Heat included?

[Pete Condit]

I am looking at a two family apartment house. It is 2 bedrooms down/ 2 bedrooms up. The upstairs is a bit smaller than the down.

There is a single boiler in the basement that heats each unit. This makes charging for heat a bit complicated.

I am very hesitant to go with a "heat included" rent structure, given the volatility of oil costs over the past two years.

Is there any way to have tenants pay for heat short of putting each unit on separate boilers?

I have an idea that I think might work. Each unit has a circulator pump coming off the boiler. Could I install run time meters on each pump as a way of determining how to divy up the oil bill?

I do plan on holding this property for the long haul. The existing boiler looks to be older, but in decent enough shape. If I had to go with separate systems, it might mean buying 2 boilers since the existing one really wouldn't be matched well for 1 unit.