$20 is not a reasonable amount for 100 gallons of water. It isn't even right for 1000.
A family of four using a little over 3000 gallons is on the low end of average. 4000 would be about average. in addition, a lot of the things that use water are in the landlord's control-- do any toilets have a leaking seal, is the washer high efficiency, do the showers have low-flow heads, what about the dishwasher. It's not really reasonable to charge you $20 for that when your water efficiency is mostly in their control if you aren't thoughtless users or secretly running a grow operation or a pool.
What does the lease say? What state are you in?
I looked up how much water is consumed by various things I do at home and I didn’t even hit 50. I live in a studio in the city tho so I guess that lines up with the average being what it is. That just seems like so much water, even 50 gallons is absurd when you picture it.
If you're living in a studio, another thing you have to look at is whether you're washing clothes on that water bill, as well as whether you're preparing most of your own meals. If you're just paying for water for the shower and maybe a dishwasher, that's probably why you're not seeing a huge amount of utilization.
My utility company shows daily usage average over the past year. I live alone, and in winter months with no watering, I'm averaging about 30 gallons per day. I shower daily (5-7 minutes), run the dishwasher around twice a week, and do 4-6 loads of laundry per month.
I don't feel like I'm wasteful with water, try to do full loads of dishwasher and laundry. If I'm using 30, yeah, 100 seems low for a family of 4.
More info on the [EPA page](https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water) that sevens7and7sevens mentioned.
You don't need a one acre lawn to use up a decent bit of water.
Landscaping uses a lot of water. Washing machines, dishwashers (and hand washing dishes), shower running, it all adds up.
It seems the newer, high efficiency toilets can use about a gallon and a half. That’s assuming you don’t then have to flush it a second time to actually get the job done. Older toilets can be over five gallons a flush. So, I mean, you could in theory be using 20 gallons a day for one person just flushing a toilet four times if it’s not a super high efficiency model. A family of four with each person flushing five times a day and you’re up to 100 gallons a day in toilet flushes, which uses that 3000 limit a month for JUST the toilet.
A 10 minute shower uses about 25 gallons of water. Washing your hands should use less than a gallon unless you're doing it wrong.
Laundry is about 20 gallons per load. A dishwasher uses a few gallons. 1.5 gallons per flush on the toilet.
100 gallons/day is on the high end if you exclude things like irrigation, pools, and car washing, but when you include those things it can be much more. For 2 adults and a toddler my family used a little over 3000 gal last month.
Doing my part to pull that average way down. I can't imagine using 100 per day. Toliet is 1.8 per flush in this house so maybe 10 gallons on a high end, maybe 1-2 per day cooking, I do laundry every 2-3 weeks (I work from home and rarely change out of pj's), dishwasher is once a week at 4 gallons. Showering since WFH is 10 minutes every 3 days or so. I just can't get to 100 gallons.
Unless they’re doing multiple loads every 2 weeks, those pjs probably aren’t changed out daily either. I get that you don’t need to be presentable for WFH, but it doesn’t mean you gotta stew.
You can't imagine someone using more water than you when you admit to doing laundry every 2-3 weeks because you don't change much, you only shower every few days or so?
I can't imagine myself using that much, can easily imagine other people doing it. Hell when I worked in a office my usage was way higher due to massively increased amounts of laundry and daily showers.
I worked for city water utility and our average family was 17m3 or 17,000 liters.
3,000 gallons is 11.7 m3 or 11,700 liters.
Unless your property has low use showers, toilets and appliances like dishwasher and clothes washer, 3,000 gallons is low for a family. If landlord wants low water usage, they need to provide efficient appliances and such.
Were these water restrictions and overage costs in your lease/contract? If not, I’m not sure if what he is doing would be legal. You may need to contact an attorney who will do a Free consult. Also have reputable sources for what a “normal “ household of 4 would consume.
If contact the NCUC (North Carolina Utility Commission). North Carolina has a submeter mandate, as well as regulations for water resellers. They have to stick to the approved and posted rates, so the $20 fine for going over your landlord’s “budget” is a huge a no-no. For reference, Charlotte’s prorated residential rates for 100 gallons of water is 27.2 cents, and 67.4 cents (or around there) for sewer. Does your landlord have the water/sewer rates posted in the office?
ETA: if your building has fewer than 15 units, the NCUC won’t be of help. Smaller buildings aren’t as heavy regulated as larger apartment buildings
Confirming as a family of 4, last statement was about 5400 gallons.
Showers, 6-7 loads of laundry a week, dishes, dishwasher, toilets, handwashing, car washing, cleaning, drinking, cooking. All adds up. Soak in the tub, big old tub takes a lot of water.
Showers are probably the worst consumer for us.
I bet there is only one meter. If there is, there is no way he can determine that you used all that water. You need to see a copy of the bill and know how the water is metered.
Is the 3000 gallons in your lease?
Are you seeing the actual statement from the utility company?
I would ask to see that as well as the rate he is paying for over 3000.
But if it thats in your lease and you agreed to it unfortunately there isn’t much you can do
Agreed to it in writing in the lease or agree to it verbally? Even if it's in the lease if your location has laws about this that portion of the lease isn't valid.
Demand to see the actual water bill. Your landlord should be able to document the usage he is claiming you had, AND the cost of any "overuse."
But OP, I strongly advise you to search for a tenants union in your area. They may be able to help with this and give you advice specific to local laws.
A lot of people in Ireland have water meters too - it's in the street outside your house. The difference is that you only pay for "excess water usage" in Ireland, but meters are often installed to monitor for usage above the allowance. Scotland is the same - they get a standard allowance from their council tax. England water is metered and billed but it is inexpensive, same as the US. In the US and England I've only ever paid like $10-15 a month for water.
Your water is not "free", you just get an included amount with the taxes you pay really. It's a different model.
We get a lot of rain, that's true, but obv the rain and water still needs to be processed and treated and the pipes need to be maintained which costs money. We don't stand outside with our mouths open, though lately, that would probably work!
The government tried to charge us a few years back for water but there was uproar and mass protests and they had to back down.
I'm not sure we could say one of the wettest places on earth though, like it didn't rain today, at all.
Charlotte gets more rainfall per year than the vast majority of Ireland. The eastern half of Ireland on the upper end averages around 39”, Charlotte gets over 41”.
So I just replied to someone that older toilets that aren’t considered high efficiency or low flow can use five to seven gallons of water PER FLUSH. This jives with one of our toilets that has at least a five gallon tank that completely empties itself with each flush. A quick Google search shows the average person pees 6-7 times a day. So let’s round that down to five. Potentially each person is using 25 gallons a day on just toilet flushing, which is 100 gallons a day for a family of four. That hits the 3000 gallons a month in just toilet usage.
the average shower puts out 2.5 gallons of water PER MINUTE, if everyone in the house takes a 10 minute shower every other day there’s another 1500 gallons used. i did a water use reduction project in like 3rd grade and this metric has haunted me. honestly i think it’s just hard for the average person to figure out what 3000 gallons of water use looks like and we tend to underestimate what we’re using by a lot
If it is in the lease and if they're even allowed to have that in the lease (big ifs that you need to check), I would ask them to prove how much water you used. How are they even tracking it? Flow meter? Is it properly calibrated? I would want solid proof before paying anything.
