Water and Lawn on rental home

[Jorge Avitia]

Hello again!

In the next three months I will be moving out of my home and start renting it out. It's a 3bed 2 bath SFH in a suburb of Austin, TX

I was wondering, in the area, is the water bill included in the rent? When I lived in an apartment back in 2010 I remember the water bill was a fixed amount every month, how does that work for SFH rentals?

On that same note, who takes care of the lawn and trees? My property has a BIG backyard and four very nice trees. Is it usually the tenant? a big chunk of the water bill in the summer is the watering of the lawn and trees. 

Thanks for any help!

[Ganessan P.]

@Jorge Avitia Tenant pays all the utilities including but not limited to Water, Electricity, Gas, Internet, Garbage, Phone etc.. You can put the same in the lease clause. You can do the same for the lawn as well. However, i have seen some landlord does the Lawn maintenance by engaging their own lawn maintenance contractor, and bundle this as part of the monthly rent. This strategy would allow to keep an eye on the property through their know lawn maintenance contractor on behalf of the landlord.