When It Comes to Water Rates, All Is Not Doom & Gloom

Waste Not, Pay Not

"The bottom line for boards and property managers is that they have to be diligent in making sure there's no wasted water," says Steve Greenbaum, the director of property management with Mark Greenberg Real Estate. "What we're doing is being very diligent that there are no leaks in faucets, toilets, and showerheads. We speak about it all the time at annual meetings. We want to educate rather than control."

The super routinely checks apartments for leaky plumbing fixtures, and all apartments have converted to water-conserving fixtures.

Sometimes shareholders balk at repairing leaks. When that happens, the board acts. "We take a very aggressive approach," says Greenbaum. "If they refuse to do the repair, we do it and then bill them for it."

Good News

Despite all the gloom and doom, there's actually some good news about water in New York City. In fact, this story has a happy ending, sort of. The double-digit annual rate increases that arrived with the last recession are finally moderating. This fiscal year the increase was 3.4 percent, less than half of what was expected.

There were several reasons for this, including low interest rates that reduced DEP's debt service, improved revenue collection, created fewer estimated bills and billing disputes, and saw the installation of a total of more than 800,000 automated water meters.

But that doesn't mean co-op and condo boards are off the hook. When it comes to monitoring water use and avoiding waste, vigilance will be required for many years to come. Which is a gentle way of saying forever.

Adapted from "Water Vigilance" by Bill Morris (Habitat, January 2015)

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