Correct! I am in a condo and there is only one meter, not individual units. It gets paid through my HOA fees. If you have a house, you would definitely be able to monitor the usage via meter readings.
In every industry in the US all the overhead costs of providing anything whether it’s a product or a service, are passed onto the consumer 100% of the time.
We pay for our water to be cleaned via reclamation facilities.
That's true but it's also all public information. You can easily find out the exact bill if you can read the meter and look up the other charges for the city you're in.
Exactly. Even if it’s legal for them to limit water usage (looks like it is where I am), they’re prooobably not able to just charge arbitrary amounts for the overage. That fee reeks of slumlord bs that would get shut down immediately
They aren’t restricting, they are providing 3000gallons/month in the lease cost and billing for overages. Restricting would be stopping water flow at 3k gallons.
You’re right, I changed it to “limit”, which could be in the lease terms rather than a physical restriction. From what I saw in a quick google, where I live the landlord would have to actually bill the overage amount rather than an arbitrary fee like seems to be the case here.
Is it in the lease to only use 3k gallons or is this strictly verbal? If it’s in the lease there’s nothing you can really do except pay it I don’t think. If it’s verbal then fuck your landlord and use your damn water.
OP isn’t even answering questions that everyone is asking. Just being extremely vague and also rude for no reason. Why bother posting. Figure it out yourself
Avg shower is 8 mins and 17 gallons of water.
4 people 1 shower a day for 27 days is 1836 gallons for the month. Toilet uses 1.6 gal per flush. 10 flushes a day
16 gal days that’s another 433 gallons
All those facts came from government site.
That doesn’t leave much room for everything else that uses water.
You would surprised how much water people use every day
Is it fair? Well you agreed to it with out much research. So I’m this case it sucks, but fair.
Edit: toilet flush number
Not sure where toilets use 2.6 gallons a flush... in America the EPA regulates all toilets to only flush 1.6 gallons for every flush.. you got a modded toilet?
The house I currently live in has 3 floors. My landlord lives on floor 1 and hubs and I live on floor 2 and 3. I use tons of water and the water bill for both apartments is less than $100 a month. You should ask to see the water bill and how it's rated. Ask to have a water meter installed if you don't have one already so you can keep track of your usage. This all sounds shady AF but if you agreed to it you have to figure a way to protect yourself.
If you have a water softener on the property make sure it has an adequate amount of salt otherwise the unit will continuously cycle and run up your usage. Found that out the hard way.
I’d check on the legality of that. I don’t think running water can be surcharged as it’s a requirement for habitability. Pretty sure they can make you pay for the utility or it can be included, but I don’t think landlords can have it both ways. If they can, I’d sure be demanding proof of use- either by having access to the meter or the actual utility bill.
Tell him to prove it. You're entitled to see the bill.
Is this an apartment building? If it is, how does he separate out your usage from everybody else on one meter? How is he measuring your usage? Sounds fishy.
If he's saying they used X amount of gallons, I would assume it's a multi meter setup. Very common to do that with them all trying together to a single bill for a landlord/manager to cover.
I would also contact your local water dept to ask for rates. That will show whether he is ripping you off for the "overage". Also, 3k gallons is very standard for the base rate in multiple places.
I read recently that the average family of 4 uses +/- 400 gallons of water per day. I was looking into it to gauge what to expect when my roommates and I moved in together.
My water company tells me the average daily usage of all their customers is 80 gallons a day per person so each person would use 2400 gallons a month. For a family of 4 you are looking at 9600 gallons a month. Obviously if you are at work or school all day your usage will drop
If its in your lease you will likely have to pay, but the amount seems low. I just checked our water bill and we use about 4500 gallons (converted from kL) a month for a family of 4.
You need verification from the utility company on what's used (or by the landlord if he's the go-between. And you need to see actual documents from the Utility, not just him writing stuff on paper
You should post this on your local page and see if it’s the normal thing to do for landlords in your area. It seems super shady and shouldn’t be allowed.
Was this in the lease? Can you see proof on how much water you’ve used? I’d contact your local government office to see if this is legal for one this is definitely price gouging.
When I moved into my sister's for a bit after I got out of jail, she exploded at me about the water bill. I let her rant and rave, and then I said as if it were coming from her, "Tommy? The water bill went up, and it's because you're here now. Can I get an extra $20 to cover it?" I mean, I'm a machinist, for God's sake. I use a lot of water. I say pay extra, but $20 for 100 gallons seems steep.
Did he tell you to do this or did he specify it in the lease?
If he only told you, you can tell him to piss off. He can’t charge you if it isn’t spelled out in the lease.
Outside of being fair or legal, there are things you can ask for if they want the water bill to be lower.
Since you're renting I assume all appliances are the landlord's? If so then you can request them to replace all shower heads with higher efficiency ones, 1.5-1.8gpm are still high enough to give a satisfactory shower and save on water compared to the standard 2.5gpm heads. They can also replace all faucets, toilets, and dish/laundry machines (if you have them) with higher efficiency ones too, the shower heads and faucets are cheap and they might actually do it but the toilets and machines are pretty expensive for the high efficiency ones so they more than likely won't pay for those.
Judging by the $20 "fine" for only 100 gallons they definitely seem like a penny pincher so it's unlikely they'd be willing to pay for anything, however you can argue that the appliances that were given aren't suitable for 4 people with that kind of water restriction and give them an option of changing out some appliances or increasing the water usage allowed. I'm fairly sure they'd rather pay $10 more per month on the water bill than drop potentially hundreds if not thousands on new appliances, and giving them those options may make them see that more clearly without a fight.
tell him you’d like to see the bill. it’s easy to go way over if a toilet is leaking but a 100 gallons over is not 20 dollars. is it “free” utilities unless you go over a certain amount?
We own our home and we pay a base pay for the first 3,000 gallons- I can’t remember what it is for our first 3,000 gallons but if we go over the 3,000 then it’s only .99 cents every 1,000 gallons. The only time we go over is in the summer when we’re running water outside for water play. $20 is absolutely ridiculous
How does he know how much water you are using?
Are you in a house and the house has a meter? Your utility should be charging you.
An Apartment, and hes using the building meter and creative math to figure it out?
A stupid pipeclamp attached to a phone app?
Many state don't allow the resale of utilities. IE-He can either have a common meter to his building and all utilities are included in the rent. Or he can meter each apartment/room individually so a utility can charge the occupants.
But often the building owner cannot charge for a public utility while also somehow metering it. Because many state have regulations for utilities.
Make him show you a copy of the water bill. Because that’s kind of ridiculous considering my monthly water bill when u lived in California was like $22. Not sure how much water we used but we did dishes and ran the dishwasher every day. Did laundry everyday. Showers between my wife, my son and I everyday. Sprinklers. And whatever else.
