with your typical monthly bill, and note the following:

-How many adults does that cover?
-Are dishes washed primarily by hand or in a dishwasher?
-Any other factors you think raise or lower your water usage compared to the average for your type of household?

Thanks!

Our house bill is ~$450 per quarter, for 4 adults and a baby, and a dishwasher in each unit. I think my partner and I use a typical amount of water and the folks upstairs think they use a large amount of water, but we're not separately metered so we're not sure how to divide the bill.

Thanks for contributing your information! :-)

Comments

[jirikido.livejournal.com]

we have one water meter and my partner and I are one side and there are 7 people on the other side. an educated guess is that they use water more or less in proportion to the number of people. our water bill has been about $350/quarter for 5 adults and four children. there are dishwashers and washer/dryer on each side.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

I think the landlord is on the hook for water. Even in the single-family houses I've rented, the landlord is responsible for the water bill. Certainly the owner is responsible if the units are not separately metered; you can't charge someone for what folks think two people probably use.

[magid.livejournal.com]

In this case, I believe the original poster is one of the people owning the space, hence the question.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

Well, that would make them the landlord and on the hook for the water, wouldn't it.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Er, not if they're co-owners with the other people in the house, trying to figure out how to split the bill. Or anyway, they're not the only ones on the hook, as it were.

[ceo]

It's 2 condos with one water meter. (I'm one of the owners of the other unit.)

[twe.livejournal.com]

The most recent water bill for our condo (2 units, one of which was empty half the last period, 1 resident each) was $71. Both units have dishwashers & washing machines. No idea about the guy upstairs, but I feel like I use a pretty average amount of water (dishwasher about every other day, a couple loads of laundry a week, visitors a couple of times a week).

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I don't see the water bill for this place, but my understanding is that for buildings with one meter, it is one of the things taken care of by the condo fee, and that fee is generally based on square footage in each unit, so the larger units pay a larger fee. That's the way I'd do it, anyway. Otherwise, you have to keep thinking about changing it when resident configurations change, etc.

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

Being a little 2-unit condo, we're in charge of setting the condo fee and defining what it pays for, so it still comes back to the same question.

I'm coming to the conclusion that our bill is in fact higher than it should be, and will be doing further digging...

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

*nod* I was including converted two-family homes in my original comment. I had nothing to say on the matter of whether your water bill is high, because I have no idea. :)

Just noting a method I feel is fair for dividing it, since you mentioned not being sure how to do that.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Could you have anything that's leaking water?

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

I'm in a two family condo with a split water bill. Our neighbors used to be a family with two babies. They moved out and now there is a single parent with two pre-teens in the other unit. My unit has two adults. When the new folks (no babies) moved in, our water bill dropped in half for the whole house. That means our old neighbors were using three times as much water as we were. That's just anecdotal evidence, but I'm guessing households with babies do a LOT of laundry. Now our bill is $200 something per quarter.

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

Thanks chumbolly -- and I have another question for you. When you have a minute, could you dig out your last water bill and let me know the *volume* of water you used in a quater? That turns out to be the critical bit of data I'm after. Thanks...