All Forum Posts by: Catie Fihn

Thank you, Alecia!  And good luck on your own situation.

We inherited tenants in a duplex we bought several months ago.  They have been very good tenants and we have no complaints.  Our only concern is that they smoke in their downstairs unit of the property.  We just finished rehabbing the upper unit and are now looking for renters for the upper.  With the lower tenants smoking downstairs, and the smell of their smoke wafting into the upstairs, we are concerned that smoke smell will turn some potential renters away.

I know we need to honor the lease that the tenants were under before we bought the property.  Their lease does not have a no-smoking policy.  Are we able to tell them that they can't smoke in the house?

Tenant said he has already tried that.  And a noise machine.  Thanks, though!

We own a duplex, occupied by a single guy in the top unit and a single girl with her 3 kids in the lower unit. They both moved in last November. Everything has been fine until the last week, when the upstairs tenant started complaining about the noise the downstairs tenant's kids have been making late at night. The upstairs tenant said that he can hear the downstairs kids running around at all hours of the night (12:30/1:00am).

He brought it to our attention once and we then addressed it with the lower tenant. She said she will try her hardest to keep the noise down, but it may be a challenge given that her youngest is autistic and nonverbal. The autistic child apparently is the one creating the most noise.

A few days later, the noise persisted and the upstairs tenant came down and knocked on her door at 1:00 in the morning to confront her on the noise. We got a different story about how that conversation went from each of the tenants, but the message out of it was that the lower tenant was not doing what she needs to be doing to keep her kids quiet. The upstairs tenant gets very mad about this, and I can understand that, as he works first shift, 12-hour days, and is being woken up in the middle of the night by the noise. The downstairs tenant feels there is only so much she can do to keep her autistic child quiet, and she states it is impossible to do so.

The downstairs tenant made a deal with her ex-husband that he would take the autistic child 3-4 nights per week to stay over by him, so there won't be any noise issues on our property (the tenant's older kids can keep quiet...it's just the autistic child that is creating the noise). But that still leaves the autistic child staying on our property 3-4 nights per week.

Last night, I guess there was yet another noise issue. My husband got a text at 1:00am this morning from the upstairs tenant, saying those kids are still running around, banging things around, making noise. After hearing from our tenant again overnight last night, we will need to address this again with the downstairs tenant. I feel badly for her, as she is a single mom, she is scared of the upstairs tenant (not that he has been threatening or anything, but she is living there without a partner and knows that the upstairs tenant is not happy with her, and told us she was a bit shaken up after that confrontation last week).

Our lease does include that tenants must observe quiet time between 10pm-8am.  I am not certain why her 5 year old autistic child is awake at 1:00 in the morning. She needs to do something to keep the noise down, or I feel we will need to take more aggressive action (or the upstairs neighbor will keep complaining, and this situation will never end).

Any thoughts on what our next move should be?

Thanks, @Rebecca Knox!

I did put it in the lease that he is responsible for payment of all utilities.  He is aware and has a copy of his lease.  I'm just calling out the exact percentage of the gas bill he is responsible for with this addendum.  

Hi!  We have a duplex that is now fully rented.  Upper tenant moved in this weekend, and his lease officially starts tomorrow (11/1).  Lower tenant moves in 11/15.

Both tenants have been made aware that they are responsible for all of their own utilities.  The way our gas is set up, we owners will receive the bill and back-bill the tenants for their shares, which both tenants were very agreeable to.  

As lower tenant has more gas utilities and more people living in her unit than the upper tenant does, the lower tenant is aware she will pay 60% of the gas bill, and has signed an addendum verifying this.

I have not yet had the upper tenant sign an addendum verifying he will pay 40% of the gas bill.  Can I have the upper tenant sign this addendum after his lease has started?  That's really all I'm asking.  Again, he knows he's responsible for all of his utilities, but I'd like to put it in writing that he will owe 40% of the gas, just so he is clear on how his portion of the bill will be calculated.  Can you have a tenant sign such an addendum after the lease has started?

Good idea about the water.  I haven't asked the gas company what typical bills have been, but I certainly can.  The place was vacant for quite some time before we bought it, so I'm not sure how far back they can go.  Thanks!

Hello!  We just bought a duplex, which has separate meters for electricity.  That's easy enough for the tenants to put their bills in their own names.  But the gas and water need to stay in our name as landlords (per the water and gas companies), and we will bill those amounts back to the tenants.

We have 1 single man who has 1 child who will live with him 1/2 time in the upper level, and we have 1 single woman who has 3 children who will live with her 1/2 time in the lower level.

I don't know if this makes it easier or more complicated, but our upper level may not have any gas services at all (husband is going to the property tomorrow to see if upper water heater is gas or electric, and whether washer/dryer in each unit are gas or electric). Upper level stove is electric and upper level heat is electric. So if anything at all, our upper level tenant would only have gas water heating, and gas washer/dryer.

Lower level has electric stove, gas heat, and we are also checking the water heater and washer/dryer for gas vs electric. How on earth would I split up the gas bill?!?

Water needs to stay under our name, so I can split that 50/50.  But in doing this, do I factor in the upper unit will have 2 tenants (1 adult, 1 child) and the lower unit will have 4 tenants (1 adult, 3 children)?  I don't want to drive myself nuts on this (I think I already have, lol) but I do want to be fair to my tenants and charge them their appropriate amounts.

Here's another question about this!  We now know that our duplex has separate meters for electricity, but the gas and water need to stay in our name as landlords (per the water and gas companies), and we bill those amounts back to the tenants.

We have 1 single man who has 1 child who will live with him 1/2 time in the upper level, and we have 1 single woman who has 3 children will will live with her 1/2 time in the lower level.  

I don't know if this makes it easier or more complicated, but our upper level may not have any gas services at all (husband is going to the property tomorrow to see if water heater is gas or electric).  Upper level stove is electric and upper level heat is electric.  So if anything at all, our upper level tenant would only have gas water heating, and no other gas.  

Lower level has electric stove, gas heat, and we are also checking the water heater for gas vs electric.  How on earth would I split up the gas bill?!?  

Water needs to stay under our name, so I can do historical averages and come up with a flat fee for each tenant, unless anyone has a better idea.  But in doing this, do I factor in the upper unit will have 2 tenants (1 adult, 1 child) and the lower unit will have 4 tenants (1 adult, 3 children)?