Landlords

follyfoot

I am hoping to move next year and rent my current flat. as a rule of thumb do you include water rates in the rent or should all services be registered in the tenants name and they pay these in addition to rent? I am looking at charging £650/month for a 1 bed garden flat - do tenants expect to pay council tax and water rates on top of this?

movieman

Depends. The place I rent has everything included in the rent other than phone calls and DSL, and I certainly wouldn't be living there if I had to pay council tax, water, electricity etc on top.

But then I'm a cheapskate .

sooz

see what other places nearby are going for and if anything's included. i let my places excluding ALL bills, but that's the norm here.

follyfoot

so tenants expect to pay water rates, council tax, gas, electricity? I am considering letting to DSS so i assume water rates and council tax will be paid by DSS?

sparkle84

Landlords have to pay water rates tenants never pay them - water unlike other utilities is consider vital for human life!!!!!! this is why water companies are not allowed disconnect water even if the bills are not paid.

lynzpower

follyfoot wrote:

so tenants expect to pay water rates, council tax, gas, electricity? I am considering letting to DSS so i assume water rates and council tax will be paid by DSS?

not at all. The DSS doesnt pay bills for reciepients, they are paid by the claimant out of thier benefits ( eg DLA, JSA)

Debt_Free_Chick

sparkle84 wrote:

Landlords have to pay water rates tenants never pay them - water unlike other utilities is consider vital for human life!!!!!! this is why water companies are not allowed disconnect water even if the bills are not paid.

Are you sure? I thought the occupants - whether the owner, landlord or tenant could pay the water rates What's important is to ensure that the occupants are registered with each authority/utility provider.

Molanole

We rent and have tp pay for all bills, including water. It's been like that in every flat I've rented to be honest bar one. Depends what the norm is in your area though but I would expect the monthly amount to be higher if you are including all the bills in the fee you charge to your tenants.

I'm now deeply suspicious of that arrangement though as the one place I did live (a studio flat where all my bills were covered in the monthly amount I paid) was owned by the woman who lived upstairs and she controlled the heating for my flat. So in the middle of winter and it was freezing, she refused to turn up the heating. I left pretty quick because she was making a killing out of me.

NervousYetFeisty

I have *never* had water rates, let alone council tax included in my rent. Nor do the DSS pay water rates for you. Some people have an arrangement whereby their water rates are deducted at source from their income support, but it's not the norm.

itsakidsworld

The easiest option is for you to have a rent excluding all utility charges, with council tax an option as you know the cost of this.

I would never let a property to include any utility costs as you never recover the cost in the rent. If these are included then you have no control over the amount used so it is an open ended cheque book for the people renting of you.

However, you have to have a fair rent in place to begin with so that people are happy with the arrangement.

musey

sparkle84 wrote:

Landlords have to pay water rates tenants never pay them - water unlike other utilities is consider vital for human life!!!!!! this is why water companies are not allowed disconnect water even if the bills are not paid.

I'm afraid that is incorrect. I certainly don't pay the water rates on my rental properties they are the responsibility of the tenant the same as any other utility.

Water companies can (and do) disconnect supplies for non-payment of bills. I used to work for the water company in my area in the debt recovery section, part of my role was to oversee disconnections.