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Trying to understand the set up (both physically & from a charge-for-usage perspective) of the water meter in my condo building.

As far as I can tell, this appears to be a single usage meter, with lines after the meter going to each unit. How would charges be distributed by the water provider as a result? Surely there is no way for the meter to distinguish which unit the water usage is going to right? Resultantly, there should be just one water bill for the whole condo building, with no delineation by unit?

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isherwood
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Runeaway3
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1 Answers1

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Yes it's possible that the whole building could be fed through a single meter. It's possible even that many buildings could be fed through a single meter. I'm aware of one such condo community in my city: the two newest buildings of 4 units each have a meter in one unit; the older part of the community has many buildings fed through a single meter and a 6 or 8 inch distribution system throughout that part of the community. I'm also aware of a single-family home community done similarly: there are about 30 individual homes all served through a single meter. This practice is called "master metering."

You're correct: it would be impossible to bill each tenant for their usage when the water is metered this way. Instead, a single entity, a home owners association of some sort, pays the bill. They in turn charge the condo owners a periodic association fee to recoup the community costs which include the consumption charges for all of their master meter(s).

Greg Hill
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