City of Evanston Blog
Condos and Changing Water Rates
A blog commenter recently asked about how the changes to water rates impact residents of condominiums. I asked Kevin Lookis from our Utilities Department for an explanation. Here is his note back:
"Condos and businesses are billed on the basis of the water entering the building for all types of uses. This includes not only water that is used for drinking, cooking, bathing, etc. but also for use in the HVAC system (boiler and cooling system make-up water, etc.), hot water heating systems and common area uses. There are no condos where residents are billed individually for water use but the bill is sent to a Condo Association or Management Company. Each resident will then pay an assessment based on the amount of the average water/sewer/sanitation (if applicable) bill. The only way an increase in the water portion of the bill will impact individual condo owners would be if the assessment needs to be raised based on the water rate increase. In general, the raising the water rate by 10% will probably not even be enough of an increase to warrant raising the assessment unless this is part of an overall adjustment to cover all other utilities, common areas, etc.
For example, I have selected a 20 unit condo building which has an average water/sewer/sanitation bill totaling $2,022 for two months of usage. The breakout is as follows:
Water Charges: $ 503.00
Sewer Charges: $1,241.00
Sanitation Fees $ 278.00
With a 10 % increase in the water rate, the total bill would only be increased by $50 each two months for a total amount now due of $2,072. This would equate to an increase of $2.50 per unit.
Using another example of an 8 unit condo building which has an average bill of $551.00 for two months of usage, the breakdown is as follows:
Water Charges: $ 124.00
Sewer Charges: $ 315.00
Sanitation Fees $ 111.00
With a 10 % increase in the water rate, the total bill would only be increased by $12.40 each two months for a total amount now due of $563. This would equate to an increase of $1.56 per unit.
If you consider a very large condo building with 105 units which has an average water/sewer/sanitation bill totaling $6,742 for two months of usage the breakout is as follows:
Water Charges: $ 1,942.00
Sewer Charges: $ 4,830.00
With a 10 % increase in the water rate, the total bill would only be increased by $194 each two months for a total amount now due of $6,936. This would equate to an increase of $1.84 per unit.
As you can see, the increase on a per unit basis is relatively small in all cases and would probably not even warrant a change in the assessment taken by itself. While I understand the question from the resident below, the context is not really about how much is used-condo versus single family home, but simply on the amount of water billed in general. Since condo units do use water for other functions that do not commonly occur in a single family home such as boilers, etc., the “average” amount of water per person could actually be greater for a condo dweller. However, when looking at the overall national average of per capita water use, the difference between condo/apartment versus single family is actually very close. The single family home typically will use more water for landscaping which balances out the use by condos in terms of heating, cooling, hot water etc. "
Thanks Kevin!!
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