From Coin Laundry to Rent+Laundry?

[RE123RE]

Hello,

My business partner has a 20-Plex in Ontario. He has a suggestion to switch from coin operated laundry to asking tenants to pay extra, say $20 per month, for using the laundry room.

In the laundry room, he has 2 dryers and 2 washers. Unfortunately, it has been broken into twice in 2 months.

The thief broke and emptied the money boxes.

What do you think - instead of spending more than 10K on card operated laundry, does it make sense to do the following:

- Replace the laundry room entrance door with a better door and lock.
- Install fake cameras above the new entrance door.
- Give the new key to tenants who are interested in using the laundry room unlimited for $20 per month.
There will be no coins needed to use the machines, just a key to enter the laundry room.


Does it make sense? If yes, how would you deal with tenants not interested in paying extra for laundry?
- simply not provide the key? is it legal?
Also, any creative way to prevent tenants from getting the key from one tenant who does pay and splitting the cost?

Thank you.

Regards,
Neil

 

[adriano]

I had that problem in my building. I re enforced the door and put in a fob system in the building. I charged a deposit for the fob and now I can see by the reporting on the system who opens the door and when. I also programmed it so the laundry room can only be opened between certain hours.i am the only person that can issue the fobs and it works great. This is way cheaper than going to the card system. As for charging extra for laundry , I thought of that but then there may be issues with tenants that don't pay you rent or people sharing the key and everyone can use it and some will not pay. I don't think it's an issue to do this , depending how you write your lease. My lease includes pay laundry so I am covered with that in my lease.

 

[Matt Crowley]

The $20 per month for a laundry key is a good idea. Have an auto-closing, auto-locking door. People hate carting coins around anyway. Provided there is some courtesy rules to using the free laundry, this seems like the best solution to me.

 

[RE123RE]

The $20 per month for a laundry key is a good idea. Have an auto-closing, auto-locking door. People hate carting coins around anyway. Provided there is some courtesy rules to using the free laundry, this seems like the best solution to me.

Good idea Matt, can you please give an example of a clause for some courtesy rule? Thank you