Laundry Unit

[John Sanderson]

Here's a slightly interesting one(I think). I've got a 5-unit building, and I recently installed a washer and dryer in a storage room that can be locked. I gave the option for all tenants to pay $15 extra a month for use of the machines(costs about half as much as a laundromat in the area) and 3 out of 5 of my units opted to pay the fee via a lease addendum.

The problem I'm running into is that the storage room is not being kept locked, and one of the tenants(for good reason) is complaining that the door is either being left unlocked or propped open.

Now, I've looked into coin operated machines, and they cost about 3x what the standard machines cost, and they have HORRIBLE reviews for the low end models. My goal is to just increase rent for any new tenants, but I have 2 tenants(neither of whom opted for the $15 fee) who are still on the first 12 months of their lease that did not opt to pay the fee, so they didn't receive a key for the machines. Per their leases, I cannot increase rent until the expiration of their current lease.

Has anyone ever had an issue like this? Is there a loophole where I can add a fee, but not necessarily increase rent for current tenants with a lease? I think my only other option may be to just remove the addendum to current leases, grandfather them into the washer and dryer, and then have a slight rent increase on any new tenants.

Thoughts?

[John Sanderson]

I decided to just remove the $15 fee for current tenants, and just increase the rent a little for new tenants. I'm not concerned with making money off the laundry, as long as the extra income covers the cost of buying them ($300 for the pair) and any water and electricity usage, I'm ok with that.

Thanks for the idea, and any current tenants will probably get a rent increase in the next year or so.