Adding Fees to a lease Providence Rhode Island

[Akeim Fin]

TLDR: How do I charge for washer dryer hookup giving myself max flexibility? 

I have a gorgeous 3bd 1 bath that I have been struggling to fill. Currently there is no laundry and no pets. I am considering adding a washer dryer hookup in the basement. Can I charge them to use the washer dryer space? I don't want to put it in the  lease. I want something that I can easily stop if something goes wrong like they decide to wash their entire family cloths and the water bill goes $$$$. This is an owner occupied space so I want a low risk, hight flexibility option. Can I call it a fee and add it to their rent monthly. Seems like a silly questions but sometimes calling something a fee vs rent can have an impact if you have to go to court. 

[Anthony Thompson]

@Akeim Fin you can add fees to a lease (e.g., pet fee) but, as it sounds like you already know, you can only evict for unpaid rent - not unpaid late fees, unpaid pet fees, unpaid laundry use fees, etc. Though I do recommend you/everyone have it in your lease that money received first goes to any/all outstanding fees and only lastly to rent.

You can charge for anything, the question is whether you should. I'm not sure how much you're talking about but if it's not much, what about just putting a lock on the laundry area (assuming it's closed off), and basically telling the tenant, look, you can use the laundry as long as it's not crazy, but if the water bill goes too high I'm going to have to take that option away as I only have so much budgeted for water each month.

That said, I'd recommend you have a realistic number in mind before you decide what the water bill going to $$$$ means.

I think you can go a long way by being up as up front as possible with the tenants, to avoid problems down the line. I also think this kind of thing is much more likely to work in A & B areas, while in C areas I can foresee a lot of issues with trying to charge an extra fee, lock the room/access etc.

The other option is just a coin-op or card reader type system where the tenant pays as s/he uses it, that way they more they use it, the more they pay, so they have an incentive not to go crazy. It might only cover your water usage or maybe a small amount extra, but I think it would solve the excess usage issue.

Of course, if you personally live there (you mentioned owner occupied) then maybe you don't want that, but the money would mostly be coming back to you. You'd lose a little from whatever company you have doing the coin-op or card reader servicing but that might be absolutely worth it to know the tenants aren't going to go crazy. Plus the property is already set up if you want to move out and have your old unit rented, so completely tenant-occupied.