Heating - Legal 2 Family Home

Hi, I need advice. We own a 4 level 2 family home in Brooklyn. It is a legal 2 family home with a triplex and a garden apartment. Due to work we had to move abroad after we did a complete gut renovation and had to rent out our triplex. sadly I didn’t get to enjoy my home after the reno. one of the items we included in the lease for the triplex was that we would keep all utilities under our name and cover a portion of the heating costs, as we have one boiler and heating is included in our garden apartments rent. In the lease we included an annual $ threshold of what we would cover and detailed that our tenant would need to cover the balance. Btw, they control the heating for the whole building in the triplex, so there hasn’t been a lack of heat. it is a 2yrs lease and we are one year into the lease and we are having issues with the tenants repaying us on the utilities. Any advice? Can anyone think of legal issues. I checked NYC law and it is ok to charge back for heating as long as it is detailed before hand.

lola318

in Heating 10 years and 7 months ago

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GreenThinker | 10 years and 7 months ago

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If your current honeywell t-stat has redlink you can simply buy there “RedLink Internet Gateway” to give it internet capabilities.

lola318 | 10 years and 7 months ago

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This is turning into a major learning experience. We currently have a Honeywell t-stat so i am inclined to stick with Honeywell. I do appreciate everyone’s feedback, as I wasn’t sure who to speak with and you are giving me gotta advice. Thank you.

GreenThinker | 10 years and 7 months ago

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Right now, you’re best course of action would be writing a certified letter to your tenant, detailing and explaining everything. If they don’t pay up, take it out of their security deposit. As for Internet connected t-stats, there are a few. Nest being the most popular one. I myself always used honeywell t-stats. Check out the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat. It’s always gonna be a headache when tenants have access to the t-stat, while the bill is on your name. In my building, I keep the temp at 70 day and night, and no one complains; while charging top market value. No matter what you’re charging; you have to be firm and hold your own or they’ll take advantage.

resident2 | 10 years and 7 months ago

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You need a local Managing agent for exactly this kind of issue. Managing tenants is all about quick and decisive communication or things do quickly get out of control and a good local agent will cost much less than Attorneys and lost rents & added rents and mountains been made out of mole hills.. But with such a large space; an upper triplex, I do believe that the tenants of the space do need to be comfortable to their liking, I am assuming you are charging a luxury rent?, but they also must be prepared to pay for 80′ heat so that they can roam around naked, if that is what they want to do, or leave the windows open because they like fresh air in the winter. I do have a couple of buildings, where this is the situation. In my leases it is by the number of therms used. (National Grid raises their rates all the time) I pay up to a certain amount, to cover the garden floor tenant etc and the Triplex; that as in your case controls the thermostat pays the balance. But I have to watch it and respond quickly, you cannot wait until the end of their lease or the heating season to point out that they are running up THEIR bill.

primebrooklyn | 10 years and 7 months ago

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In your next lease you’ll handle it differently. Heat and Hot water is included in the rent. To give you an idea, we allow up to $500/mth in gas costs since our heat and hot water is all gas powered. If they go over that amount in a single month, then the extra amount is added to their rent since they control that. If you tenants aren’t used to controlling the heat and didn’t realize how much it would cost then next time with new tenants have a base price ready to tell them in advance.

curiositykilledthecat | 10 years and 7 months ago

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Agreeing with slopefarm. Going forward, lease should stipulate that rent is inclusive of heat costs.

slopefarm | 10 years and 7 months ago

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Iola, for the next lease, just raise the rent to cover the amount of heat you want them to pay for, and then pay the bills yourself. Delete the tricky clause. Just let the rent be the rent, “heat included.”

Brooklynnative | 10 years and 7 months ago

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Hi Green Thinker – it’s possible to control the thermostat via the internet even if you are not there then?

lola318 | 10 years and 7 months ago

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Green, the move was a surprise so I wasn’t aware of what could be done. I’m thinking of changing the t-stat is Nest a good system? though I cant change the current lease do you have any advise on how to adjust the future lease? I like PrimeB’s system but could you further insight.

GreenThinker | 10 years and 7 months ago

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What ever is written in the lease about heat is binding. But i don’t think you went about this the right way to begin with. You should of just included heat in the monthly rent, and control the t-stat yourself from the internet.

lola318 | 10 years and 7 months ago

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PrimeB, in our lease we state that we would cover the heating up to $1,000 per year and anything above that we would cover a %, in essence we have covered 40% of the total bill for the year. we do have direct deposit. I’ve sent them several invoices and have had a conversation with the leasehold of my triplex but she is under the impression that we, the landlord, should cover all the heating which is not what is in the lease. we are a 2 family home not a rent stabilized multi family dwelling, so as I review most of the rent laws it is a bit unclear. I do believe they are in violation but I am trying to resolve it amicably but am left feeling apprehensive as I’m so far from home and don’t want them to damage anything in the house.

primebrooklyn | 10 years and 7 months ago

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Hi, I manage a two family in fort greene and the lower duplex controls the Heat for both units. We spell out in the lease how much per month the owner will cover and anything above that is the tenants responsibility. Last year the amount never got over our cutoff level so owner lowered it by $100\. We also have a nest thermostat so it can be controlled and programmed easily. Hopefully, your lease also details an amount and everything else is added rent. If you are out of town, do you have direct deposit for rent every month? Tenants may be in violation of the lease for failure to pay on time.