UrgentHelpHow to setup a fair electricity sharing scheme in share accomodation house?

[newstar]

Dear all - my first post here, hope anybody can suggest some ideas.

I am managing my investment house by renting it out room by room. There are six rooms in the house and one person in each room.

In the past, I just charge everyone a flat rent (say, $150/week) and I will pay for all the utility bills, internet etc. It was working well in the first 3 years until since last year, my electricity bills have sky rocketed especially during winter months.

The increase in electricity cost was combination of there are three people now have mini-fridge in their own room and use of heaters in winter (which I totally understand). I am trying to ask the tenants to start sharing the electricity bills in the future however, some tenants say its not fair if they don't use a mini-fridge in their room.

How can I setup a fair system to ask everyone to share electricity bills? Normal quarter the electricity is about $350. Last winter, the power bill went up to $1300!!

Please help and thanks in advance!!

Newstar

 

[Ed Barton]

Dear all - my first post here, hope anybody can suggest some ideas.

I am managing my investment house by renting it out room by room. There are six rooms in the house and one person in each room.

In the past, I just charge everyone a flat rent (say, $150/week) and I will pay for all the utility bills, internet etc. It was working well in the first 3 years until since last year, my electricity bills have sky rocketed especially during winter months.

The increase in electricity cost was combination of there are three people now have mini-fridge in their own room and use of heaters in winter (which I totally understand). I am trying to ask the tenants to start sharing the electricity bills in the future however, some tenants say its not fair if they don't use a mini-fridge in their room.

How can I setup a fair system to ask everyone to share electricity bills? Normal quarter the electricity is about $350. Last winter, the power bill went up to $1300!!

Please help and thanks in advance!!

Newstar

i assume you are running an illegal boarding house. in which case just pay the bill (which is not much) and hope no one sues you or the building doesn't burn down. it would appear that the fridges are not the cause of the increased power consumption, but the heating. maybe install more efficient heating centrally. ensure that your tenants do not learn English, or the tenancy rules too...

 

[The Y-man]

i assume you are running an illegal boarding house. ...

Actually, if it is a boarding house in NSW, they are outsied the jurisdiction of the Resi Tenancies act by looks of it?

http://intranet.tenants.org.au/print/fs14-2010.pdf

i.e. anything goes, up to the CTTT or local courts. Any building requirements are up to local council...?

Very different to Victoria I must say...

The Y-man

 

[womble66]

just put the rent up by $5-10 per room to cover the your additional costs and you will have easily cover the total expected costs over the year. ($10x6=$60x13=$780p.q). You will be ahead in spring and autumm but it will even out over summer and winter. In this situation I see the only fair way to charge is evenly across the rooms and then you can hope that peer pressure modifies some tenants behaviour.

 

[Doovalacky]

Well you could spend a couple grand and completely rewire the house to have single pole energy meters for every room...

But central heating rather than running power hungry cheap electric heaters in every room is probably the better long term option. Bit safer as well there has been a number of fires started by electric heaters touching bedspreads or the like in bedrooms.

 

[Aaron_C]

Just charge the rent INCLUDING all the utilities. That's what I do and there's never any argument about it. Good luck with paying an electricity bill then chasing up the tenant for payment after they've left...

 

[newstar]

i assume you are running an illegal boarding house. in which case just pay the bill (which is not much) and hope no one sues you or the building doesn't burn down. it would appear that the fridges are not the cause of the increased power consumption, but the heating. maybe install more efficient heating centrally. ensure that your tenants do not learn English, or the tenancy rules too...

Thanks for the advice. I am interested that you say this is an illegal boarding house though. How do I ensure this type of share accommodation is legal in NSW? Are there any costs involved in setting up a boarding house?

 

[newstar]

Just charge the rent INCLUDING all the utilities. That's what I do and there's never any argument about it. Good luck with paying an electricity bill then chasing up the tenant for payment after they've left...

Yeah, I do agree, this is what I have been doing until the electricity bill sky rocketed in winter. Unless I enforce a sharing scheme, tenants have no incentive and have no idea how much electricity we are paying. But I agree this is going to be more work when it comes to chasing up bills from them. I think I just have to set the rules clearly with them upfront and if they don't pay what they are using, I will need to find a new tenant.

 

[newstar]

Well you could spend a couple grand and completely rewire the house to have single pole energy meters for every room...

But central heating rather than running power hungry cheap electric heaters in every room is probably the better long term option. Bit safer as well there has been a number of fires started by electric heaters touching bedspreads or the like in bedrooms.

Thanks for the advice. Does anyone know how much approximately to install central heating system in a six bedroom house? I am also waiting for the Solar Panel price to come down and consider installing that which may offset some of the electricity?