How Do I Do Tenant's Utilities Charge At Private House.

[Kyran]

I am a home owner and want to rent one floor. And the situation is there is only one meter of electricity for entire house. So I'll have to rent it with All Utilities included. But I really worry if the tenant uses air conditioner very much, like even never turns it off all through Summer. Does anybody have a good idea about this?

[Weiford]

Here is what you must realize and include in your advertisement of the room: You must realize that you arent going to get rich off of this, but at most split your mortgage and utility bills. The reason people like me do shared room and not rent from a landlord is because we realize that they are "for profit", and will do everything against your wishes in terms of monthly price, terms, lease, deposit, contract fee, etc; it is not a good route to take plus you dont have to live in a crusty apartment and get to live in a house. If we had to go to the landlord we would, but there are people out there like yourself that need a bit of relief so we will pay a fraction of your mortgage for favorable terms- win win for everybody involved if of course the price is right. You dont price your place appropriately(i.e. you are trying to make a lot of profit) and you will never rent your room; price the room for what it is worth according to the mortgage and nothing more. Of course things like year of the house and general maintenance and cleanliness of the place will factor into what somebody will offer or accept, but i'm just saying realize what we are after and dont try to rob us because we will see it and you wont get the renter. YOUR FINAL PRICE SHOULD BE A SINGLE MONTHLY PAYMENT AMOUNT, and I cannot emphasize this enough. When I am looking for a place I dont want to see $500/month and then read the description and it speaks of other costs; I will simply bypass that listing and find one that is appropriately listed that is price to INCLUDE UTILITIES. You mentioned that you are including utilities, so kudos in having that aspect straight. As for metering electrical usage, like I said before utilities need to be included to attract and secure tenants. You could probably get a programmable thermostat for that floor(if your system has an ahu on that floor) and work with the tenant on how it should be programmed according to when they occupy the space. Solutions aside, all I have to say about this is that if you cannot price accordingly that is not the tenants problem and you shouldnt try to haggle cash out of them when you make the mistake. You should do open leases or short terms until you get an understanding of how much a tenant will actually influence your electricity bill. Its not like people are growing pot or setting up a lan computer game session with their buddies in the living space, so quit obsessing over obvious excesses because they arent going to happen. If excesses are noticed, speak to the person and tell them that I didnt price the place for you to be able to ___ 24/7; we will understand and they probably knew that they were doing something wrong in the first place, but were seeing if they could get away with it. Good luck with your listing!

[Thurhloew]

Well, you could hire an electrician to come in and separate the power on that floor from the other floor or floors. It's probable that all of the circuits on that floor are independent. All the electrician would need to do is install a new electrical box and the electric company can come out and install a meter. That way you can have a separate bill issued to you tenant. Or you could estimate what air conditioning all summer would cost and even it out in monthly payments. For example, if air conditioning would run up an extra $600 a year, you could simply increase the rent by $50 a month.

[Malik]

BosM said: 1 If the amount that you are to be paid includes all utilities then you should set the payment at a rate that includes utilities. Prorate utility costs based on the square footage they will occupy and add it to their rent. You should look at what you have spent on utilities over the past year. So, for example if room and board is $500 and prorated utility expenses are $100 per month then charge them $600 per month.Also, you may want to check with your zoning board to see if there is anything you need to do related to renting out part of your house. Also make sure that your insurance is up to date to reflect this as an allowable use of your home. 41 months ago

[Evander]

I am a renter in a shared house type arrangement, and have been doing so for years. Here is what you must realize and include in your advertisement of the room: You must realize that you arent going to get rich off of this, but at most split your mortgage and utility bills. The reason people like me do shared room and not rent from a landlord is because we realize that they are "for profit", and will do everything against your wishes in terms of monthly price, terms, lease, deposit, contract fee, etc; it is not a good route to take plus you dont have to live in a crusty apartment and get to live in a house. If we had to go to the landlord we would, but there are people out there like yourself that need a bit of relief so we will pay a fraction of your mortgage for favorable terms- win win for everybody involved if of course the price is right. You dont price your place appropriately(i.e. you are trying to make a lot of profit) and you will never rent your room; price the room for what it is worth according to the mortgage and nothing more. Of course things like year of the house and general maintenance and cleanliness of the place will factor into what somebody will offer or accept, but i'm just saying realize what we are after and dont try to rob us because we will see it and you wont get the renter. YOUR FINAL PRICE SHOULD BE A SINGLE MONTHLY PAYMENT AMOUNT, and I cannot emphasize this enough. When I am looking for a place I dont want to see $500/month and then read the description and it speaks of other costs; I will simply bypass that listing and find one that is appropriately listed that is price to INCLUDE UTILITIES. You mentioned that you are including utilities, so kudos in having that aspect straight. As for metering electrical usage, like I said before utilities need to be included to attract and secure tenants. You could probably get a programmable thermostat for that floor(if your system has an ahu on that floor) and work with the tenant on how it should be programmed according to when they occupy the space. Solutions aside, all I have to say about this is that if you cannot price accordingly that is not the tenants problem and you shouldnt try to haggle cash out of them when you make the mistake. You should do open leases or short terms until you get an understanding of how much a tenant will actually influence your electricity bill. Its not like people are growing pot or setting up a lan computer game session with their buddies in the living space, so quit obsessing over obvious excesses because they arent going to happen. If excesses are noticed, speak to the person and tell them that I didnt price the place for you to be able to ___ 24/7; we will understand and they probably knew that they were doing something wrong in the first place, but were seeing if they could get away with it. Good luck with your listing! Korn 41 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Harlowe]

molly255 said: 3 ditto on BosM. I have rented out portions of a home with one meter and I would also see what it cost before the renters to make sure I was charging correctly 41 months ago

[Reiner]

You can make them pay for the utilities... You can lower the rent and they have to pay half of the utilities. YOu can lower it even more and they have to pay all of the utilities... Either way, they have a stake in saving. In the ned, I would say when you are interviewing them, you can ask if they are environmentally conscious. What they do to help save the environment. Environmental acivism is not a protected class, so it is not legally discrimination to rent to people who are environmentalists and thus have a person in the place with other insentives in place to save energy.   I am not a lawyer, and I can see how someone could claim that being an environmentalist is closely alligned with being a member of part of the politilcal spectrum, and political affiliation is a protected class. You will need to check up on me. dejapooh 41 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.