How do you handle your college rental bills?

Question

Hello everyone! I was just curious how some of you with college rentals (with multiple people in one unit) take care of some of the major bills like gas, electric, etc. do you charge a set price for rent with the utilities included? Or make the tenants pay them and just split them?

I currently have people paying a set price and I pay bills from that, but I’m curious how many people do it the opposite and how well it works for them.

Max T. · Answer

One of the tenants should enroll with the utility prior to moving in. Then the tenants can handle how they want to split it up amongst themselves.

Ron H. · Answer

When I did student rentals I included an electric allowance amount. This was to keep from them setting Ac on 65 during the summer.   Usually going over even $2 and having them pay this overage had an affect on their behavior.

Account Closed · Answer

@Aaron Caminati Yes we just swapped names. It actually worked out all the time!

Account Closed · Answer

@Aaron Caminati I don't have college rentals but I rented while in college for some time. My 1 rental had a very high rent per room and it included every utility even cable, internet, and was furnished. That landlord was doing awesome! My other rental, they had us responsible for the utilities and we had to figure it out amongst ourselves. So usually we put one person in charge of keeping track of the bills and they would charge us through venmo every month for our portion (split evenly). Both ways worked for every student I know.

Ralph Poirier · Answer

@Aaron Caminati they are paying more because they are all signing a lease. They are also paying more because I have premium rentals.

Aaron Caminati · Answer

Thank you everyone for the responses! I’m currently living in the house that I’m renting out to people, and I’m getting fair prices for the rooms, but I’m including everything and can’t help but think I’m losing money on some utilities on the higher months because everything is included.

Aaron Caminati · Answer

@Suny Capezzuto how did you go about it if the person who’s name was on the bill

moved out and then the next person did the same? Did you just end up swapping names on that bill?

Aaron Caminati · Answer

@Ralph Poirier are they paying more because you’re charging per room the “same” (equaling) amount as you would rent the whole unit for? On top of the utilities?

Aaron Caminati · Answer

@Calvin Ozanick that’s something I’ve always thought of, my main question/concern about that is the possible turnover rate of the students. Do you just make them swap it from one person to another to another?

Calvin Ozanick · Answer

We always had the tenants put them in their name. With college properties, I want to handle as few bills as possible because the reliability is always a little bit lower.

How do you handle your college rental bills?

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