Typically a multi-family development has either one master meter for the entire development or a meter for each building and the development is responsible for the entire water and sewer bill. This expense is basically divided evenly by the number of units within the development and passed on via rent, association dues, or other forms of payment. Once a development is sub-metered, the expenses are now divided based on the consumption of each individual unit. This is obviously the fairest way of dividing this expense. Those who use less water pay less and do not pay for others who use more. The idea of sub-metering has been around for over 20 years. It started with the electric industry. Years ago most multi-family developments had a master meter for electricity and the owners paid the bill for the entire property. This created a lot of waste since the residents of these developments were not directly responsible for their own electric bill. It was determined that when electric sub-meters were installed for each individual unit that the consumption of electricity drastically decreased. It has since become the standard in the electric industry to install individual electric meters for each unit within multi-family developments. This is what is now occurring in the water industry.