Shared laundry area.

[Dan Graney]

Greetings,

Well I bought my first rental unit, a duplex and am living upstairs. I have a tenant who is moving in the beginning of next month. I am trying to figure out how to share the laundry facilities.

The laundry room is on the lower floor and is pretty good size. It's big enough to double as a mud room and storage room. There is an outside entrance and a locking door between the laundry room and the lower living area.

I have already discussed it with the tenant and have a verbal agreement that it will be shared but want to put something in the lease. It is my washer and dryer, goes on my water bill and will be using her electricity. She is fine with that part of the trade off.

What I proposed is that I put in the lease that the upstairs tenant, again me for now, will have use of the laundry facilities for a predetermined period of time. Say one week night and one half day on the weekend. Aging she is fine with that, and I am sure that there will be an amicable work around should either of us have an emergency or want to switch the schedule.

There are two things that I am concerned about. First is I have not seen this kind of situation discussed so I am looking for reassurance that I am not being foolish or short-sighted in my plan.

The second is that both of my sons live close buy and neither of them have laundry facilities so they have been using mine. I would like them to still be able to use my washer and dryer in my house and would definitely make sure they used it only during my allotted time but...

Is this too much to ask of a tenant?

I would of course introduce her to my sons so she would not have complete strangers using the laundry facilities, but she is a young lady with a young daughter and I always want to lean to the conservative side to protect her privacy.

Also part of this equation is that I have never lived under the same roof with a relative stranger so this is all going to be a bit weird to me. Probably not as much to her or my sons because they have all lived in multiple apartments.

Thank you in advance for any tips or advice.