The City of Lima made some changes to whose name is on the water bill for rental properties in the city.
Starting New Years Day, the rental property water bill will be put in the name of the homeowner versus the renter. Then the homeowner can adjust the rent amount to reflect the cost of the water. This currently will only affect properties that are not being rented as of January 1st. But if someone moves out of a rental property, the landowner will have to put the water bill in their name, before the next renter moves in. This will eliminate any fees that renters used to pay Lima, to get water service turned on their home. With the city putting in high tech water meters, homeowners will be able to keep an eye on the water usage in their rental properties.
“If an owner has a question, he can call in and we can get them real time data. Before we couldn’t, we would have to send someone out, it would be a day, the timing wasn’t always immediate,” says Mike Caprella, Lima’s Utilities Director. “Now we can look at meter within seconds and get readings and get data for the owners if they request that. Even though it will be a little inconvenient to start with, once people are use to it. It wouldn’t be a big deal.”
Caprella says that homeowner has always ultimately been responsible for the water bill at their property, now with this system they have eliminated the middle man in the process.
