Recently acquired a 3 family that runs on a single steam boiler. Instead of jacking up rents, I was looking for the possibility of billing each unit 1/3 of the monthly utility bill. (For the specific area, section 8 is my goto tenant pool, and local housing only allow $50 for having heat and hot water included)

I remember some LLs here do that.. Wonder if anyone has been challenged in the court..

I ran this idea by my eviction attorney/RE investor, he doesn't think that it will fly since you dont have sub-meters to prove usage. Methinks, write an utility addendum and tenant signs to agree pay 1/3 the gas usage.

Do you have one thermostat control, then get a locked one, set it and raise the rent to more than cover your cost of heat. If they have separate thermostats, even if they were the exact same unit, one may have it set to 64 degrees and lots of sweaters and blankets, the other has it at 78 and wearing shorts. Still not fair to split it 3 ways.

It's one system, one thermostat. I am concerned about what Vee said, therefore, looking for case law ish stuff to cover my creativity.

Worst case scenario is that a tenant could sue you for being over-charged for usage that cannot be accurately measured without separate meters. He would get a free, crafty, legal aide lawyer (paid by our taxpayer dollars) and then a stickler judge would make you pay back both tenants more than they ever could have conceivably lost in this type of shared utility arrangement.

The risk is high but the probability is low.

Ironically, my lawyer laid this out for me when I asked about it, and then he said he splits the utility bill it in one of his own properties.

I guess the gamble is worth the savings to him.

In NC, whatever is not explicitly against the law is allowed in the lease, where all can agree to it.

I don't know about HUD, but for regular people we can indeed write in the lease that utilities are split 50/50 or 33/33/33 if we want to.

The trouble comes up when you get Mr. Frugal living next to Ms. Extravagance, and every time he sees her windows open on a cold day he is going to get resentful and soon everyone starts to complain.

We get around this by installing SUB-meters off the main, and DH has to go read them monthly and then figure out the bills based on the main bill. It's kind of a pain but it's once a month and he doesn't care, it gets him over the properties, even if outside, to check them out. We've discovered interesting things that way.

We install mini-splits or through-wall heat pumps in each unit and let everyone set their own comfort, though.

I searched for precedents. It seems legal to share one meter for multiple apartments and to split the utility bill if each party is made aware, and agree to the split. The split needs to be reasonably equitable based on space and/or number of people.

The water meters are about $85, and the power meters are about $300. The main meters measure the total usage, the additional meters measure the second unit's usage.

We believe there are internet-enabled meters, but then you've got the hassle of connecting to the tenant's internet, so we go with the cheaper models that require he physically read the meters.

Actually in a pinch, if you had good cooperation from your tenants you could ask them to take a picture of the meter and send it to you on the right day.