New investor near Johnstown Pennsylvania

[Billy Blough]

New member here from Johnstown Pa. Could use a little guidance in managing utility bills for my single family rental. The water/sewage is required to be in the owners name. How do i collect payment on this? Should I have the bill sent to the rental and hope that the tenant pays it or should I simply pay it myself and add the average tothe monthly rent? Any tips would be appreciated!

[Neil Metzger]

For properties we owned we always had the bill(s) sent directly to us. In the lease we stipulated that water, sewer and garbage bills would be paid by the landlord and that the charge would be passed on to the tenant along with a convenience fee. Gas and electric were handled by the tenants directly. I would be careful about bumping the rent to include these services; tenants can get real careless with water consumption if they are essentially getting all they want for a fixed price. 

(yes, they are lien-able, and depending on the boro sometimes they are billed monthly or quarterly, sometimes one utility bills for all 3 services or different utilities bill for 1 or 2 of them or each of them)