MULTIPLE SERVICES 103 



The distinction between services in use and shut off is sometimes 

 hard to draw with precision and it is not necessary in case of 

 difficulty to attempt an exact classification. 



With the service charge system, as far as it is feasible, the 

 service charge should run on continuously with all live services. 

 If the house is empty, the service charge only is paid and there 

 is no bill for water because no water is drawn. With this system 

 carried out, the distinction between services in use and services 

 shut off would disappear as a bookkeeping proposition. 



Only in the case of works owned by a company which deals 

 with tenants to a considerable extent and cannot collect the 

 service charges when the house is vacant does this distinction 

 become important. In that case the service charges must be 

 made higher by a percentage that will make the returns from 

 services in use equal to what they might otherwise be on all 

 live services. Information from two water companies for a 

 limited period indicates that on an average 8 or 9 per cent of 

 live services do not appear in the bills for any one accounting 

 period. The percentage obviously will vary with different 

 systems and in different years and also with the length of the 

 accounting period. 



Multiple Services. It frequently happens that a single taker 

 has a number of meters or services, and the questions arise as 

 to how these are to be counted and as to whether the meter 

 rates on a sliding scale are to be applied to the quantity drawn 

 through each service or meter separately, or whether the quan- 

 tities may be consolidated before applying the rate. With the 

 uniform rate it makes no difference which is done. With the 

 sliding scale there is an advantage to the taker in the latter 

 practice. It is difficult to make invariable rules that will 

 cover all such cases, but in general the following principles 

 should govern. 



First, where meters are set in batteries or where there are 

 several connections to different mains from the same estab- 

 lishment, all connecting with the same interior pipe system, for 

 the purpose of securing greater 'capacity or greater certainty of 

 service, the whole should be treated as a single service and 



