All Forum Posts by: Catie Fihn

Thank you again, Marcus!

We have a lease template through our apartments.com account. I hear a lot of fellow landlords getting their leases through Wisconsin Legal Blanks. Is a lease through apartments.com just as good?

Good points. I didn’t think about all of the arguments that could come from splitting. I think you’re right that building it into the rent is going to be way easier! 

Thanks, Marcus - I appreciate it!  We have already solidified the monthly rent amount with each tenant. Is it easy enough, then, for me to go back to the tenants and say that the rent will be X amount higher when we factor in the utilities, and explain how the utilities will be charged? They are already aware that they will be responsible for utilities.

Also, we are already set up in apartments.com and seem to have a pretty comprehensive lease in that system (we even had a lawyer review it). Is an apartments.com lease just as good? Or would there be more advantages to using Wisconsin Legal Blank?

Hi!  Newbie landlord in Wisconsin here.  My husband and I are currently getting tenants in for our first duplex.  The duplex currently only has 1 meter for utilities.  

How do I go about charging the tenants for their electricity and gas?  We pretty much have our tenants in place.  The upper unit will be occupied by 3 young adults, and the lower unit will be occupied by 1 adult and her 4 children.  Of note, I believe the lower unit will mostly be 1 adult and 2 of her children, and the other 2 children will only be there part-time.

Do I just keep the electricity/gas in our name and have the tenants reimburse us each month?  If so, do I just email a copy of the utilities to all tenants each month and have them split the bill 50/50 (upper tenants pay 50% of the bill and lower tenants pay 50% of the bill)?

We will likely have an additional meter installed at the property in the near future so that each unit will have its own meter, but until then, I need something concrete in their leases to identify how the utilities will be paid.  And once we have the additional meter installed, I assume I would need to send an addendum to each tenant to sign, indicating the change in utility billing?