Single meter for separate tenants in a duplex

[Joel Brown]

I passed on a deal a month ago, but the chance has come back as the sale fell through due to financing. My hesitation was that it is a twin home (I'd be buying half) with a mother in law apartment in the basement (good) that may not be able to be rented separately (bad). The neighborhood is mostly duplexes and it is zoned that way, but the twin house itself is a duplex with 2 separate owners. It could easily be a quad as each half has 2500+ square feet on 3 floors (5000+ total) complete with 4 separate entrances. The problems is each half has only one meter so the basement apartments are not on their own meter.

The other half of the twin home is being rented to 2 parties, but the owner tried to add a separate basement meter and was turned down by the city. How do you keep utilities cost down while including them in rent to 2 separate tenants / families? 

The house is in great condition with granite counter tops and hardwood floors solid wood cabinets etc (only a 15 year old house) at a very reasonable amount (~ $110/ sq ft). Can you divide utilities 60/40 or just include them and raise rent or? Obviously the feasibility will affect weather I offer and how much I try to discount.

[Jonathan R.]

I work for an electric utility company and this sounds ridiculous to me. Get a bid from an electrician to wire your property to its own electric meter. When you are saying "city," I am guessing that a power company sells their power to the city and the power company delivers the power to the customer; the "city" handles the billing. I wouldn't take the owner at what they are saying about not being allowed to add a meter; my company loves installing new meters, we get to charge a basic service fee for each one. I would have an electrician give you an estimate and call the "city" and ask them to create an account for you and get you a new meter in 2-4 days after the electrician has finished their work. Perhaps the owner got confused somewhere along the way. If you do get your power from an actual power company and the city is saying no, it is because of a safety issue, at which an electrician is able to fix that too.