Can I still rent as two units if utilities aren't split?

[Christopher Prince-Barry]

I'm buying my first multifamily. It's in Orange NJ. It's a legal 3 family on tax records, but utilities aren't split between 2nd and 3rd floors. That includes, heat, hot water and electricity. Am I still able to rent them separately?

2nd floor is a 2/1 i'm converting to 3/1 and 3rd floor is a 1/1.

Bonus question: Would section8 count them as two units or one?

[Robert Webb]

Hey Christopher,

congrats on getting your place!!

If it is registered with the town as a legal 3 family, than there is no question that you can rent all 3 individually.

When it comes to utilities that is more tricky, you can chose to include utilities into the rental amount (which technically could help w Sec 8 since the tenant gets a percentage of their rent covered and if it has utilities includes that can take some additional burden off of the tenant). You could also try and sub meter the utilities (I know you can def do for water although you would have to do some research) or you could look into the cost of splitting utilities altogether, which if it were not too bad, I would personally make that choice.

I dont believe it should be an issue with sec8, when I filled out my form for my tenant it had a part that specifically broke down how utilities would work and who paid for what.

Hope this helps, anything else just let me know

beat of luck

Robert Webb