Renting a studio granny flat Perth

Hi everyone,

For those whom have rented out a granny flat in W.A, how have you charged your tenant?

Example - Owner wants 25% of water and electricity plus $270 per week for a single person to live in the granny flat. It is a couple living in the main residence (two story), not sure if they have a pool or anything but i think it would just be easier to charge a flat rate for rent. I had a quick look at the laws because i thought you couldn't charge for utilities if there wasn't seperate meterage but you can - it states "The prescribed tenancy agreement requires you to indicate whether the electricity, gas and water services to the rental property are separately metered.If there is no separate metering for any of these services, the prescribed tenancy agreement requires you to put in a calculation about how the tenant’s costs will be worked out". What happens if the main residence has a water leak, does that mean the tenant has to pay more? what happens if they decide to get a pool etc. What happens if the main residence has guests over xmas and has their four split systems running 24/7, the single person then has to pay more for electricity? Just trying to look at this as fair as possible.

 

Anyone?

 

Hi mate, it's up to you, situations call always change but you need to do your best to combat as much of these as possible. Hopefully the tenants are also down to earth and understanding people. I had some issues with both the power and gas bill. One period the usage went up 500% both tenants were outraged and swear it wasn't them.

They both ending up paying their 25_75 split but they weren't happy. Also I worked out my split by calculating floor area of house verse granny flat. You could also do this by number of people in each house /flat.

After this issue I decided to remove the granny flat from the house hot water unit. I installed an electric hot water as the stove inside was already electric. I then got a separate meter installed by a sparky. Now I just work out the exact usage between the two parties every 8 weeks and I pay the difference to the house tenant and the granny flat tenant pays me their usage.
Hope that helps.