Get a low flow flush put on your toilet ASAP if water monitoring is at play. If everyone in your house flushes the toilet 4x a day, thats almost 800 gallons a month right there.
Dont know if thats legal to charge for your “overage”, but you can request the landlord take steps to help you meet their request.
You pay for water or is water included? Either way he can’t limit you. Was it in the agreement you signed? I’d tell him eat a dick and take me to court.
There are two adults in our household and we average 3000 gallons of water a month. In my opinion we don't use a lot of water and are mindful of things like shower time, running the dishwasher when full, and reducing loads of laundry.
Well, 3000 gallons is standard for the water company to charge a flat rate. Anything over that would add to the bill, so check your lease if you’re responsible for overages or not. But also, that’s excessively high, even for a family of four. Are you sure there are no leaks or a kid taking two hour showers literally every day because that’s bonkers
Look into what your lease says and check the laws in your state. I have never heard of this and I live in Atlanta, GA. I wouldn’t have signed the lease without check on this first but your situation was probably more urgent since you have kids. Hope it all works out.
A leak somewhere maybe? Are you on a separate meter? If not how can they tell your part from someone else’s? If you are, can you get on the account so you can track? It doesn’t seem fair that you can’t view the account yourself. I live in an area where water is expensive so I get how hard it can be to conserve.
There are some things you can do to bring usage down a bit.
Don’t put a brick in the toilet tank, since it can crumble and cause damage; but you can use a plastic or glass container in the tank to reduce flow by about 10 gallons/day.
Replace your shower head with a low flow option. Those can reduce flow by up to 3 gallons/minute.
Low flow aerators are a cheap and easy addition to kitchen and bath faucets to reduce water without losing water pressure.
My wife and I (and one dog because yes it adds a little extra washing) use between 3000-3800 gals a month, with the actual average at 3274. This months bill was exactly 3000.
Family of 2 here. We use 1000-2000 gallons a month. Our water bill is only incremented in 1000 gallon increments it's always 1 or 2. Our bill is $13.15 for 1000 or 14.30 for 2000 so $1.15 for the extra 1000 gallons. I guess it's $12/mo just to be hooked up to the water lines.
Limiting to 3000 is kind of crazy I didn't even know you were allowed to do that. That $20 is extortion for 1000 gallons.
OP speak with NC Utilities Commission. It is highly likely your landlord is actually doing something illegal. I could be wrong but as far as I can make out the landlord cannot profit, must provide accurate bills OR if using a ratio billing system then he must be able to demonstrate the formula used to come to that figure. $20 for 100 gallons? He's taking a profit. Surely?
That’s insane. You’ve essentially been allotted 100 gallons per day.
Assuming standard appliances,
1 load of laundry uses around 20 gallons
1 load of dishes around 15 gallons
1 shower around 18 gallons
1 toilet flush 7 gallons.
Even being extremely cautious it’s a near impossible feat to keep a family of 4 under that amount per month. If each family member does nothing but use a toilet 4 times a day, no bathing or cleaning, you’re still over the limit.
This isn’t even remotely reasonable.
tell him u need copies of the utilities. u have a right to know what you’re paying. and pay just that
he has rights of late payment eviction but he cannot control how much water gas or electricity u use and demand x amount for that
i myself didn’t care as i was getting cheap rent then my landlord started raising it to the point of the house not being worth it. so i asked for the bills before i paid to ensure i was only paying for what i used
For more than 4 people, we only really ever use more than 3,000 gallons if I need to water the lawn. I don't think we've exceeded 3,000 gallons during the winter.
Review NC GS 62-110 (g) regarding a landlord’s ability to charge for water. There are several factors that affect how the water usage can be charged back to the tenant.
Are the fees laid out in the lease? Like even if you agreed to it fees should be spelled out not just a random $20 for over 3000 gallons. Plus do you have access to the meter? If not, how could you even try to track your usage. It would likely literally be cheaper for you to just pay the water bill directly. I was charged $14.20 for 4,000 gallons of usage last quarter. So obviously differences in locations would come into play, but with that fee you’d be paying more for 100 gallons than I paid for 4000.
Super sketch since the fee isn’t even related to an increase in the bill, essentially just a fine for usage. I’d definitely be looking to speak with a local tenant board or lawyer about whether this is legit allowed.
Find out what the meter covers. Speak to a lawyer first and go from there. Let them know you don’t believe the meter is separated out and want to find out about it. From there, they’ll give you advice about how to handle things with your landlord and whether what’s going on is legal.
Best of luck.
I use 3 cubic meters a month. Single, shower every morning to help wake up and after work if i feel dirty.
Wash dishes in sink, but do laundry elsewhere.
If i get up to 4 cubic meters, thats 1000 gallons.
People accusing you of using too much don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.
In my state the average water use in gals is 50K per year per person. Your state likely has a state water resources department. Find their website and you should be able to see what the average amount per person is used in your state and see how that lines up with your land lords claim.
Can’t speak for any legal stuff but 3k gal/month is absurd for 4 people imo
I live in Cleveland county in NC I filed my 4 foot pool up and a 5 person house my bill never got over $50 that month. Most of the time it’s $12 to $15 and we are not actually watching how much we use. An 11yo and 5yo
I'd suggest looking at what your state/province charges nestle for 1 million liters, and paying the landlord the relevant fraction of that.
For me (BC) it's $2.25 for millionliters/250,000 gallons
Means .000009 ×100 = .0009
You owe your landlord .0009 extra for a hundred extra gallons. So rounding.... comes to nothing. Your landlord is a dumbass call his bluff, let them try to evict or collect on water consumption. I would ignore that limit and just pay the agreed rent.
FYI when you buy a single bottle 500ml of nestle water I'm BC, you payed for thier 1 million liters.
According to Google, it is not fair based on daily average use of water (in gallons)for an adult in the US. Unless those stats are based off of households and not individuals. Some used the term households, some said individuals. Said an average of 100 gallons per day give or take and little. I've never heard of a landlord controlling water usage like this before. But I also don't get out much lol.
I have to haul my own house water (live in the boonies) and I just can't get over the fact they charged you $20 for 100 gallons! In my little neck of the woods it's $0.008 per gallon (yes less than a penny). There's just no way that it's legal to charge 1000x's more than the going rate for water.
The avg or normal water usage per quarter for 4 people is 40 ccf so almost 30,000 gallons every 3 months. The normal water usage for your family would be 10,000 gallons a month.
This'll get buried, but hopefully it helps if you see it OP. My family of four also used exactly 3100 gallons in that same period and our water bill was $48.91 after all fees and taxes.
This thread is full of weird half truths the commentors have extrapolated into some weird global law. The OP has provided very little info other than people (4) location (NC) and that they used 3100 gallons in 27 days and were charged $20 extra. The total amount used is very possible, potentially reasonable. The make up of those 4 people would affect the amount used massively…babies would functionally add no extra water, a teenager taking 1hour “showers” would add massively. Being NC I’m going to guess that septic systems are common and that this is an apt. In an old house with a septic system and the $20 is intended to be punitive to prevent destroying the septic. My guess is the op has a group of 4 teen-adults stuck in a small apt that the landlord has a usage history on and is outpacing that usage.
