| Mobile home park tenants use, on average, about | | | | was huge – maybe 400,000 gallons per month. |
| $30 per month of water & sewer. In some | | | | That would fill 20 commercial hotel swimming pools. In |
| parks, however, that amount can run around $100 | | | | the end, it turned out to be a crime scene – |
| per occupied lot. Whenever you become suspicious | | | | someone who had their house downstream on a |
| that your water is running too high, here are the | | | | creek had tapped into the park’s main line and |
| steps to find out where the water is going and | | | | run a line to the creek so that the babbling brook |
| proactively solve the problem. | | | | was running year round. |
| Install water meters and read them. | | | | Once you find the leaks in the system, fix them. |
| Even if you have no interest in billing back tenants | | | | Regardless of the cost, there is no way that you will |
| for their actual use, there is no way to track where | | | | be money ahead by letting them keep on leaking. |
| the water is going without measuring how much | | | | The only exception is the natural, tiny leaks of a large |
| tenants use. This will help you identify if your usage | | | | system, caused by trace seepage in the connections. |
| problems are tied to just a few tenants who abuse | | | | Before you start evicting tenants for water use |
| the system. I once had a tenant who was spending | | | | abuse, find out why it’s occurring. |
| $600 per month in water. How? He sneaked into the | | | | One of the best things you can do when exploring |
| park a large commercial construction water truck, and | | | | where your water is going, is to hire a plumber to |
| filled it up with his hose every night. That one tenant | | | | come out to the park at 10 am on a weekday, and |
| was the entire source of my water problem, and I | | | | take all the clean out covers off and listen for running |
| found him through sub-metering. | | | | water. Most lots will have none. But some will have |
| Compare the master meter reading to the individual | | | | Niagara falls going down the line – even though |
| lot aggregate. | | | | nobody is home! Why? Because they have all kinds |
| Once you have the individual readings, you can now | | | | of leaks in their house. Toilet leaks, leaky faucets, |
| add them up and see if they are the same as your | | | | you name it. I once had a tenant who left all of his |
| master reading, from the main meter that you get | | | | taps running 24/7 because they were broken and he |
| your bill from. The difference between these two | | | | couldn’t turn them off. In these cases, you are |
| readings is the amount of water leaking in your | | | | better off having the plumber go to these |
| system. Most parks have a small amount of leakage, | | | | tenants’ houses and spend 30 minutes to fix |
| so don’t demand perfection. If, however, the | | | | their leaks, rather than evict them and try to find a |
| difference is significant (say many thousands of | | | | new tenant. If you evict a tenant, you will have |
| gallons), you have a real problem. | | | | court costs, loss of income, and probably an outgo |
| Look for visual signs of leaks. | | | | of cash as an incentive to bring in a new home. If |
| Before you put a lot of money into testing, see if | | | | you can fix the leaks for $100 you are much better |
| you can find the leak yourself by walking the | | | | off. |
| property and looking for signs of saturated land and | | | | Conclusion |
| tall, green grass. While this can also be caused by | | | | Water and sewer is the largest line item expense for |
| artesian wells and sewer line leakage, big-time | | | | most mobile home parks. That means that saving |
| saturation requires the kind of constant water | | | | money on it is going to be the biggest savings you |
| pressure in line with a serious leak. Fix these leaks | | | | can make. Your park usage is not magic, it is just |
| and see what the impact is to your readings. | | | | science. If you take these steps you can get a |
| If that fails, then hire a leak detection company. | | | | complete handle on where the water is going, and |
| It is amazing what a leak detection company can find. | | | | then take steps to reduce the usage. Always |
| Don’t ask me how they do it, as I do not fully | | | | remember that, assuming a 10% cap rate, even an |
| understand the science. But I have been the thankful | | | | $80 per month savings increases the value of your |
| recipient of their work. The world record was a leak | | | | park by nearly $10,000. And you should be able to |
| that had no surfaced evidence of any type, but it | | | | save much, much more than that. |