All Inclusive Rent: Good or Bad?

redkitty_3

Hi all,

I have rented a few rooms in my house out over the past year to help with the mortgage. I'm planning to get a new lodger in (one of my friends).
My problem is that in the past I made the rent all inclusive of bills (except a phone) but one of my housemates really took the p***. She constantly invited friends round to stay (once for a whole week) and when she moved out, mum and dad decided to have long showers before leaving (despite the fact they arrived in the middle of the day - bizarre).

Anyway, should I offer an all inclusive deal or a flat rent and share bills? All inc is easier as I hate having to chase people for money, but at the same time don't want to be left out of pocket!

RKx

roses

You can do all inclusive with a cap but make sure you get this in writing.

When my lodger moved in, I gave her a contract which stated:

"bills are all inclusive up to a maximum combined gas and electric bill of £100 per month"
"electric heaters are strictly prohibited"

That way everyone is happy. You don't lose out if your lodger takes the mick and you don't have to chase for money everytime the gas/electric bill comes unless it's over the limit

redkitty_3

Great idea roses! I would never have thought of that! :cool:

Those good old electric heaters eh - my ex lodger wandered into the house with one of those too before I told her it would force the bills up. She returned it sharpish!

I'll write that clause into the contract - hopefully this will avoid any problems in future.

RKx

Sammy85_2

I was a lodger myself at college in Southampton, i paid £60pw and this included everything but the phone and food. I would have refused to live there had it been any other way as there were other people living in the house. Should a situation have arised where bills became excessive how could you prove who was running it up and taking the !!!!? Why should everyone pay for someone elses excessive use?

If you ban the use of electric heaters then it should be pretty hard to be out of pocket on utility bills. With my example of £60pw, a maximum of £20 went on utilities i would imagine. Certainly in my house now, with 2 of us and two tortoises - who have a huge electricity gobbling heat lamp - we dont manage to spend more than £100pm on bills.

pinkshoes

You could take an average of what bills would be over the year (including winter and summer peaks/dips), then add a bit more on the assumption that the person would be a heavy user of elec/gas/water, and turn that into a fixed monthly amount.

Paying a fixed monthly amount is ideal for those who aren't great at organising their finances (i.e. putting aside money for bills), so in theory you could charge a premium for this fixed charge. A bit like the way a credit card charges an interest rate for allowing people to pay monthly instead of paying off the entire card in one go.

You could ban all heaters due to fire risk!

roses

Unfortunately it's not just electric heaters which cause high bills. My last lodger used to set the central heating timer to come on at 5pm & to go off at 1am when she went to bed. She would come home at 6pm, change her clothes, then go out for 4 hours to her yoga class then her boyfriends house. This was every night, not once every few days. She was also constantly turning the thermostat up to the max 32'C.

You are right, some lodgers don't like having to pay more. Some lodgers are like you where they are sensible with their usage but there are other lodgers like redkitty and I have experienced so we have got to protect ourselves too as we also hate paying excessive bills due to others!