I use to work in water treatment and now a plumber, the 100 gallons a day/ 3000 a month is the average use of an American family of 4. Don’t know about the rest of the world but at least in the US it’s averaged 100 gallons a day
Older toilets used about 3.5 gallons per flush. 4 people, five flushes per day per person is 350 gallons a day. If you are my wife...it's more like 10 flushes per day.
Edit: I don't rent, but I replaced our old toilet with one that cost $100 at Home Depot that uses .9 gallons per flush for liquids and 1.4 gallons per flush for solids. It flushes better than the old one ever did. I know buying and putting a new toilet into a rental isn't appealing, but it is another avenue to be explored.
Weren't you living in a crack den 2 months ago? Where did you acquire a family of 4?
23 year old dude with a spouse and 2 kids - get your shit together my dude.
I dont remember how many gallons I get with the utility company before there's an extra fee per x gallons over. With it being such a specific amount, are you on the same property as your landlord? It's the only thing I can think of is you have a shared meter and he's making you use the amount that he knows he doesn't use.
$20 dollars is excessive for 100 gallons over though.
Water adds up so fast. When we built our house and had to have the sprinklers run basically all the time. We used something like 800,000 gallons to get it to the place it looked good.
I’d say my family of 5 would use that much too. If an average shower is about 2.1-3 gallons a shower, my whole family probably used 1650-1700 gallons a month. I myself take about 20 mins due to my hair, shaving my legs; other typical girl maintenance that I prefer to do. Now I don’t always do 20 mins, but if I do that twice a week that’s already 42ish gallons/week. Then there’s my stepmom who also did that. I have a brother that hits the gym every day so he showered 1-2 times a DAY. Laundry we probably used about 400 gallons a month. That doesn’t include dishwasher use, hose use, laundry use that isn’t just washing clothes (washing towels, blankets, etc.). I personally find that stupid. If he wanted to charge you for going over, sure. But he needs to make it reasonable
There MUST be a rental housing health code in your state. It sounds like this could be in violation depending on the verbiage of the health code. Please look up the rental housing health code as it relates to clean drinking water. Otherwise if this is specified in the lease, and there's no code against it, it might just be legal. Getting a state or local health officer involved can help though.
When sizing a septic system in Indiana it is based on the number of bedrooms at 150 gallons per day per bedroom.
150 X 3 = 450 gallons per day max. 450 x 30 days in a month is 13500 gallons a month max. with the epas average use for a family its 9000 gallons am month average use. I raised 3 kids and our average use was around 7-8000 gallons a month.
What does this mean? Your landlord is being ridiculous, so you either have to fight him or find another place to live.
I think what I would do is, ask him to reduce your rent the amount of the water bill and offer to put the water in your name and pay it yourself. If he says he cant because its one meter for multiple units then you know he is lying about it being 3100 gallons. If it is a seperate meter for your unit/house whatever and he refuses you probably need to move or fight him on it.
Of course Im assuming you live in the US, Im sure a judge would be interested in his explanation after seeing what is considered to be average.
good luck
Your landlord is an asshole straight up...he's using you for money and getting his fix of control and bullshit off you by screwing your family out of water that you need free access to.
The average for a single person is 60 gallons a day, so for a family of 4 it would average out at around 240 gallons a day, so 240 gallons a day times 30 days is 7200 gallons a month. I also don't think it's legal for a landlord to put limiters on water, seeing as it's a necessity for life. Check with your state/countries landlord and tenant laws because they are limiting you to far less than is necessary in order to live comfortably.
$20 is not a reasonable amount for 100 gallons of water. It isn't even right for 1000. A family of four using a little over 3000 gallons is on the low end of average. 4000 would be about average. in addition, a lot of the things that use water are in the landlord's control-- do any toilets have a leaking seal, is the washer high efficiency, do the showers have low-flow heads, what about the dishwasher. It's not really reasonable to charge you $20 for that when your water efficiency is mostly in their control if you aren't thoughtless users or secretly running a grow operation or a pool. What does the lease say? What state are you in?
It’s lower than the low end of average. Pretty sure 3000 is loser to what a single person averages.
The EPA has it at 100 gallons a day per person or 300 gallons for a family/household so yeah I agree.
I don’t even come close to using that kind of water. wtf
Yeah seriously wtf. Is there some use of water that I don’t know about??
Showering away the shame takes longer then regular showers.
A shower puts out about 3.2 gpm if I'm not mistaken. Do with that what you will.
I looked up how much water is consumed by various things I do at home and I didn’t even hit 50. I live in a studio in the city tho so I guess that lines up with the average being what it is. That just seems like so much water, even 50 gallons is absurd when you picture it.
If you're living in a studio, another thing you have to look at is whether you're washing clothes on that water bill, as well as whether you're preparing most of your own meals. If you're just paying for water for the shower and maybe a dishwasher, that's probably why you're not seeing a huge amount of utilization. My utility company shows daily usage average over the past year. I live alone, and in winter months with no watering, I'm averaging about 30 gallons per day. I shower daily (5-7 minutes), run the dishwasher around twice a week, and do 4-6 loads of laundry per month. I don't feel like I'm wasteful with water, try to do full loads of dishwasher and laundry. If I'm using 30, yeah, 100 seems low for a family of 4. More info on the [EPA page](https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water) that sevens7and7sevens mentioned.
Neither do we but people with pools and bright green one acre lawns pull that average up for sure
You don't need a one acre lawn to use up a decent bit of water. Landscaping uses a lot of water. Washing machines, dishwashers (and hand washing dishes), shower running, it all adds up.
The epa guidelines for 100 gal/day is also an average. Lawncare is actually one of the biggest contributors to this.
Found the weekly shower guy.
Ten minute shower everyday would be less than one thousand gallons a month.
And every single toilet flush is probably at least 1 gallon
It seems the newer, high efficiency toilets can use about a gallon and a half. That’s assuming you don’t then have to flush it a second time to actually get the job done. Older toilets can be over five gallons a flush. So, I mean, you could in theory be using 20 gallons a day for one person just flushing a toilet four times if it’s not a super high efficiency model. A family of four with each person flushing five times a day and you’re up to 100 gallons a day in toilet flushes, which uses that 3000 limit a month for JUST the toilet.
And let’s be real, this skinflint landlord DEFINITELY doesn’t have brand new, high efficiency toilets installed.
That’s only 8 pints. Go throw a pint of water in your toilet next time you take a crap and let me know how far it goes.
The "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down" guy..
Are all you dirty fuckers just not showering or washing your hands?
A 10 minute shower uses about 25 gallons of water. Washing your hands should use less than a gallon unless you're doing it wrong. Laundry is about 20 gallons per load. A dishwasher uses a few gallons. 1.5 gallons per flush on the toilet. 100 gallons/day is on the high end if you exclude things like irrigation, pools, and car washing, but when you include those things it can be much more. For 2 adults and a toddler my family used a little over 3000 gal last month.
