Utility Service Center
There are costs associated with allowing multiple housekeeping units to use a
single meter. The housekeeping units' monthly charge is intended to cover the
costs of multi-family properties. Public Notices are required to be posted on
each housekeeping unit in advance of service termination. Also, the amounts of
delinquent bills for multi-family properties tend to be larger than normal
delinquencies due to the difficulty in collecting. Although
not all multi-family accounts become delinquent, the costs of the delinquent
accounts are distributed across the multi-family industry, just as similar costs
of delinquent residential customers are distributed across the whole
single-family residential customer base.
There are also costs associated with leak detection and billing problems. Leak
detection in multi-family housing properties is very difficult to perform. In
many cases, all residents must be contacted individually to coordinate detection
of water leaks. Also, high billing inquires are very difficult and time
consuming to investigate due to the number of housekeeping units, their
individual usage patterns and the condition of plumbing fixtures.
The costs of these service difficulties serve as the basis for the per unit
charge for multi-family accounts.
