Best way for a landlord to manage utility bills in multi occupancy household

[Leonida Miraglia]

Hi everybody,

I know the topic is trite and got innumerable discussions over time, but I still find little to address this specific scenario.

I am about to rent out a house for the first time, 4 separate single rooms, 4 separate tenants unrelated to each other.

I can totally see the convenience of letting (say) a family take over all the bills for the property, but how could that work with 4 separate tenants?

Even if you ask everybody to take one bill each, so as to keep things as balanced as possible, would you ask one to take over the Garbage coming out of their bank account, and another one to take the Electricity? (far from balanced).

And what happens if one stops paying?

As a landlord I would face a problem anyway in this case, but if this becomes a burden on the other tenants, too, wouldn't this push away the good tenants?

Nevermind the bureaucracy that this would entail with each tenant moving in/out.

As much as I try to think about this I cannot find a solution that could prove more convenient than keeping all the bills under my name and requesting payment when they are due (with all the other downsides that I am aware of).

To all the experienced landlords out there, any advice on this would be very much appreciated!

Thank you,

Leonida

[Colleen F.]

@Leonida Miraglia   Then what @Kevin Sobilo gave you  for options is it.  I do recommend a cap and you can also have thermostats with upper and lower limits so one person can't set it to 80,  put those limits in the lease.  You need to check local laws because there are some nuances on controling thermostats and utility billing depending on the state. In places where I provide utilities I must provide within the temperature range the state requires but I don't need to let tenants control the thermostat whereas if they pay utilities they must have control.  And when I set a cap it is generous and I don't sweat the small stuff. If the tenants owes $3 I don't bill it.  Its when its $400 and its normally $80 you want to protect yourself.