Renting out rooms - who pays the bills?

Conrad

Hello

I'm just buying a property to let out as rooms. This is after comparing various property investments for months. The one area I'm not quite sure on is the matter of paying utility bills.

I notice other landlords in the area seem to advertise as 'bills paid'.

I'm concerned the bills could go sky high.

Is it really true landlords just pay the bills even if the tenants leave lights and heating on day and night?

I'd prefer to install key metres for each tenant but cannot see how that would work if there is one gas central heating system for example.

Any information gratefully received.

HappyMJ

Landlord pays the bills charging enough to cover the bills and the rent. Landlord ensures that light are low energy. Landlord ensures that there are room thermostats in each room and they can not be set higher than 20 degrees during the day and sets those thermostats to 16 degrees overnight and those thermostats cannot be tampered with. That'll reduce the bills. It's highly unlikely the bills will exceed £200 a month so if you have a 4 bedroom house just charge each person (assuming each room is let to a single tenant) an extra £50 per month on top of whatever rent you were going to charge. If the bills end up being lower then offer a rebate to encourage the tenants to use less.

Herbalus

If you're renting out the rooms then you'd have a real headache trying to make each person pay for what they use, for exactly the reason that you describe. How could you tell which person was having a bath for example?

Paying the bills yourself is the simplest and probably only manageable way of doing it. Throw £10-15 per person per week on top of the rent and that should cover it. You charge more than you would pay for utilities yourself precisely because they don't have to care about cost.

I set up utilities last week for my 1-bed flat (2 people), and the utility companies' estimates for our direct debit are £60/month, which is £7.50 per person per week.

G_M

LL pays utilities and council tax.

And costs of complying with HMO requirements.

Dunroamin

I'd never let out a property with bills included again. We had a house that we let out to students and included the gas and had to face phenomenal bills. It never occurred to us that there are people who have the gas ch on all day and at times of the year when it's quite mild. Lesson learned too late.

G_M

Dunroamin wrote: »

I'd never let out a property with bills included again. We had a house that we let out to students and included the gas and had to face phenomenal bills. It never occurred to us that there are people who have the gas ch on all day and at times of the year when it's quite mild. Lesson learned too late.

But I'm guess you were letting to a group of students on a single 'joint & several'?

Where it is easy to make themresponsible for utilities.

In an HMO which seems tobe the case here, it is much harder, though I guess you couldput meters in each room for electric.

And use electric radiators for heat.

But what if there are communal areas - kitchen? who pays? Shared bathroom/hot water?

dimbo61

Including bills depends on the type of tenant you are looking for.
With larger groups say 5/6/8/10 students you would struggle to find one to take on the gas bills and get payment from the rest !
We charge £20 per student extra for all inclusive with gas/electric/water/super fast broadband/TV licence covered.
We have a cap of say £2000/£2500/£3000 depending on the size of the property.
You read the meters when they more in and keep them up dated of how much they have used so far.
We always fit new combi boilers, cavity wall insulation , loft insulation, modern A rated double glazing , energy saving lighting etc to keep the bills down.

Brallaqueen

In my experience landlords offering all bills included have a limit set out in the contract (i. e up to 200 per month). Anything over this is billed to the tenants/taken from deposit . This was student accommodation though and not sure how effective the clause would be in court

Conrad

Thanks for the replies.

I am going to try and get the GCH removed so there's just leccy, water and council tax to pay, + broadband and possibly a tv license.

This won't be students, it's for ordinary workers that want minimal outgoings in the form of a well presented room, fully furnished. Bit like a long term hotel I guess, yikes.

2 mates of mine do this so I will be talking with them.

IronWolf

I wouldn't give them electric heaters, thats just asking for astronomical electricity bills. Probably better sticking with gas.

00ec25

Conrad wrote: »

possibly a tv license.

unless I misread it you will be letting these rooms individually with individual TA, not a joint and several TA?
therefore each tenant will need their own TV licences, one each,
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your-home/tenants-and-lodgers-aud2/

of course you could always do what lots of LL do and work on the basis the detector van can't detect diddly squat and the terror letters from the licensing authority have a special file along with a lot of other stuff

removing the GCH would save you the costs of the annual safety inspection but you need to take a punt as to how much the electricity will cost when the heaters are on 24/7 in place of a gas boiler