Mother in law apartment in my home

[Karlie Harmon]

Hello everyone!

I have purchased my first home and rental property which is a single family home with a mother-in-law apartment in the basement.  My husband and I occupy the top unit which has 4 bed 2 bath and the mother in law unit is 1 bed 1 bath with laundry and kitchen. It has a separate entrance as well.

The dilemma I have is how to treat the utilities. The home does not have separate meters for gas/water/electric and all the ducting is connected to the same furnace and A/C... the thermostat for the air conditioning and heater is in our unit.  What were were planning on is stating in the lease how the AC and heat would be programmed automatically.

There is a gas "wood stove" to help heat the basement unit that the tenant would have exclusive control over. It does a really good job heating the place but definitely could get really expensive if a tenant was not concerned with conserving.

It is a fairly old home and we have done a lot of repairs and updates on it. We are ready to rent it out starting in November. 

Would you guys mind giving me your advice as to how I should go about charging the utilities for the basement unit? Should I average a flat fee and add that to the rent advertising (utilities included) or should I charge a flat fee additional to the rent? Or should I come up with a system on how the utilities will be divided every month so that the tenant is more mindful of usage? 

I appreciate your feedback. We are definitely beginners!!