Landlord pays Electric up to certain amount

[Mike D.]

I'm considering buying a 12 unit that has electric heaters. I'd like to make it so that heat is included with the rent by paying for each tenants' electric bill myself. To keep people from abusing the free heat I'd like to put a clause in the lease that if the electric bill is over $100, the tenant gets billed for the overage and they must pay it in next months rent. 

Is that as simple is putting a clause in the lease? It would be some extra work billing the tenants for the overage but I've found that including all utilities is very popular around here. 

[Matthew Olszak]

@Mike D. Unfortunately instead of the tenants monitoring their utility usage to stay under the $100 cap, they'll likely just use what they want, keep the heat how they want, and when you tell them they went over they'll balk about how they kept everything the same as last month and there is no way they went over. You'll then become (in their minds) the rich landlord who wants to nickel and dime them out of the $18.50 that they don't even believe they owe. And they'll assume that each month they don't get charged extra they were under by $75 and you just pocket that from their rent.

Are they separately metered? How are heat/utilities/rent handled in comparable units? That'll be the key - what is the market doing at your price point?