Getting tenants to pay the water bill

[Andrea Bailey]

@BrandonTurner... I was just listening to podcast122 w @ChrisClothier and you guys were talking about pros and cons regarding evicting someone for not paying the water bill. I was wondering... Why not just advertise your rentals "water included"? We have the same regulations in my area and we will tack on $60 to the monthly rent and advertise water/sewer/gas included. Is this against the rules? Anyway loved the show as usual.

[Dawn Anastasi]

Sometimes tenants only look at the price and not at the amenities first.  So if their budget is $800 for example for rent, and yours is priced at $860 because it includes water, they may not find your rental if they search by price.

Secondly, if you include say $60 of water per month, and the water bill comes in at $100 per month, then are you on the hook for the other $40?  If not, then there has to be a policy on how to handle that. Essentially the tenant is paying for the whole water bill then.