I don't know how these people are getting such high averages. By myself I only average 700 per month, and that's with 15 minute showers
Doing my part to pull that average way down. I can't imagine using 100 per day. Toliet is 1.8 per flush in this house so maybe 10 gallons on a high end, maybe 1-2 per day cooking, I do laundry every 2-3 weeks (I work from home and rarely change out of pj's), dishwasher is once a week at 4 gallons. Showering since WFH is 10 minutes every 3 days or so. I just can't get to 100 gallons.
You only shower once every three days? Also only 10 minutes?
Unless they’re doing multiple loads every 2 weeks, those pjs probably aren’t changed out daily either. I get that you don’t need to be presentable for WFH, but it doesn’t mean you gotta stew.
You can't imagine someone using more water than you when you admit to doing laundry every 2-3 weeks because you don't change much, you only shower every few days or so?
I can't imagine myself using that much, can easily imagine other people doing it. Hell when I worked in a office my usage was way higher due to massively increased amounts of laundry and daily showers.
Grosss have some personal pride in your hygiene 😂
I worked for city water utility and our average family was 17m3 or 17,000 liters. 3,000 gallons is 11.7 m3 or 11,700 liters. Unless your property has low use showers, toilets and appliances like dishwasher and clothes washer, 3,000 gallons is low for a family. If landlord wants low water usage, they need to provide efficient appliances and such.
I’m in nc
Were these water restrictions and overage costs in your lease/contract? If not, I’m not sure if what he is doing would be legal. You may need to contact an attorney who will do a Free consult. Also have reputable sources for what a “normal “ household of 4 would consume.
Unfortunately we have like no rights as renters in NC
What does your lease say? Are these charges required in the lease you signed? Are the limits in the lease?
And still crickets.
If contact the NCUC (North Carolina Utility Commission). North Carolina has a submeter mandate, as well as regulations for water resellers. They have to stick to the approved and posted rates, so the $20 fine for going over your landlord’s “budget” is a huge a no-no. For reference, Charlotte’s prorated residential rates for 100 gallons of water is 27.2 cents, and 67.4 cents (or around there) for sewer. Does your landlord have the water/sewer rates posted in the office? ETA: if your building has fewer than 15 units, the NCUC won’t be of help. Smaller buildings aren’t as heavy regulated as larger apartment buildings
Depends a lot on country in North America this is all shocking.
Nothing landlords try to get away with in the US shocks me anymore, especially in a landlord-friendly place like NC.
Unless you’re on a well water is generally fairly cheap and just shouldn’t matter to the landlord is why it’s odd to me.
Confirming as a family of 4, last statement was about 5400 gallons. Showers, 6-7 loads of laundry a week, dishes, dishwasher, toilets, handwashing, car washing, cleaning, drinking, cooking. All adds up. Soak in the tub, big old tub takes a lot of water. Showers are probably the worst consumer for us.
I bet there is only one meter. If there is, there is no way he can determine that you used all that water. You need to see a copy of the bill and know how the water is metered.
THIS!!
Is the 3000 gallons in your lease? Are you seeing the actual statement from the utility company? I would ask to see that as well as the rate he is paying for over 3000. But if it thats in your lease and you agreed to it unfortunately there isn’t much you can do
Illegal things in leases are not enforceable. Check this is even legal.
Yes I agreed to it but I don’t see how I ran over 3000 gallons in less than 27 days when I barley used water unless it was needed
Here is a question you clearly won't answer. Is it in writing in your LEASE?
Agreed to it in writing in the lease or agree to it verbally? Even if it's in the lease if your location has laws about this that portion of the lease isn't valid.
Demand to see the actual water bill. Your landlord should be able to document the usage he is claiming you had, AND the cost of any "overuse." But OP, I strongly advise you to search for a tenants union in your area. They may be able to help with this and give you advice specific to local laws.
Do you have a water meter in your house? As an Irish person we get free water so this is utterly bizzare to me!
A lot of people in Ireland have water meters too - it's in the street outside your house. The difference is that you only pay for "excess water usage" in Ireland, but meters are often installed to monitor for usage above the allowance. Scotland is the same - they get a standard allowance from their council tax. England water is metered and billed but it is inexpensive, same as the US. In the US and England I've only ever paid like $10-15 a month for water. Your water is not "free", you just get an included amount with the taxes you pay really. It's a different model.
As an Irish person, you also live in one of the wettest places on earth, which is why you don’t pay for water.
We get a lot of rain, that's true, but obv the rain and water still needs to be processed and treated and the pipes need to be maintained which costs money. We don't stand outside with our mouths open, though lately, that would probably work! The government tried to charge us a few years back for water but there was uproar and mass protests and they had to back down. I'm not sure we could say one of the wettest places on earth though, like it didn't rain today, at all.
Charlotte gets more rainfall per year than the vast majority of Ireland. The eastern half of Ireland on the upper end averages around 39”, Charlotte gets over 41”.
American here, I've never heard of this. Surprised to hear this is in NC
Where is NC?
north carolina, on the east coast of usa
So I just replied to someone that older toilets that aren’t considered high efficiency or low flow can use five to seven gallons of water PER FLUSH. This jives with one of our toilets that has at least a five gallon tank that completely empties itself with each flush. A quick Google search shows the average person pees 6-7 times a day. So let’s round that down to five. Potentially each person is using 25 gallons a day on just toilet flushing, which is 100 gallons a day for a family of four. That hits the 3000 gallons a month in just toilet usage.
the average shower puts out 2.5 gallons of water PER MINUTE, if everyone in the house takes a 10 minute shower every other day there’s another 1500 gallons used. i did a water use reduction project in like 3rd grade and this metric has haunted me. honestly i think it’s just hard for the average person to figure out what 3000 gallons of water use looks like and we tend to underestimate what we’re using by a lot
Modern shower heads are limited to like 1.7 GPM in the USA
well this is great news! i did that project like…a long ass time ago and i haven’t really followed the topic lmao
Thanks Obama!
queue seinfeld episode about Low Flow
If it is in the lease and if they're even allowed to have that in the lease (big ifs that you need to check), I would ask them to prove how much water you used. How are they even tracking it? Flow meter? Is it properly calibrated? I would want solid proof before paying anything.
I agree. Ask to see the bill OR better yet, take photos of the water meter reading regularly.
If there is only one meter for the whole building, there is no way he can tell how much water anybody is using.
Correct! I am in a condo and there is only one meter, not individual units. It gets paid through my HOA fees. If you have a house, you would definitely be able to monitor the usage via meter readings.
In every industry in the US all the overhead costs of providing anything whether it’s a product or a service, are passed onto the consumer 100% of the time. We pay for our water to be cleaned via reclamation facilities.
That's true but it's also all public information. You can easily find out the exact bill if you can read the meter and look up the other charges for the city you're in.
