Water bunnies
In Nelson the city council charges us for the water we use. Generally the tenants use about 300 ltrs a day that averages out to about 10cubic m a month. The City charges us $1.719 per cu m. Landlords are permitted to pass on these cost to the tenant.
So every 6 months when the water charges are sent out to the owners we have a flurry of activity invoicing the tenants of all the properties we manage. Inevitably there will be some very high water accounts. The city council is quite proactive on sudden increases of water and will more often than not contact the owner bringing the unusually high usage to their attention. Sometimes it is discovered that there are leaking pipes and overflowing header tanks or toilets malfunctioning. The council contractors are very helpful and will assist owners to find the underground leaks. Well after a change of tenants one flat suddenly started using lots more water. An account for $400 came in. The city boys came snooping around and could not find anything. The owner tried also but alas could not figure out why the flat was using 1.6 cu m of water a day. This is 5 times the normal usage. I was assigned the job to find out the problem. I demanded the council men meet me on site. The meter reads to a tenth of a litre. When we were there the meter was stopped dead still. No leaks at all. The tenants consist of a stay at home mum, pre teenage son, and working dad. Completely normal and no drugs to be seen anywhere. This is nuts I thought. There must be something wrong. I talked over the issue with the tenant and they could not offer any ideas. They were not keen to pay the account and said they had seen the tap drip once or twice. Could that be the problem? Another strange thing was the bathroom always seemed to have a lot of condensation. The tenants thought the toilet cistern was leaking because it had a lot of condensation on its outside. I managed to get the council to change the meter just in case it was the cause. I started reading the meter everyday. Sure enough the strange high usage continued, In fact it seemed to be increasing. Still no leaks could be found. I think I know what the problem is now.
Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be?
In Nelson the city council charges us for the water we use. Generally the tenants use about 300 ltrs a day that averages out to about 10cubic m a month. The City charges us $1.719 per cu m. Landlords are permitted to pass on these cost to the tenant.
So every 6 months when the water charges are sent out to the owners we have a flurry of activity invoicing the tenants of all the properties we manage. Inevitably there will be some very high water accounts. The city council is quite proactive on sudden increases of water and will more often than not contact the owner bringing the unusually high usage to their attention. Sometimes it is discovered that there are leaking pipes and overflowing header tanks or toilets malfunctioning. The council contractors are very helpful and will assist owners to find the underground leaks. Well after a change of tenants one flat suddenly started using lots more water. An account for $400 came in. The city boys came snooping around and could not find anything. The owner tried also but alas could not figure out why the flat was using 1.6 cu m of water a day. This is 5 times the normal usage. I was assigned the job to find out the problem. I demanded the council men meet me on site. The meter reads to a tenth of a litre. When we were there the meter was stopped dead still. No leaks at all. The tenants consist of a stay at home mum, pre teenage son, and working dad. Completely normal and no drugs to be seen anywhere. This is nuts I thought. There must be something wrong. I talked over the issue with the tenant and they could not offer any ideas. They were not keen to pay the account and said they had seen the tap drip once or twice. Could that be the problem? Another strange thing was the bathroom always seemed to have a lot of condensation. The tenants thought the toilet cistern was leaking because it had a lot of condensation on its outside. I managed to get the council to change the meter just in case it was the cause. I started reading the meter everyday. Sure enough the strange high usage continued, In fact it seemed to be increasing. Still no leaks could be found. I think I know what the problem is now.
Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be?
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