renting out a Mother in law

[Derrick Oliver]

Hi All,

I recently purchased a home with a Mother-in-law apartment in the basement. I plan to house hack the property and live in the Mother-in-law portion. The home is zoned as a single family property. My questions are, how do I go about setting up the mail for both? Is it possible to have two separate mailboxes/addresses? 

Also, I am wondering about the utilities, they are not on separate. How would you suggest I charge the tenants? Any and all feed back is greatly appreciated!

[Nathan Gesner]

Contact the City and ask if the mother-in-law suite can be assigned an address. If it can, get it assigned, add two mailboxes that are clearly marked with the unit numbers, and then work with the post office to receive mail. If it's not an authorized unit, you'll probably have to use a PO box.

As for utilities, this is pretty common. Figure out an average for all utilities and then split it based on square footage, number of occupants, or whatever formula you decide on. If you live alone and a family of four lived upstairs, you may split it 25% to you and 75% to them. Maybe they have a washer/dryer, dishwasher, and central A/C so you have to charge them more. Just try to figure out how to split it equally.

Many utility companies will set up "equal billing" where they determine your utility use for an entire year, divide that by 12 months, and charge you a flat rate every month. Look into that because it makes it much easier to split the bill.