How to talk to tenant to pay his own gas bill

[llee]

Hi,

One of my tenants pays $1000 for a 2-bedroom. On the lease (from the previous owner), I pay for the gas and water bill. I had reviewed the gas bill from previous year, and it was reasonable (~$100/mo).

Recently (Dec, Jan), I found the gas bill has sky rocketed to $200-300/mo, and I want to ask the tenant to pay for it or at least part of it, moving forward (the annual lease is expiring in a month too).

I am thinking of one of the following options:
1) Lower the rent by $100/mo. Change the gas bill name to the tenant entirely.
2) Ask him to sign a new lease with rent increase (however bounded by rent control in Ontario). I still pay the entire bill.
3) Keep the current rent. I pay the entire bill, and invoice him for the amount minus $100
4) other options?

Any suggestion is appreciated.

Cheers,
Lucas

 

[niteshk]

Hi Lucas,

I had a similar problem with one of tenants when the water, hydro and gas bills went through the roof (I mean an avg. of $250 per bill every month for a detached bunglow) for a couple of months. Not sure about Ottawa, but here in the GTA, Enbridge provides a chart on the back of the bill showing consumption for the past year. I showed them the bills and advised them that I have covered all bills upto now, however going forward if the bills were unrationally high, they would have to cover the difference. Eventually, when the lease came up for renewal I made them pay all the utilities.

The best option would be to get them to pay their own bills, this way consumption dosent go sky rocketing and tenats are mindfull of leaving lights on or leave water running. I like to be in control so I pay all utility bills and then bill the tenant on a monthly basis.

Hope this helps.

 

[NorthernAlex]

Hi.I assume your rental unit is in ON:

You wrote:
1) Lower the rent by $100/mo. Change the gas bill name to the tenant entirely.
2) Ask him to sign a new lease with rent increase (however bounded by rent control in Ontario). I still pay the entire bill.
3) Keep the current rent. I pay the entire bill, and invoice him for the amount minus $100
4) other options?


All mentioned infos are only my novice judgment and knowledge gathered here in the forum:

1.
You can`t do 1) without the agreement of the tenant. I doubt that he is willing to give you a new one.

2.
Regarding the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA)

126. (1) A landlord may apply to the Board for an order permitting the rent charged to be increased by more than the guideline for any or all of the rental units in a residential complex in any or all of the following cases:
1. An extraordinary increase in the cost for municipal taxes and charges or utilities or both for the residential complex or any building in which the rental units are located.
So I think you could increase the rent according the RTA more then the normal 1.8% this year.

3. He does not have to accept this.

Maybe he will understand your position and agree to pay you a compensation, but legally you only can go with no 2. Last resort would be changing the tenant.

Best,

Alex.

 

[invst4profit]

Unfortunately due to Ontario`s restrictive rules the only way to truly correct the situation is to change tenants. You could try negotiating with the tenant but this really boils down to begging on the part of the landlord.
The allowable increase from the board will not likely come close to the actual cost.
It is never a good idea to have utilities inclusive as you have discovered.