With the winter almost entirely behind us (fingers crossed) as we move into the latter stage of February many people may be tightening their belts for the next few months after receiving very high energy bills as a result of the very cold, and rather arctic, weather we have had over the past couple of months.
However, it’s still not that warm and so heating will have to be a necessity in many cases in order to keep warm and comfortable.
Bill Paying
Furthermore, if you’re a landlord that usually covers the cost of your tenants’ energy bills then you could be in for a bit of a surprise upon receiving the bill.
Many landlords however do leave their tenants to take care of the energy bills themselves. This can be simpler a lot of the time as the tenants are then left to their own devices in order to budget correctly to cover their bills.
On the other hand, it can be a big advantage to a landlord to include the cost of all the bills within the monthly rent. This way the tenant knows what they’re paying each month without having to worry about fluctuations in bills.
Non Payments
Also, if you let to students, it is almost one hundred per cent simpler to include all the bills within the rental price as students, one may find, will fall behind with bill payments which at the end of the day will become a very stressful situation for the landlord.
If you manage the bills then you can set a monthly allowance for your tenants. It would be a good idea to monitor whether your tenants are being fair and reasonable in what they use as well.
Monitoring Appliances
It would also be worth looking at the appliances within the property in order to analyse if they are energy efficient, and more importantly, that they are working properly and without fault. If you discover that a particular appliance is not working properly, then it may be possible to claim for a repair on your landlord insurance.
Hopefully, with the weather warming up, energy bills will now begin to drop each month, however it is still vital to check that your property is efficient as this will be beneficial for the environment, the tenants, and you as a landlord.