Prepaid water meters are massively reducing the financial risk exposure of property owners and trustees. According to Claims Facilitation Services Head of Department, Monique Siers plumbing related insurance claims account for 81% of all the insurance claims they handled in 2021. Geysers burst, pipes leak, and drains become blocked. These sudden and unforeseen events are facts of life and have plagued property owners, and bodies corporate since the advent of indoor plumbing. Smart city trends like prepaid water meters are helping to make sure these types of claims won’t have to include huge structural damage fixes as well.
Liberty Grande – Prepaid Water Meters in Action
Formerly, Libertas Hospital, the healthcare facility was shut down in 2001 and subsequently converted into a residential estate. Liberty Grande is a large residential block with around 300 units featuring easy access to the R102 in Goodwood, Cape Town. When the prepaid water meters were installed in the building (December 2019), owners and trustees were granted access to data which assisted them in reporting water damage related claims within the 30 day window. For example, if a tenant needs to purchase additional water tokens in a given month despite not increasing their consumption patterns, it could be worthwhile investigating for leaks. In this way, the prepaid meter functions like a canary in a coal mine, and can alert owners and trustees of leaks long before they turn into structural damage. Not only will this help to reduce the rate at which assets depreciate but it can even reduce premiums. Warren Daniels, WUS Operations Manager, reports that their team attends to roughly 24 call outs a year to the building. That’s 24 properties (valued at approx. R500,000.00 each) protected from further water related damage.
Precise Payments, Empowering Information
Prepaid water meters, integrated with proprietary billing software, allow Water Utility Solutions experts to investigate irregular token purchase patterns. Irregularities in token purchase patterns can reveal vital information such as leaking pipes and geysers which would otherwise take months to determine or even years. Postpaid meters are more often than not only read annually and monthly bills are determined according to annual averages. In these cases, a leak will only be revealed once the water is seeping through the walls or dripping from the ceiling. With the information provided by prepaid meters, trustees and property owners can be alerted and take the appropriate action to protect their property before water damage gets out of hand.
Advanced Fund Collection
Prepaid water meters are extremely valuable in the context of sectional titles for municipal account reconciliations. Many older residential blocks do not feature individual water meters per residential unit… That means that the entire block’s water consumption is allocated to owners and is typically collected as part of the monthly levy packet. Should members of the body corporate encounter cash flow issues, this can mean headaches for the entire block. For blocks fitted with prepaid meters, the funds collection process is much simpler. Residents pay in advance for what they use and the funds are immediately available to body corporate for payment to the municipal provider.
Prepaid water meters help to reduce property owners and trustee’s risk exposure to water related damage.
Only Pay for Your Own Water
A big concern for landlords and trustees (and a quick way for levies to inflate) is when individual units aren’t metered. This is still a very widespread concern… Many residential buildings Cape Town still use only a single bulk check meter to recoup costs of water provision. The total consumption of water is then divided amongst owners proportionally per their unit(s). That means that even if an owner is highly conscious of water use and is careful not to waste, they don’t reap the rewards. Prepaid water meters offer a tremendous advantage in this regard. Each unit is only able to use the water they pay for and that owners do not have to carry the financial burden of others.
Prepaid Water Meters Are a Landlord’s Best Friend
Prepaid water meters are often touted as the greener choice – helping to reduce consumption and preserve a vital natural resource – and this is absolutely true. However, the benefits which property owners and trustees are afforded are invaluable as well. They help to protect the property assets from prolonged water damage, and collect funds for municipal account reconciliation too. WUS are leading suppliers, installers, and managers of prepaid water meters in Cape Town. Bodies corporate and homeowners associations looking to get the same asset protection contact WUS experts here.
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