by Mary Anne Ragragio
Posted on 2019-06-17 14:20:42
Handling Utilities at your Apartment
As a landlord, you have a big responsibility of handling your rental property; utilities could be one of them. Property owners or investors normally pay close attention to utility bills. It could be difficult to decide whether utilities have to be included as part of the rent. Here, we will share several factors to consider before making a big decision.
There are not so many regulations about utilities in the Landlord-Tenant Act, so it would be better to take safety precautions regarding utilities in case of any problem that might happen in the future. Landlord-tenant law differs depending on the state. You may try searching for your state for the complete information regarding the handling of utilities.
The common utilities that some apartment offers include any of the following: electric, water, gas, heat, cable connection, internet, security or alarm system, and garbage or trash removal. Some landlords take the responsibility of paying some of the utility bills; some include the utilities as part of the rent. And some landlords offer internet and cable as part of the amenities. There are landlords who offer an all-inclusive lease. But remember that there is a possibility that the more utility that apartment included in the rent, the higher the rent could be.
Requiring tenants to get utilities in their own names, is one of what some landlords do. It helps landlord life easier because they don't have to bill their tenants or collect payments. This technique helps tenants to be more responsible since it is under their names.
There are some landlords that compute the total utility cost and divide it among the number of tenants, but this kind of decision is unfair to some tenants who don’t use too much of the utilities.
It is not a surprise that when a landlord or property manager include utilities in the rent, tenants don't use utilities when it is not necessary because they know that they are responsible for each time of usage. It appears that it will help lessen the apartment expenses if the landlord or property manager makes their tenants responsible for the utility bills.
Many tenants are very responsible in a lot of ways, but not all of them. The tendency of not giving the tenant the responsibility of paying the rent is they will not care about wasting them. Obviously, because they are not the one who pays for the utility bills. Some of them will just leave the electric, water, heater or air-condition running even when not in use. The landlord might lose money; in this case, then it would be a great idea to include the utilities as part of the rent.
And so it is important that you do a lot of research first in order to determine exactly how much you can add to your rent regarding utilities each month in case you decide to include utilities as part of the rent.
The important thing to remember is whatever utilities that are included must be written in the lease agreement.
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