I rent out rooms in a house.the housemates pay rent and share there own bills 3 ways?

Question

I usualy advertise and show new people,but im tired of them complaining if they dont like the new person.I have said that when a room is being vacated that they are wellcome to advertise on the net or whereever and find someone they like but they dont.
someone is leaving next wk and i havnt had much response on my ad so the room may be emty for a bit. what im worried about is when the bills need to be payed and they may have to pay between 2 people rather than 3 for a while. I dont want the blame or the expense as they may look to me to chip in. what are your thoughts as a renter or landlord?

there are 3 rooms,i dont live there.

mmm some slightly aggressive and possibly biased answers here obviously from the tenants side. jealousy stinks by the way.

Answer 1

i wouldent be a landlord for anything

Answer 2

patty, for starters the tenants all know the risks of renting and its related expenses at the time of renting, but they never think of the vacanvies at that time of move-in.
remember that they only split the costs of utilities that are the base figures of that utility...when one is vacant, the empty room does not use any services other than the base figure you are charged as if there were never any use at all. If the utility didn't receive like 2.00 base fee when not in use, they could not afford to leave your utility on during a vacancy.
Therfore, I'm sure your utilitys are always more than 2.00.
so when you have 3 tenants your bill might be 30 bucks, but when one leaves your billings may be 22 bucks and therefore the only split that is considered is the 2.00 of the billings, not the twenty.
This is not the tenants first county fair, they were either roomies in a dorm or had roommates in the past in other homes & apts.
Don't be taken by the intentional stupidness of the tenant when the others leave, they are not thinging of the non-use of the one that left, they are not thinking at all...its the base figure thats the issue.
check with your utility company for there base fee if in fact there were no use of utility during a 30 day period and then you will be armed with the reply to the question that is asked by the ignorant ones that are beefing the most.

Note: once you supercede the basic costs its all absorbed into the monthly uses.

e.g. if there is no tenant in a room...there is no use in addition to the other two tenants.

Answer 3

For all intents and purposes you're running a rooming house. When a room is vacant, YOU, as the landlord, must eat the excess costs yourself. This isn't your tenants' problem, it's YOUR problem.

As a practical matter you should charge a flat rent inclusive of utilities. This way the tenants won't be subject to the vagaries of occupancy and you can manage the property more easily as you won't have to prepare monthly bills for the utilities for your tenants. Once a year, review the utility use and adjust the rents as needed to keep your cash flow steady.

Answer 4

so you own the house
but you rent out 3 of the 4 rooms in the house
and now it will be 2 people renting, and 1 empty room
basically you are stuck with the empty room
your utility bill should drop accordingly
but any other fixed utility ( trash ) should be split 4 ways, with you taking up 2/4th or 1/2 of the bill
the electricity / water / gas should drop down and that should be split 3 ways since the 4th person is not a factor

Answer 5

Hi,
The easiest way to resolve the problem is to rent the property by the house and not by the room. This way each person is responsible for the total cost of the property, and it would be split accordingly. This way they are responsible for the renting of an available room, and it will remove you from the picture as long as the person passes the application/screening.

Answer 6

interenting... but if I were renting out a room and suddenly was told I needed to pay more bc you didnt get a renter... I would not like it. As far as them all liking each other, well if the newbee mets YOUR requirements then that should be enough. The difference should fall on you not them.