Readers React: Utilities need to do their part to help renters save water

To the editor: Sub-metering apartments for water places the burden of billing on owners, making each one his own mini-utility. We hate that. Why not require utilities to do their job and install individual meters for apartments? But that costs “thousands of dollars per unit,” claims the article. (“There’s little incentive for L.A. renters to take shorter showers,” July 26)

That’s hard to believe. Meter readers no longer need to lay eyes on today’s small electronic meters, which are read over phone lines. Therefore, they can be installed between apartments, without repiping the building, with individual usage calculated by subtracting one meter reading from the next.

One top-of-the-line meter that is installed throughout Beverly Hills, where I have properties, costs $80. For my 36-unit apartment building, a top plumbing contractor quoted $775 per apartment to install two meters each, one hot and one cold. That’s $27,900 for the entire building. My water expense on that property runs $22,000 per year, so I recoup in 15 months.

I will happily pay for meter installation, as will every other owner, if the utility will do its job and bill the tenants directly.

Kevin Davis, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: This article is a disgrace. How dare it suggest that the overburdened renter whose salary is just about exhausted by housing costs in this rent environment pay more?

Renters are being squeezed out of Los Angeles. The rents are sky high and unaffordable for many.

Some people think it’s a good idea for renters to have an additional burden of a water bill. For what people are paying for apartments, the faucets should emit champagne.

Miriam Matranga, Sherman Oaks

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