Ending Flat-Rate Losses and Catching Leaks Fast at Quarry Ridge Apartments

Quarry Ridge Apartments is a four-building, family-owned multifamily community in Independence, Missouri. For years, the property billed residents a flat rate for water — a structure that guaranteed a loss every single month and gave management no way to explain why one building's bill ran higher than another's.

After installing SimpleSUB Water, Quarry Ridge switched to fair, usage-based billing with zero resident pushback, and uses real-time flow monitoring to address leaks within 30 minutes of receiving an alert. 

Customer Profile

• Property: Quarry Ridge Apartments
• Type: Multifamily apartment community
• Location: Independence, Missouri
• Units / Submeters: 49 submeters, 4 buildings 
• Interviewee: Jacob B., Operations Manager

The Problem: Flat-Rate Billing Guaranteed a Loss Every Month

As Operations Manager, Jacob oversees leasing, accounting, maintenance, and acquisitions. Submetering to solve the utility cost discrepancy had been on Quarry Ridge's radar for a while — the team just hadn't found a clear path to act on it.

In the meantime, the property billed water at a flat rate, which meant losing money every month in order to absorb any discrepancy. Utility recovery had been on management's mind for years, but so had a harder problem: with four buildings of 12+ units each billed together, there was no way to diagnose why one building consistently ran higher than the rest. Beyond recovering utility costs, his team had no way to catch problems before they escalated into something worse.

"We'd look at our water bills each month, and it's difficult when there's 12 units in a building — if one building is trending $200 higher than another, you want to know why. We could speculate, but even going and individually inspecting the units only told us so much." — Jacob B.

The Solution: Accurate, Easy-to-Install Metering That Didn't Depend on Tenant Wi-Fi

For Quarry Ridge, two requirements were non-negotiable: billing functionality and equipment accuracy. Usage-based billing meant residents would be paying more for water, and Jacob needed numbers that were accurate enough to be—and feel—fair.

"We had a big focus on accuracy. We wanted equipment that was reliable and accurate enough to minimize questions from tenants down the road.” — Jacob B.

Connectivity was also a practical constraint. Quarry Ridge doesn't require residents to have Wi-Fi and doesn't offer a group internet package, so any solution had to work independently of tenant networks.

Jacob compared pricing against other vendors before deciding, but had no real hesitations about the choice itself. What stood out was how simple the hardware was to install:

"I like how you can just clamp it on and call it good." — Jacob B.

Installation was handled in-house by maintenance coordinator Chris and the maintenance team. The new billing structure rolled out at lease renewal and to all new residents, and existing tenants saw no disruption.

Results: Leaks Caught in Under 30 Minutes, Fair Billing With No Pushback

With submeters live across all 49 units, Quarry Ridge now has real usage data instead of guesswork, and is able to hold residents accountable for their own consumption.

"Now that we have actual data, we can hold people accountable for their share. Everyone's on the hook for their own usage. We rolled out billing at lease renewal, and we’ve had no pushback from new or old residents.” — Jacob B.

Aside from billing, leak detection has had the most immediate operational impact. Jacob uses a simple internal workflow: leak alerts trigger a notification to the maintenance team's group chat, and someone investigates within half an hour. 

"Leak detection has been huge. I have a workflow that sends a notification to our team's group chat, and my guys are on it within about 30 minutes to go take a look." — Jacob B.

Alert volume was high during initial installation; it's now down to just once or twice a week. Jacob’s team is able to jump on leaks as they arise, before they turn into unnecessary water usage and elevated charges. 

Overall, Jacob describes the experience as exceeding expectations:

"It's been fantastic — pretty much everything we asked for. The team is responsive, very informative, and made sure we had all our ducks in a row." — Jacob B.

The support team helped during installation, and the billing team walked Quarry Ridge through the new billing process for two to three months post-launch to make sure every question was resolved.

Jacob says he'd recommend SimpleSUB Water to any multifamily property concerned about high water bills or unexplained profit loss:

"I'd definitely recommend Simple Sub — it's a great team to work with. They hold your hand along the way, which I found helpful, and ensures the whole implementation is a success." — Jacob B.

Stop Losing Money on Flat-Rate Water Billing

Quarry Ridge Apartments moved from guaranteed monthly losses on flat-rate billing to fair, usage-based billing and leak response times measured in minutes, not days.

If your property is dealing with rising water costs, unexplained bill spikes between units, or billing that doesn't reflect actual usage, schedule a demo to see how SimpleSUB Water can help.

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