Utility Advice for up/down duplex

[Braden Hobbs]

Hello! I'm looking for advice on how you'd handle the following situation.

We are looking at a SFH that has been converted to an up/down duplex but doesn't have separate utilities. I feel like my options are to either pay the utilities and adjust rent accordingly, or have the tenants split the utilities 50/50. My issue with the latter is that the heat is controlled by the upstairs unit, so that doesn't seem fair to the lower tenant. The last option would be to just rent it as a single unit with a kitchen in the basement.

What have some of you other landlords done in this scenario?