Who should pay for thr initial cable installation?

Question

I bought a house just to rent out and have secured a renter. It just came to my attention that WiFi is set up beautifully with Ethernet, but no cable line has been ran to any rooms in the house. The cable connection is available from the basement. My tenant wants cable line ran in the living room, so the question is: do I as the owner/landlord pay the cable company for the service to install or does the tenant pay? This is something of a grey area for me because I know the house functions as a rental, but the cable installation will stay with the house and does this potentially increase the value? Please reply with opinions and suggestions for how you’ve delt with this.

Mike McCarthy · Answer

@Kristen S. I agree, around here the cable company will do simple installs for new service.

But I also make sure there’s one cable drop in the LR because frankly, I don’t trust the cable company to start drilling holes.

If it were me as the landlord, I’d pay for it. Maybe a handyman can do it cheaper/easier. But I’d expect somewhere to plug a TV in.

Kristen S. · Answer

@JD Martin yes, I’ve have other priorities to get the houses fixed up. Between tenants I’ll have a chance work more on cabling plans.

JD Martin · Answer

One of my "retired" projects is to properly wire my houses for cable and get all the crazy wires everywhere eliminated. I only have a couple that are done right.

Kristen S. · Answer

@Jason Duryea thank you for your reply.

That’s a very good point to encourage wireless in the rest of the house.

Kristen S. · Answer

@Steve Morris thanks for your reply.

Sounds like you think the cost could go to either way. I’m leaning towards paying a quality job for a first install.

Kristen S. · Answer

@Mike McCarthy thanks for your reply.

I didn’t know the cable company wouldn’t drill in the wall properly. I thought they’d be trained in that. Thanks for your tip to pay to get holes drilled with quality.

Kristen S. · Answer

@JD Martin thank you for your reply.

I suppose the initial install is more involved if it’s done right. So I should do that first install myself.

Thanks for your reminder of pulling the cables because I had another rental like that. At purchase, it had cables in a nightmare of a web with chains of connections from the basement through the first floor and dropping down from the attic. None of the cables had the proper plates installed, just bare holes in wood paneling, cabinets and through the floor.

I understand that the satellite/dish on poles are so the roof doesn’t get damaged.

Jason Duryea · Answer

@Kristen S. I’d say owner should pay to have the cable line installed to at least the living room if the cable company won’t do it for free. This should the minimum to allow for cable/ready access. A large percentage of people stream tv these days, so as long as there is a connection in the living room to connect internet/tv, then the rest of the house could likely get Internet/tv via WiFi so your running additional cable lines.

Steve Morris · Answer

Who should pay for thr initial cable installation?

Think landlord would to ensure the quality of work.  See if you can get a rent bump or one-time fee from the tenant after you've explained to him how wifi works.

I guess I can justify it by saying it'll benefit the landlord by having that connection after the tenant leaves.

JD Martin · Answer

Most of the time the cable company will do some basic installs into other rooms free of charge if it's not that involved. It does not increase the value at all - in fact, if your rentals are anything like mine, in a few years you will have cable lines running everywhere that you will be constantly unhooking and coiling when a house turns.

We prohibit tenants from having new holes drilled for cable, but they can use existing holes. Cable and satellite dish installers are the bane of my existence. We prohibit any satellite dishes attached to the house in any way, but since you can't prohibit them on the property altogether we allow them to be mounted on poles in the yard which can then be removed. Most tenants opt for cable since they get their internet that way as well.

Who should pay for thr initial cable installation?

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