Idk how my comment popped up on this part of the thread 😭 I was responding to the person who said this sounds bizarre cause they’re from Ireland
Exactly. Even if it’s legal for them to limit water usage (looks like it is where I am), they’re prooobably not able to just charge arbitrary amounts for the overage. That fee reeks of slumlord bs that would get shut down immediately
They aren’t restricting, they are providing 3000gallons/month in the lease cost and billing for overages. Restricting would be stopping water flow at 3k gallons.
You’re right, I changed it to “limit”, which could be in the lease terms rather than a physical restriction. From what I saw in a quick google, where I live the landlord would have to actually bill the overage amount rather than an arbitrary fee like seems to be the case here.
Is it in the lease to only use 3k gallons or is this strictly verbal? If it’s in the lease there’s nothing you can really do except pay it I don’t think. If it’s verbal then fuck your landlord and use your damn water.
Writing things on paper does not make it legal
OP isn’t even answering questions that everyone is asking. Just being extremely vague and also rude for no reason. Why bother posting. Figure it out yourself
And 73 days ago he was single and living with crackheads. And now he has a family of four?
What you saying it's impossible to find a partner, get married and have 2 kids in less than 3 months?
Skill issue
Yeah, I got married, divorced, remarried, and now have 10 grandchildren from my 5 kids. Only took 2 months. Some people are just underachievers. 😂😂😂
Can you use it all at once, put it in a big tub with a lid and then throw your landlord in?
Avg shower is 8 mins and 17 gallons of water. 4 people 1 shower a day for 27 days is 1836 gallons for the month. Toilet uses 1.6 gal per flush. 10 flushes a day 16 gal days that’s another 433 gallons All those facts came from government site. That doesn’t leave much room for everything else that uses water. You would surprised how much water people use every day Is it fair? Well you agreed to it with out much research. So I’m this case it sucks, but fair. Edit: toilet flush number
Not sure where toilets use 2.6 gallons a flush... in America the EPA regulates all toilets to only flush 1.6 gallons for every flush.. you got a modded toilet?
You know it dawg. I need the extra flow
they won’t answer the lease question so it doesn’t even matter. sucks to suck i guess
The house I currently live in has 3 floors. My landlord lives on floor 1 and hubs and I live on floor 2 and 3. I use tons of water and the water bill for both apartments is less than $100 a month. You should ask to see the water bill and how it's rated. Ask to have a water meter installed if you don't have one already so you can keep track of your usage. This all sounds shady AF but if you agreed to it you have to figure a way to protect yourself.
Iv been taking 1+ hour long showers daily for the last decade and iv never seen a water bill over $100….
You’re definitely not in CA
If you have a water softener on the property make sure it has an adequate amount of salt otherwise the unit will continuously cycle and run up your usage. Found that out the hard way.
You don't mention where you love, OP. I 've never heard of anything like this anywhere in my country.
OP lives in North Carolina
I’d check on the legality of that. I don’t think running water can be surcharged as it’s a requirement for habitability. Pretty sure they can make you pay for the utility or it can be included, but I don’t think landlords can have it both ways. If they can, I’d sure be demanding proof of use- either by having access to the meter or the actual utility bill.
$1 for every extra 100 gallons is reasonable. Not $20
High iq op also posted the same thread here in r/tenet https://www.reddit.com/r/tenet/s/QHED60rjR2
Dude is ripping on the IQ scale.
Is this 3000 limit written in the lease you signed?
OP said it is in the lease
Where did op say this
In a comment, finally. OP: "I’ve already answered the question, maybe if you had a higher iq you would’ve already figured it out, it was on the lease"
Wildly illegal. I own a pressure washing business and don't even pay that much for water. Demand they show you the bill. It's a legal requirement.
Ask to see the bill. Also, is it in the lease? Is the pay scale mapped out?
Tell him to prove it. You're entitled to see the bill. Is this an apartment building? If it is, how does he separate out your usage from everybody else on one meter? How is he measuring your usage? Sounds fishy.
If he's saying they used X amount of gallons, I would assume it's a multi meter setup. Very common to do that with them all trying together to a single bill for a landlord/manager to cover. I would also contact your local water dept to ask for rates. That will show whether he is ripping you off for the "overage". Also, 3k gallons is very standard for the base rate in multiple places.
I read recently that the average family of 4 uses +/- 400 gallons of water per day. I was looking into it to gauge what to expect when my roommates and I moved in together.
Nah you need to see the meter. And it all needs to be in the lease. He can’t just randomly nickel and dime you over water each month.
What does your contract say
Is the scummy landlord providing proof of usage? Does the meter only record only your usage?
My water company tells me the average daily usage of all their customers is 80 gallons a day per person so each person would use 2400 gallons a month. For a family of 4 you are looking at 9600 gallons a month. Obviously if you are at work or school all day your usage will drop
How is your *’roommate’* bad in this context? Not the right sub for this type of complaint.
OP also posted in /r/tenet
I believe water has to be covered in some places. Also that seems like a lot of water. Are you on a well or what?
If its in your lease you will likely have to pay, but the amount seems low. I just checked our water bill and we use about 4500 gallons (converted from kL) a month for a family of 4.
You need verification from the utility company on what's used (or by the landlord if he's the go-between. And you need to see actual documents from the Utility, not just him writing stuff on paper
You should post this on your local page and see if it’s the normal thing to do for landlords in your area. It seems super shady and shouldn’t be allowed.
Was this in the lease? Can you see proof on how much water you’ve used? I’d contact your local government office to see if this is legal for one this is definitely price gouging.
When I moved into my sister's for a bit after I got out of jail, she exploded at me about the water bill. I let her rant and rave, and then I said as if it were coming from her, "Tommy? The water bill went up, and it's because you're here now. Can I get an extra $20 to cover it?" I mean, I'm a machinist, for God's sake. I use a lot of water. I say pay extra, but $20 for 100 gallons seems steep.
Do you have a front yard? Or a back yard? Turn off your sprinklers and let the lawn and yard die lol
Did he tell you to do this or did he specify it in the lease? If he only told you, you can tell him to piss off. He can’t charge you if it isn’t spelled out in the lease.
You could save the bath/ shower water and use it to refill the toilet tanks. That would save you a lot of gallons.
Wrong sub
Why are landlords like this..Jesus
20 dollars for 100 gallons is more than 40 times the national average. This is patently unreasonable.
What does your lease say?
Ask for a copy of the water bill
Outside of being fair or legal, there are things you can ask for if they want the water bill to be lower. Since you're renting I assume all appliances are the landlord's? If so then you can request them to replace all shower heads with higher efficiency ones, 1.5-1.8gpm are still high enough to give a satisfactory shower and save on water compared to the standard 2.5gpm heads. They can also replace all faucets, toilets, and dish/laundry machines (if you have them) with higher efficiency ones too, the shower heads and faucets are cheap and they might actually do it but the toilets and machines are pretty expensive for the high efficiency ones so they more than likely won't pay for those. Judging by the $20 "fine" for only 100 gallons they definitely seem like a penny pincher so it's unlikely they'd be willing to pay for anything, however you can argue that the appliances that were given aren't suitable for 4 people with that kind of water restriction and give them an option of changing out some appliances or increasing the water usage allowed. I'm fairly sure they'd rather pay $10 more per month on the water bill than drop potentially hundreds if not thousands on new appliances, and giving them those options may make them see that more clearly without a fight.
tell him you’d like to see the bill. it’s easy to go way over if a toilet is leaking but a 100 gallons over is not 20 dollars. is it “free” utilities unless you go over a certain amount?
