New tennants coming soon...A few things need doing. How would you do it?

[Mike8t1]

Hey all
I have my tennant leaving soon and i will have to do a few little jobs to get the place up to standard. I would love to know how your ideas would differ to mine for the following.
1) Garage splitting: My IP has a house and granny flat on it. The garage has contact with both yards but the GF has no storage area. I was thinking about taking the last 3m of the garage, putting up a gyprocked stud wall and an extra door to allow both seperate sides access to their own storage space. Any other options
2) Both dwellings are seperated by colorbond fencing, but part of the fence is lower and allows the back door and windows of the house to see the GF door and windows partially. I was going to add those 30cm extensions to the fence but was hoping for a cheaper option. In this case i was thinking either painted lattice or a basic timber frame with that rustic looking babmoo type stuff to fill the space. What do you think?
Any info would be appreciated
Thank you
Michael

 

[Propertunity]

I agree with both your ideas. Although 3m for GF storage is probably more than you really need. 1.5 m max depth for a GF if it is a roller door width would be fine IMO.

 

[battler]

I was thinking about taking the last 3m of the garage, putting up a gyprocked stud wall and an extra door to allow both seperate sides access to their own storage space.l

As Prop said 1.5m is probably enough, you still need enough room for maybe a large car.

 

[Mike8t1]

thanks for the feed back guys, much appreciated.
Michael

 

[ritchie77]

Electricity bills

Mike

Just curious re the utilities on an ip where it i multi unit... How do you go about splitting the bills if you onlyget 1 electricity bill? Can you charge the main tennant and apportion part of it (say 20%) to the granny flat?

Thanks for any update!

Ritchie

 

[marg4000]

You would have to have separate meters if you wish to charge your tenants for electricity. Otherwise there would be no fair way to say what amount of electricity each is using.

You would have to connect to the electricity in your name. If it was in one tenant's name and he/she left, the other tenant would have the electricity cut off.

Maybe increase the rent and include electricity?
Marg

 

[ritchie77]

Can I do the 1 meter and charge the main tennant with an amount of say 20% paid to the tennant on the rear for their usage?

I could either put this in my name (landlord) or request tennant pay for it and I will organise re-imbusement....

 

[units4me]

You could wind up with a tenant in the GF who uses more electricity than the main house. Without seperate metering, probably the only way is to include electricity in the overall rental, and pay the power bills yourself.

 

[Andrew_A]

We have recently used some of the folding timber lattices from Bunnings, makes for a pretty good privacy screen, add some quickly growing vines for an even better result.

 

[ritchie77]

Thanks Unit4me

I may go with this option however is it accepted paractise with the ATO? ie I thought if you rent property out tennants must have electricity bills in their name... Is this so?

If not, it could work but may be a bit of hassle....

Thanks

 

[The Y-man]

Thanks Unit4me

I may go with this option however is it accepted paractise with the ATO? ie I thought if you rent property out tennants must have electricity bills in their name... Is this so?

If not, it could work but may be a bit of hassle....

Thanks

In Victoria, if there are multiple tenants and only one meter, I believe it is ILLEGAL to charge the utilities to the tenants. This goes for a single water meter feeding an entire block of apartments.

Cheers,

The Y-man