New landlord questions

[Michael Junior]

Two questions 1. Am I able to split the water bill with tenant in the duplex I currently live in ( and own). I recently just understood that your supposed to include all expenses into the tenants rent. I just picks up my first duplex. I’m house hacking. I have inherited tenants that are paying $1500 a month. When I sat down and signed the lease with my tenants we agreed to keep the rent at $1500 but i asked they split the water bill with me. Is this acceptable??

[Alvin Sylvain]

Of course it's acceptable. But it has to be fully delineated in the lease. If it wasn't in the lease before, write up a new one, or create an addendum, and get your tenant to sign that one.

How much of the utilities are picked up by the tenant varies from place to place. Some places, the landlord pays for everything. Others, the tenant does. Some jurisdictions stipulate that the landlord pays the water, the thinking being, the landlord is less likely to stop paying, then the water company shuts it off, then the toilets start to smell, then everybody suffers.

When I was a renter in Florida, what they did was divide all the utilities between all the units. So you could run your TV all day and night, and it would be your neighbors (and you) who'd get hit with a high electric bill. And that was fully spelled out in the lease.

I personally don't like it that way, but I can understand why they did it in Florida. Our instructions as tenants were, "NEVER turn off your AC!" It keeps the mold down. OK, so somebody would be less inclinded to turn off their AC to save a dollar on their electric bill, since it would only save them a nickel. Might as well just leave it on.

Find out what is customary in your area. You aren't required to copy what the other rentals are doing, but it's usually a good idea.