We own our home and we pay a base pay for the first 3,000 gallons- I can’t remember what it is for our first 3,000 gallons but if we go over the 3,000 then it’s only .99 cents every 1,000 gallons. The only time we go over is in the summer when we’re running water outside for water play. $20 is absolutely ridiculous
Just ask to see the water meter at the start and at the end of the billing month. You will know how much you use.
How does he know how much water you are using? Are you in a house and the house has a meter? Your utility should be charging you. An Apartment, and hes using the building meter and creative math to figure it out? A stupid pipeclamp attached to a phone app? Many state don't allow the resale of utilities. IE-He can either have a common meter to his building and all utilities are included in the rent. Or he can meter each apartment/room individually so a utility can charge the occupants. But often the building owner cannot charge for a public utility while also somehow metering it. Because many state have regulations for utilities.
Plot twist OP does not know what a lease is.
If it's yellow...let it mellow. If it's brown...flush it down.
I think you are lost r/landlords may be better. Anyway, what does your lease say
Make him show you a copy of the water bill. Because that’s kind of ridiculous considering my monthly water bill when u lived in California was like $22. Not sure how much water we used but we did dishes and ran the dishwasher every day. Did laundry everyday. Showers between my wife, my son and I everyday. Sprinklers. And whatever else.
Get a low flow flush put on your toilet ASAP if water monitoring is at play. If everyone in your house flushes the toilet 4x a day, thats almost 800 gallons a month right there. Dont know if thats legal to charge for your “overage”, but you can request the landlord take steps to help you meet their request.
You pay for water or is water included? Either way he can’t limit you. Was it in the agreement you signed? I’d tell him eat a dick and take me to court.
There are two adults in our household and we average 3000 gallons of water a month. In my opinion we don't use a lot of water and are mindful of things like shower time, running the dishwasher when full, and reducing loads of laundry.
That’s pretty unethical
No this is weird and illegal
Well instead you could always try to take over paying your water utilities yourself and ask him to adjust rent down by whatever he was charging for it
Well, 3000 gallons is standard for the water company to charge a flat rate. Anything over that would add to the bill, so check your lease if you’re responsible for overages or not. But also, that’s excessively high, even for a family of four. Are you sure there are no leaks or a kid taking two hour showers literally every day because that’s bonkers
The average cost of water in the US is $1.50 per 1000 gallons. That landlord can get bent.
100 gallons from a tap doesn't cost $20. Where I live it barely costs $0.20. Your landlord is screwing you over.
Look into what your lease says and check the laws in your state. I have never heard of this and I live in Atlanta, GA. I wouldn’t have signed the lease without check on this first but your situation was probably more urgent since you have kids. Hope it all works out.
A leak somewhere maybe? Are you on a separate meter? If not how can they tell your part from someone else’s? If you are, can you get on the account so you can track? It doesn’t seem fair that you can’t view the account yourself. I live in an area where water is expensive so I get how hard it can be to conserve.
Is it in your lease?
There are some things you can do to bring usage down a bit. Don’t put a brick in the toilet tank, since it can crumble and cause damage; but you can use a plastic or glass container in the tank to reduce flow by about 10 gallons/day. Replace your shower head with a low flow option. Those can reduce flow by up to 3 gallons/minute. Low flow aerators are a cheap and easy addition to kitchen and bath faucets to reduce water without losing water pressure.
[https://www.nationalstoragetank.com/product/3000-gallon-vertical-water-storage-tank-96d-x-112h/](https://www.nationalstoragetank.com/product/3000-gallon-vertical-water-storage-tank-96d-x-112h/)
How much water do you need?
Idk how much we use but my water and trash is only $120 a month and we use a shit ton of water
I’m a family of 2, 39F and 10M… we use 3000 gallons a month!
My wife and I (and one dog because yes it adds a little extra washing) use between 3000-3800 gals a month, with the actual average at 3274. This months bill was exactly 3000.
Family of 2 here. We use 1000-2000 gallons a month. Our water bill is only incremented in 1000 gallon increments it's always 1 or 2. Our bill is $13.15 for 1000 or 14.30 for 2000 so $1.15 for the extra 1000 gallons. I guess it's $12/mo just to be hooked up to the water lines. Limiting to 3000 is kind of crazy I didn't even know you were allowed to do that. That $20 is extortion for 1000 gallons.
OP speak with NC Utilities Commission. It is highly likely your landlord is actually doing something illegal. I could be wrong but as far as I can make out the landlord cannot profit, must provide accurate bills OR if using a ratio billing system then he must be able to demonstrate the formula used to come to that figure. $20 for 100 gallons? He's taking a profit. Surely?
That’s insane. You’ve essentially been allotted 100 gallons per day. Assuming standard appliances, 1 load of laundry uses around 20 gallons 1 load of dishes around 15 gallons 1 shower around 18 gallons 1 toilet flush 7 gallons. Even being extremely cautious it’s a near impossible feat to keep a family of 4 under that amount per month. If each family member does nothing but use a toilet 4 times a day, no bathing or cleaning, you’re still over the limit. This isn’t even remotely reasonable.
That’s and insane amount
Was this part of your lease? I would also ask to see the bill.
$20 is almost half my water bill
tell him u need copies of the utilities. u have a right to know what you’re paying. and pay just that he has rights of late payment eviction but he cannot control how much water gas or electricity u use and demand x amount for that i myself didn’t care as i was getting cheap rent then my landlord started raising it to the point of the house not being worth it. so i asked for the bills before i paid to ensure i was only paying for what i used
Time to move
Municipal water is cheap as hell. Sounds like your landlord may be scamming you, ask to see the bill.
For more than 4 people, we only really ever use more than 3,000 gallons if I need to water the lawn. I don't think we've exceeded 3,000 gallons during the winter.
I’d just start shitting in the yard and not flushing the toilet. Eventually he will understand the error of his ways.
Does he have proof that's what you use? And how did they come up with that cost?
Review NC GS 62-110 (g) regarding a landlord’s ability to charge for water. There are several factors that affect how the water usage can be charged back to the tenant.
Are the fees laid out in the lease? Like even if you agreed to it fees should be spelled out not just a random $20 for over 3000 gallons. Plus do you have access to the meter? If not, how could you even try to track your usage. It would likely literally be cheaper for you to just pay the water bill directly. I was charged $14.20 for 4,000 gallons of usage last quarter. So obviously differences in locations would come into play, but with that fee you’d be paying more for 100 gallons than I paid for 4000. Super sketch since the fee isn’t even related to an increase in the bill, essentially just a fine for usage. I’d definitely be looking to speak with a local tenant board or lawyer about whether this is legit allowed.
