All Forum Posts by: Daria B.

In researching market rents in the area, I've come across few posts about utilities in the city. One of my concerns is the water bill. The numbers work if the tenant pays water, otherwise the property won't be an option for me. What I've gathered so far from other posts on BP is the following:

-Property owners are ultimately responsible for ensuring the water bills are paid

-A tenant who is in default of the water bill for >90 days can result in a lien being placed on the property and unless stated explicitly in the lease, they cannot be evicted for nonpayment

-These consequences don't apply to sewer, gas, and electric bills

For landlords and property managers, I have a few questions:

1.How are you ensuring tenant compliance with water bills in multifamily homes, aside from proper screening? Can water and the other utilities be separately metered?

2. If you pass this responsibility to the tenant, do you "inflate" the rent cost and pay water bill yourself or stipulate water as a deliverable with rent each month and nonpayment as a condition for eviction? Given that Baltimore City water bills are increasing each year, it seems fairly easy to list above market rates for rent.

Thanks,

Keenan

The water bill can become rent, and I have it in the lease that way.

I've done it several ways, depending on the tenant, but none of mine are multi-family.

1) Tenant pays the bill directly, but it remains in my name. I just give them a copy to pay from.

2) I pay and the tenant reimburses me. The water bill never leaves the landlord's name anyway, so this is the most common method.

3) The rent is increased and water is included. But the problem with that is that they have no incentive to keep the water usage down and you can get some crazy water bills sometimes.

Hope that helps.

I opted for #1, keep the bill in my name only and don’t add on tenants and forward the bill to them. The lease already has they are responsible for all utilities.

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Originally posted by @Keenan Rusk:

@Daria B. I took J.T. 's suggestion and added my tenants' names to the water account. I just had to email DPW and they receive the bill in the mail. I have an online account and et up alerts when the bill goes unpaid or when the water consumption deviates significantly from average use. This really came in handy when it came time to repair a toilet valve leak and request a billing adjustment. They have been pretty reliable tenants, so I haven't had any issues so far.

Thank you for your input. When I posted this I was trying to get ahead of the looming issue. Paying water directly is new to the community as it was previously handled by the HOA.

I found out from another investor in the same community how he is handling his tenants. He has the bill come to him and has a lease clause letting the tenant know they are responsible for water and forwards to them for recoupment. No different than electric utility. This is the county and there is no online access at the moment. We have to rely on a bill for usage.

Having the tenants name added is just too cumbersome and I found out ultimately as the owner I am responsible because they will not allow a tenant water account. I would have to email every turnover, that takes 15 days to process, to have names switched. Last tenants stayed just one year and unfortunately I don’t know if the next will be a year or more. Unlike BGE, the electric is in the tenants own account.

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Originally posted by @Alex Olson:

@Daria B. Is it seperately metered? If so, yes they pay water. If not, you can bill back a portion of the water or all of the water. I would take the average for the year and divide it by rooms or people or unit. Then, add that as part of their lease amount that they pay XXXXX amount in water per month. Be reasonable though. No one likes a bad landlord!

It is a single home and yes it is metered. They have the whole house.

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Baltimore, Maryland

Originally posted by @J.T. Littlejohn:

@Keenan Rusk Baltimore City Water allows (and actually encourages) that you add the tenants name using the "in care of" titling feature to the water bill account. This has helped me tremendously by giving the tenant some skin in the game even though it is for the most part only in theory. You will still have liability for the bill getting paid but it does have an "ownership" effect on the tenant. You can have the bill mailed directly to the property while you monitor the bill online.

This post is 2yr old but I wanted to know how this has worked for you.

I recently am now faced with adding tenants to my account that was otherwise taken care of by the HOA.

This is going to be a nightmare I can see that already. Calling each time there is tenant turnover and monitoring if they paid the bill since the onus is on me and can affect my credit (ie collections if they don’t pay affects my credit).

They really should have a better process than this. BGE at least has separate tenant accounts and it reverts to my account when vacant.

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Before I call the water department I would like to hear from other investors who have their tenants paying the water bill.

Currently, I have the tenants paying BGE (electric on their own account) that has a revert account process so when they leave it reverts back to me and my account.

How does water work, do they have something similar?

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Baltimore, Maryland

@Jerryll Noorden I agree. And the people being harassed by this mailing have no recourse in this day and age. Too many agencies say they give protection against it but do little if nothing to stop it. I understand that doing a mailing in the interest of possibly acquiring property but to harass people over it is ridiculous. More over the money they waste as well.

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@Jerryll Noorden interesting. Too bad those that continue to mail to the same people they pissed off won't stop mailing them. Waste of postage if you ask me to continue mailing to people who are not interested.

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Originally posted by @Mike H.:

Anyone have a handyman they can recommend? Thanks !

I can ask the guy I have used over the past 5 years.

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Originally posted by @Allen C Herring:

@Daria B. Hello. What was the LTV on the rental HELCO

It was 80% and we did it on my primary because they did not have full banking presence in the city my rental is in, which still worked out. Had they been set up for full banking I would definitely have gone with rental.

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Originally posted by @Ilya Z.:

Originally posted by @Daria B.:

I know you said no to Lowe’s/Home Depot but.....

Lowe’s Quote Support Program or Home Depot also has a contractor program. With Lowe’s you don’t need to be a contractor to get their quote. I have no idea about HD.

I went through this not too long ago with my rental I was rehabbing. Feb-2019 to be exact. I was buying all new stainless appliances that although a rental, could also serve as good quality for a flip (same mid-grade).

I did a lot of searching and found I kept coming back to looking at the local Lowe’s/Home Depot and ultimately choosing Lowe’s for their QSP price I could not have gotten a better deal. I started in Nov2018 in search of local and online vendors/deals.

Buying at a holiday time was also a benefit on top of the Lowe’s QSP pricing (anything over $1500) they gave me a very good discount. I had planned on using the 10% military discount but the QSP was far better. I ended up get the appliance and all other materials like light fixtures, bath fixtures, toilets, and other odds and ends at Lowe’s.

Another reason I am glad I chose local was the return policy and quickness of getting a replacement addressed in less time than the online vendors who either required the return in hand before shipping out another, or, still having to wait another week for the replacement. With Lowe’s and the items I purchased they were all in the area and had several stores to get inventory from.

Other people in the area speak of auction places and other local-local appliance stores only in that area. I was never successful at finding any of them.

Never heard of QSP so thanks for the pointer! When I searched for it on their website, I only found lowesforpros.com and the prices there were not any lower than regular, but I'll visit the local Lowe's and talk to them. I have way more HDs in my areas than Lowe's but I have gotten better deals from them in the past so it's worth a try. Also, it;s a great idea to include other stuff like lights for a possibly better incentive.

You really need to talk to the people at the pro desk. I thought the same that it was just for contractors but it’s not. I bought all of my material (eg 3 toilets, faucets for 3.5 baths, all lighting fixtures for baths, kitchen and dining and more including the appliances) after finding out about the program.

I dealt with the Glen Burnie location over the phone and then had them deliver on a specified date.

The Catonsville location was horrible to deal with. None of the employees knew where anything was and it was hard to find help. Anyway, Glen Burnie and the other locations were good.

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All Forum Posts by: Daria B.

Daria B. has started 148 posts and replied 1901 times.

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Post: Baltimore City - Water Bill

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