Splitting Heat in a Multi-Family Unit

[Allyson Straka]

Hey everyone,

We recently looked at a 5 unit rental property in Allentown, Pa. The landlord was paying for the heat due to there only being 3 meters and the rents were low for the area. With us being newer to real estate, we were not sure how hard it would be to split the meters so that there were 5 instead of 3. Our other option was to raise the rent to have the tenants contributing to the estimated $4,000 annual heating bill. We were looking for opinions on which would be the better option to do first, raise the rents or split the meters. Both at the same time would be a big jump in the tenants monthly expenses.