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Texas submetered water billing rules for mobile-home parks (2026)

By · Published March 17, 2026 · 7 min read

Texas lets a manufactured-home community bill tenants for submetered water — and spells out exactly how. The rules come from the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), not TCEQ: TCEQ handles drinking-water safety, the PUC handles the billing. Here's what the Texas Water Code (chapter 13) and the PUC's rules (16 TAC chapter 24) require of a park owner.

Part of our state-by-state series — submetered water billing rules by state. Other states: California · Florida · Oregon · Washington

The short version: register with the PUC before you bill, pass the water and sewer charges through at cost, keep any service charge at or under 9%, and put the reads and the utility's name on every bill.

Register before you bill

An owner who intends to bill tenants for submetered or allocated water service must register with the PUC on its form first — and re-register if you ever change the billing method (say, from RUBS allocation to real submeters). It's paperwork, not a hearing, but skipping it means every bill you send is out of compliance.

At cost, with a capped service charge

The heart of the Texas rule (16 TAC §24.281): what you bill tenants may only reflect the water and wastewater charges from the retail utility's bill. You cannot pass through the utility's deposits, disconnect or reconnect fees, or its late fees. On top of the at-cost water, a manufactured-home rental community may add a service charge of up to 9% of the tenant's water and sewer charge — that's the administration allowance, and it's the ceiling. Late fees on a tenant's water bill are capped at 5% of the bill.

What has to be on the bill

PUC rules (16 TAC §24.283) make the bill's contents explicit. It must show:

Keep the records behind it, too: the PUC requires you to keep billing records for the current and previous calendar year, and to let a tenant inspect the records that support their bill within days of a written request. An itemized, checkable bill is the whole game — it's also what ends disputes before they start.

RUBS is legal in Texas — with a required haircut

Texas expressly allows allocated (RUBS) billing for manufactured-home communities as an alternative to submeters, using approved formulas (occupancy, square footage, or rental-space area). But you must deduct common-area usage from the master bill before allocating the rest — at least 5%, and at least 25% if the park irrigates without a separate irrigation meter. Splitting 100% of the master bill across tenants is not allowed. Our free RUBS calculator is built around exactly that hold-back-then-split math.

What happens if you get it wrong

Billing complaints go to the PUC, which has exclusive jurisdiction. If it finds an overcharge, it must order repayment — and it can also assess administrative penalties under the Water Code that run up to thousands of dollars per day, with each day a separate violation. The fix is cheap by comparison: register, bill at cost, itemize.

Common Texas mistakes

Doing the math for one tenant right now? The water submeter calculator turns two reads and your utility's rate into an at-cost bill, in gallons or cubic feet. For the bigger picture, start with how to bill tenants for water the legal way.

Sources

General information, not legal advice. Rules change and details matter — confirm the current PUC requirements (or ask a Texas landlord-tenant attorney) before you change how you bill.

Lot Sidekick itemizes submetered water on every bill automatically. Your manager keys the reads from a phone and each tenant is billed at cost. Send your spreadsheet and I'll set up your park, or see the live demo, or call (425) 405-0734.