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[brownbag]

I noticed that on a local rental site for flatmates, most rooms are rented out with bills included.  I’m considering renting my place out to students (I live near a uni) and I’m wondering how other landlords have done this and if you’ve had issues with tenants using too much electricity or gas.

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[Jimmy-T]

I think you may be confusing ads for flatmates with ads for tenants.  The Flatmates rate would have included an averaged-out gas and electricity bill.  Long-term tenants would be expected to make their own arrangements with the energy providers or, in say the sub-let of a granny flat – pay according to a separate meter for their accommodation.

If you are renting rooms to students while you are still there, then that’s a different matter and you could ask them to pay the difference between the bills before and after their arrival, at least until you had worked out a reasonable cost.

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[brownbag]

@JimmyT said:
I think you may be confusing ads for flatmates with ads for tenants.  The Flatmates rate would have included an averaged-out gas and electricity bill.  Long-term tenants would be expected to make their own arrangements with the energy providers or, in say the sub-let of a granny flat – pay according to a separate meter for their accommodation.

If you are renting rooms to students while you are still there, then that’s a different matter and you could ask them to pay the difference between the bills before and after their arrival, at least until you had worked out a reasonable cost.  

Thanks Jimmy.  I’m actually looking at flatmates.com.au and they seem to be renting rooms to students (long term) at a weekly rate with bills included.  Yes, most are ads for flatmates, but they still say bills included.  In these situations, who pays the bills and how do they work them out?

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[Jimmy-T]

@brownbag said:
Yes, most are ads for flatmates, but they still say bills included.  In these situations, who pays the bills and how do they work them out?  

The head tenant or owner-occupier would pay the bills. The rent would include a guesstimate of the amount that they expected to pay for utilities. If they are on the premises, they can monitor excessive use.

If you are looking to rent rooms in your flat to different individuals, and you will be there, then that’s what you should do.  If you are nervous about this, let the unit to someone as a whole and let them worry about the bills.

There is no simple formula for this, although the rents you are seeing on flatmate.com.au would be a reasonable guide.

If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.

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[brownbag]

@JimmyT said:

The head tenant or owner-occupier would pay the bills. The rent would include a guesstimate of the amount that they expected to pay for utilities. If they are on the premises, they can monitor excessive use.

If you are looking to rent rooms in your flat to different individuals, and you will be there, then that’s what you should do.  If you are nervous about this, let the unit to someone as a whole and let them worry about the bills.

There is no simple formula for this, although the rents you are seeing on flatmate.com.au would be a reasonable guide.  

Thanks for that.

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