Water Submetering & Leak Detection for Apartments

Smart Water Management for Multifamily Properties and HOAs

Unit-level water metering in gallons, usage reporting, and leak detection with automatic shutoff

Water Submetering and Unit-Level Metering

Track gallons per unit across your entire property. Identify high-usage units, spot abnormal consumption, and support tenant billing based on actual usage.

Leak Detection with Automatic and Manual Shutoff

Continuous flow monitoring that alerts you when something looks wrong. Shut off water automatically when a leak is detected, or manually through the web app from anywhere.

Retrofit Installation

Installed unit by unit in occupied buildings. Works with most existing plumbing configurations. No building-wide shutdowns and no major plumbing modifications required.

Property Dashboard and Usage Reporting

View water usage across all units in one place. Track trends over time, export usage reports, and see which units are consuming the most water.

Ongoing Monitoring and Alerts

Leak alerts, high-usage notifications, and valve status updates delivered by email or SMS. Know what's happening at your property without having to check manually.

Who LeakSense Is Built For

If you own or manage an apartment building, condominium, or HOA, you're likely paying one master water bill and handling the cost in one of three ways: absorbing it, adding a flat fee to rent, or using RUBS to estimate each tenant's share. None of these approaches reflect actual usage, and none give you visibility into where water is going or where a leak might be developing.

LeakSense installs individual flow meters at each unit. Each meter tracks water usage in gallons and reports that data to a dashboard you can access from any browser. You can see which units are using the most water, get alerts when usage patterns look abnormal, and if shutoff valves are installed, close water to a specific unit remotely without turning off the whole building.

We work with apartment owners managing 20 to 500+ units, HOA boards looking for accurate per-unit usage data and governance reporting, and property management companies overseeing portfolios across multiple buildings. Our system is designed specifically for multifamily -- it is not a consumer device repurposed for commercial use.

If you've looked at inline meters that require cutting into main lines or replacing plumbing stacks, LeakSense is a retrofit-friendly alternative. Sensors install at the unit level in occupied buildings, unit by unit, without a building-wide water shutoff.

What Property Owners Get with LeakSense

Visibility Into Actual Usage

See exactly how many gallons each unit uses per day, week, or month. Identify high-usage units, flag ones that haven't registered any flow, and track trends over time.

Leak Alerts Before Damage Spreads

When flow looks abnormal -- water running overnight, unexpected high volume, or a continuous trickle -- you get an alert. Catching leaks early is significantly cheaper than discovering them after the fact.

Remote Shutoff Control

Close water to any unit from the web app without going to the property. Useful during confirmed leaks, unit turnover, or maintenance -- no physical valve access needed.

From $6 Per Unit Per Month

Pricing covers the hardware, installation, and ongoing monitoring platform. No large upfront equipment purchase required. Contact us for a quote based on your building size and configuration.

Retrofit-Friendly Installation

Installed unit by unit in occupied buildings. Works with most existing plumbing -- galvanized, copper, PEX, and PVC. No building-wide shutdowns and no wall demolition required.

Built for Multifamily, Not Repurposed

Designed from the ground up for properties with multiple units. Portfolio dashboards, per-unit tracking, and property manager workflows -- not a single-home consumer device scaled up.

Serving Multifamily Properties Across California

Contact us to confirm availability and get a quote for your property.

Common Questions About Water Submetering

  • What's the difference between submetering and RUBS, and which is better?

    RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System) estimates each unit's water share based on a formula -- typically square footage, occupancy, or number of bedrooms -- without measuring actual usage. It requires no hardware, but tenants frequently push back on it because bills don't reflect what they actually used. Disputes are common, and low-use tenants end up subsidizing high-use ones.

    Submetering measures real usage at each unit with an individual flow sensor. Tenants pay for what they consumed, nothing more. Bills are harder to dispute because the data is specific. For properties currently on RUBS, switching to submetering typically reduces overall consumption and tenant complaints at the same time.

  • Will tenants push back on being billed for water they've always had included in rent?

    Some will question it initially, especially if water has been included for a long time. The most common concern is whether the meter is accurate and whether they're being billed fairly. LeakSense addresses this by providing tenants with usage data specific to their unit -- they can see the actual gallon readings rather than receiving an unexplained charge.

    One thing to be aware of: if water is currently included in your lease agreements, you generally can't switch existing tenants to usage-based billing mid-lease without their agreement. The practical approach is to update lease language at renewal. We can walk you through how other properties have handled this transition.

  • What happens when a tenant disputes their water bill?

    Because LeakSense tracks usage in gallons per unit with timestamps, disputes are straightforward to investigate. You can pull usage history for any unit and show the tenant exactly when and how much water was flowing. If a reading looks wrong, the meter can be tested. Most disputes resolve quickly once the data is visible -- tenants often discover a running toilet or dripping fixture they weren't aware of.

  • Will the shutoff valve affect shared plumbing lines or neighboring units?

    No. LeakSense shutoff valves are installed at the individual unit supply line, not on shared risers or building-wide lines. Closing the valve for one unit affects only that unit's water supply. Neighboring units are unaffected. This is confirmed during the site assessment -- we verify that each unit has an accessible, dedicated supply line before installation begins.

  • Can you install in an older building with shared risers or unusual plumbing layouts?

    It depends on the plumbing layout. LeakSense sensors work with most common pipe materials -- galvanized, copper, PEX, and PVC -- and installation proceeds unit by unit without a building-wide water shutoff. However, some older buildings have shared risers where multiple units draw from a single line, which can make individual unit metering impractical without plumbing modifications. We confirm compatibility during a site assessment before any work is scheduled. If your building isn't a good fit, we'll tell you upfront.

  • How much does LeakSense cost and what's included?

    Plans start from $6 per unit per month. Pricing depends on building size, number of units, and the combination of features -- metering and reporting only, or metering plus leak detection with shutoff valves. Contact us for a quote based on your specific property and we'll walk through exactly what's covered.

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