Lehigh University and Moravian keep a steady stream of renters moving through Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and much of that housing sits in South Side row homes and small conversions owned by individual landlords. Nearly all of it runs on one water meter per building. When water is folded into rent, the owner pays for whatever each tenant uses, and none of them ever see the number. Water submetering gives every unit its own reading. Students who clear out each spring have no stake in a bill they never receive, so a slow-running toilet can go an entire lease unmentioned. True Submeter installs an individual water meter on each unit and invoices tenants automatically for exactly what they used, so you recover the water bill instead of absorbing it. Usage drops once it carries a cost, the disputes over a shared bill end, and net operating income rises. Meter the units, and the water stops being the owner’s problem.
