Separating utilities on a SFH

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I have a SFH that I am planning on renting out to two separate tenants. The upstairs and downstairs of the house are completely separate with separate entrances. However, since it is a SFH all of the utilities are currently combined. I am planning on renovating the downstairs but am wondering if I can split the utilities if the neighborhood is not zoned for multi family? Or would you suggest to have the utilities be included as a part of the rent and just charge a flat monthly fee that includes rent and utilities.? TIA.

[Colleen F.]

No, you can't split them through metering, they probably won't install another meter. Its not a simple as the floors are separate, the electric/ HVAC has to be separately routed and that can get expensive. You have a couple options depending on what you have going on.  You can split utilities 50/50.  You can include them in the rent. You can split them by number of people (this is probably more fair for electric), heat is probably equal if you have equal space.  If you split them by space/people it is called Ratio Utility Billing (RUBS). search that for some insight on how to do it.  You can try submetering.  Do you know you can't convert to 2 units based on your local zoning?  If so  you often can't do the second kitchen.