The whole thing reminded me of what happened several years ago at the apartment building my parents live in. Initially, water was included in rent and there were no individual meters for the 50 units in the building. When a new company bought the building, they decided that they wanted the residents to pay for their own water. Since there were no individual meters for the units, the property manager was tasked with taking the entire monthly water bill for the building, and dividing it up between all the apartments (scaled so that the few apartments that had two full bathrooms paid more than the rest that only had one). It all seemed pretty fair. Each month, each apartment would receive a tag on their door outlining their monthly rent, and the water payment for that month.

It came to light some time later that the property manager was fudging the numbers. He'd tack on a few extra dollars to everybody's water bill, and keep the extra money. During this time he also happened to get a brand new car (and I'm sure the difference in the water bill is what was helping to pay his car payment). The guy was fired, but the whole thing was kept hushhush and swept under the rug. Residents were given a free month of rent or two in compensation.

Fast forward a while later, and a future property manager got in trouble for doing the exact same thing. Now they keep it all VERY transparent. Each month the original water bill is kept posted in a central location, with a charted breakdown of how much everybody pays, adding up to the exact amount on the bill, no more.