Hi, With the increase in electriicty and no way to easily control electric usage, Have you any thoughts and how not to loose money on rent.
e,g,
- Put rent up an estimated preportion, best guess so far
- Change individual agreements to joint agreement, expecting some tenants to leave as they will not want responsibility
- Put in wifi controlled unit and offer them x kwh per month. This would be senseible but not sure how to handle this.
- Show them the yearly bill for last year and tell them if they exceed they will need make a payment.
What are your ideas. How would you implement your preferred choice?
James
Firstly, the tenants dont have to agree to any of these changes so your only option would be to serve notice on them if you want to enforce change.
I wouldnt recommend a joint tenancy with 4 strangers. They will not want the liability as you say, but it also means a lot of admin when anyone wants to leave and probably a whole new tenancy agreement.
There are devices you can fit to monitor the usage and temperature remotely, (assuming youre paying for the wifi). You can even control it remotely but that can be construed as harassment and interfereing with their quiet enjoyment. I would suggest you just use the readings to cajole the tenants into behaving reasonably and not having the heating up too high.
Included energy caps in the contract might help as a deterrent, but they are likely to be unenforceable when you cant disprove their claim that one person is responsible for the excessive usage.