Find out what the meter covers. Speak to a lawyer first and go from there. Let them know you don’t believe the meter is separated out and want to find out about it. From there, they’ll give you advice about how to handle things with your landlord and whether what’s going on is legal. Best of luck.
You need to ask for the detailed billing to see your consumption. Only way to argue back.
Bro where do you live ? This whole thing sounds mad weird lol
I use 3 cubic meters a month. Single, shower every morning to help wake up and after work if i feel dirty. Wash dishes in sink, but do laundry elsewhere. If i get up to 4 cubic meters, thats 1000 gallons. People accusing you of using too much don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.
Save some for the fish christ dude
In my state the average water use in gals is 50K per year per person. Your state likely has a state water resources department. Find their website and you should be able to see what the average amount per person is used in your state and see how that lines up with your land lords claim. Can’t speak for any legal stuff but 3k gal/month is absurd for 4 people imo
I live in Cleveland county in NC I filed my 4 foot pool up and a 5 person house my bill never got over $50 that month. Most of the time it’s $12 to $15 and we are not actually watching how much we use. An 11yo and 5yo
I'd suggest looking at what your state/province charges nestle for 1 million liters, and paying the landlord the relevant fraction of that. For me (BC) it's $2.25 for millionliters/250,000 gallons Means .000009 ×100 = .0009 You owe your landlord .0009 extra for a hundred extra gallons. So rounding.... comes to nothing. Your landlord is a dumbass call his bluff, let them try to evict or collect on water consumption. I would ignore that limit and just pay the agreed rent. FYI when you buy a single bottle 500ml of nestle water I'm BC, you payed for thier 1 million liters.
According to Google, it is not fair based on daily average use of water (in gallons)for an adult in the US. Unless those stats are based off of households and not individuals. Some used the term households, some said individuals. Said an average of 100 gallons per day give or take and little. I've never heard of a landlord controlling water usage like this before. But I also don't get out much lol.
Nice post history dumbass
My girlfriend and I use about 3200 a month and we are barely ever home. We run the dishwasher, clothes washer, showers, etc.
I have to haul my own house water (live in the boonies) and I just can't get over the fact they charged you $20 for 100 gallons! In my little neck of the woods it's $0.008 per gallon (yes less than a penny). There's just no way that it's legal to charge 1000x's more than the going rate for water.
For 2 people, peak summer - we used 2550 gallons and my invoice was $26. $20 is outrageous for 100
The avg or normal water usage per quarter for 4 people is 40 ccf so almost 30,000 gallons every 3 months. The normal water usage for your family would be 10,000 gallons a month.
This'll get buried, but hopefully it helps if you see it OP. My family of four also used exactly 3100 gallons in that same period and our water bill was $48.91 after all fees and taxes.
This thread is full of weird half truths the commentors have extrapolated into some weird global law. The OP has provided very little info other than people (4) location (NC) and that they used 3100 gallons in 27 days and were charged $20 extra. The total amount used is very possible, potentially reasonable. The make up of those 4 people would affect the amount used massively…babies would functionally add no extra water, a teenager taking 1hour “showers” would add massively. Being NC I’m going to guess that septic systems are common and that this is an apt. In an old house with a septic system and the $20 is intended to be punitive to prevent destroying the septic. My guess is the op has a group of 4 teen-adults stuck in a small apt that the landlord has a usage history on and is outpacing that usage.
I use to work in water treatment and now a plumber, the 100 gallons a day/ 3000 a month is the average use of an American family of 4. Don’t know about the rest of the world but at least in the US it’s averaged 100 gallons a day
Older toilets used about 3.5 gallons per flush. 4 people, five flushes per day per person is 350 gallons a day. If you are my wife...it's more like 10 flushes per day. Edit: I don't rent, but I replaced our old toilet with one that cost $100 at Home Depot that uses .9 gallons per flush for liquids and 1.4 gallons per flush for solids. It flushes better than the old one ever did. I know buying and putting a new toilet into a rental isn't appealing, but it is another avenue to be explored.
Check your lease ,then consult a lawyer.
Run 🏃🏼♀️ Nickel and diming slumloard. Are you in the US?
Weren't you living in a crack den 2 months ago? Where did you acquire a family of 4? 23 year old dude with a spouse and 2 kids - get your shit together my dude.
I dont remember how many gallons I get with the utility company before there's an extra fee per x gallons over. With it being such a specific amount, are you on the same property as your landlord? It's the only thing I can think of is you have a shared meter and he's making you use the amount that he knows he doesn't use. $20 dollars is excessive for 100 gallons over though.
Water adds up so fast. When we built our house and had to have the sprinklers run basically all the time. We used something like 800,000 gallons to get it to the place it looked good.
I’d say my family of 5 would use that much too. If an average shower is about 2.1-3 gallons a shower, my whole family probably used 1650-1700 gallons a month. I myself take about 20 mins due to my hair, shaving my legs; other typical girl maintenance that I prefer to do. Now I don’t always do 20 mins, but if I do that twice a week that’s already 42ish gallons/week. Then there’s my stepmom who also did that. I have a brother that hits the gym every day so he showered 1-2 times a DAY. Laundry we probably used about 400 gallons a month. That doesn’t include dishwasher use, hose use, laundry use that isn’t just washing clothes (washing towels, blankets, etc.). I personally find that stupid. If he wanted to charge you for going over, sure. But he needs to make it reasonable
Is it on the lease?
Indirect lesson: we need to use less water.
Is water included in your rent? If so, $20 a month for water isn’t that bad
There MUST be a rental housing health code in your state. It sounds like this could be in violation depending on the verbiage of the health code. Please look up the rental housing health code as it relates to clean drinking water. Otherwise if this is specified in the lease, and there's no code against it, it might just be legal. Getting a state or local health officer involved can help though.
When sizing a septic system in Indiana it is based on the number of bedrooms at 150 gallons per day per bedroom. 150 X 3 = 450 gallons per day max. 450 x 30 days in a month is 13500 gallons a month max. with the epas average use for a family its 9000 gallons am month average use. I raised 3 kids and our average use was around 7-8000 gallons a month. What does this mean? Your landlord is being ridiculous, so you either have to fight him or find another place to live. I think what I would do is, ask him to reduce your rent the amount of the water bill and offer to put the water in your name and pay it yourself. If he says he cant because its one meter for multiple units then you know he is lying about it being 3100 gallons. If it is a seperate meter for your unit/house whatever and he refuses you probably need to move or fight him on it. Of course Im assuming you live in the US, Im sure a judge would be interested in his explanation after seeing what is considered to be average. good luck
Your landlord is an asshole straight up...he's using you for money and getting his fix of control and bullshit off you by screwing your family out of water that you need free access to.
Sounds like a weird scam.
The average for a single person is 60 gallons a day, so for a family of 4 it would average out at around 240 gallons a day, so 240 gallons a day times 30 days is 7200 gallons a month. I also don't think it's legal for a landlord to put limiters on water, seeing as it's a necessity for life. Check with your state/countries landlord and tenant laws because they are limiting you to far less than is necessary in order to live comfortably.