Renting house - keeping garage with electric?

Question

We plan on renting a property but keeping the garage available for our own storage.

The garage has electric, just two light switches for inside and out.

The tenants will still have off street parking for their own use.

We are thinking of rewiring to add an outlet for the garage.

Electric will be in tenants name.

We wont use it often or much - do we need to put this on a separate electric?

Can we just indicate the garage will being used by us in the lease agreement?

Thanks,

Judy

George Jones · Answer

Fred, I agree. I would not be comfortable with the landlord using the rental property's garage to store their personal property in.

Judy, I would say you may have to get a bit creative to cut the cost of your storage bill, but I would not encroach.

Just my opinion,

George

Joe Splitrock · Answer

@Judy Lipinski I agree with @Colleen F. that renting a property with garage is easier. It also commands higher rents. A single car garage should get as much rent as a single storage unit.

If you use the garage, I would not run separate electrical service. The minimum monthly charge will be more than an entire years usage, assuming you are just using lights. I would install LED bulbs to keep your usage very low. If you ran an LED bulb for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would use less than $20 in electricity. If you are only turning it on a few hours a month, we are talking pennies of electricity.

I have a clause in my lease that states landlord can use power for maintenance, repair and improvements. I added it after a tenant complained about the roofing company using "his electricity" to re-shingle the house.

Fred Heller · Answer

Seems a little creepy to me. If I were a potential tenant I would think twice and more before renting a place where the landlord was storing his/her stuff in the garage and could show up at any time without notice.

Marcia Maynard · Answer

Thanks @Joe Splitrock!

Just added this sentence to our "Maintenance of Premises" clause.

"Tenant agrees to allow landlord use of the utilities on the premises, even if paid for by Tenant, for maintenance, repair and improvements.

We had a tenant complain about us using "his water" when we used an outdoor water spigot while power washing the outside of the house he was renting. He didn't pay his rent the next month and disappeared in the night as soon as we served the "Pay Rent of Quit" notice. Interestingly, he had not even paid his water bill since moving in three months prior, so in essence it turned out to be "our water" because we had to pay the bill to prevent a lien on the property. Sheesh!

Marcia Maynard · Answer

Better to keep your storage in a different location. You can even rent a storage unit for your business and make it a deductible expense.

Rent the house with the garage included for higher rent. Tenants will pay extra to have a garage for their vehicles or their storage needs.

Joe Splitrock · Answer

A garage adds value, so a unit with a garage will rent for higher than one without (assuming all else is the same). I am not sure it will add $200 in value, but the fact that storage units cost $200 shows the high value of storage space in your area. I would interview a couple property management companies and ask them for rent-analysis. Most will do this at no charge. It seems you need someone with more experience to help with this.

Judy Lipinski · Answer

@Marcia Maynard and @Joe Splitrock - We are still learning and looking at how to best run the numbers for the rent. As it is, we will already be on the high side for this area. I don't know about increasing the rent due to the garage or we might be too high.   We are paying $200 / month for a storage unit, this would be double that size.

Thank you both for sharing your stories. I hope we avoid any issues like those!

@Colleen F. - they will have tons of storage. We are in the middle of the remodel, and have had some opportunities to make sure of this.  Im curious to be able to answer what you have mentioned with "according to laws about foreign loads in your area"

Judy Lipinski · Answer

Hi Marcia, the house already has off street parking and a long driveway wrapping around the house.

we do have a storage unit, but wanted to switch to using these garages , that do not lead into the house, to save on costs.

Renting house - keeping garage with electric?

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