One of the most challenging aspects of being a landlord is finding new tenants in an increasingly crowded rental market. A brilliant way of broadening your horizons and appealing to a wider range of people – particularly students and young professionals – is by offering a bills-included tenancy. This means that tenants pay one monthly fee for their rent and household bills, rather than having to pay for each of these individually.
In this article, we’ve rounded up the biggest advantages for landlords of bills-included tenancy agreements. We’ve also explained how Resooma’s bill management system can benefit landlords.
What is a Bills-Included Tenancy?
A bills-included tenancy agreement is one in which the monthly payments that your tenants make to you also cover a set of pre-decided household bills. As a landlord, you can choose exactly which bills are included in the agreement. The most common inclusions are:
- Utility bills (gas and electric)
- Water
- Broadband
- TV licence
- Council tax
This tenancy agreement can even include bills like Sky TV and Netflix, as well as gardening and cleaning services.
Advantages of Bills-Included Tenancy Agreements
Bills-included tenancy agreements have become increasingly popular in recent years. This popularity means that you’ll have the best chance of attracting as many tenants as possible. With the rental process being an arduous one for many, knowing exactly how much you’ll be paying each month is an understandably alluring idea to plenty of prospective tenants.
They make your properties more appealing
The single biggest benefit of providing a bills-included service is that your properties will immediately become more attractive to prospective tenants. Modern renters are always on the hunt for money-saving options, with bill payments being no different. Offering a trimmed down property package with bills and rent bundled into one simple monthly payment will massively increase the appeal of your rentals and reduce void periods.
Just be sure to properly market the service so your properties don’t look more expensive in comparison to those that aren’t bills-included.
Bills and council tax will be paid on time
Because a bills-included package takes the responsibility away from your tenants, you won’t have to worry about unpaid bills. After all, there’s little worse than trying to get your property ready for a new tenant and realising that the water bill hasn’t been paid. Taking charge of bills and council tax from your end provides much greater peace of mind and will help everything run smoothly.
They’ll attract millennial and Gen Z tenants
Especially in vibrant urban areas like large cities, students and young professionals make up the majority of prospective tenants. Because of this, landlords are always competing with each other while also fending off competition from student halls and luxury apartment blocks. One of the best ways to make your property stand out is by positioning it as bills-included. These tenancy types particularly appeal to younger tenants as they make budgeting easier while removing the hassle of splitting bills between multiple occupants.
Are There Any Disadvantages?
While we think bills-included tenancies are an excellent choice for landlords, there are still a few drawbacks that you should be aware of. For starters, this adds to your pile of responsibilities as a landlord. You’ll need to manage utilities every month while also thinking about switching between suppliers and looking for the best deals. The good news here is that Resooma can do all of this for you, saving landlords heaps of time and effort in the process (we’ve more thoroughly explained our service in the next section).
Another issue is that rising utility bills can impact profits. This is because any increases in gas or electricity will be coming straight out of your pocket while your tenants keep paying the same. Opting for unlimited is best for avoiding this and you know exactly how much you’ll be paying every month.
Finally, when tenants don’t pay this all-inclusive sum, you’ll be liable for bills. This can be prevented by updating your tenancy agreement to protect yourself against unpaid bills. With usage monitoring, you can track exactly how much energy your tenants are using, allowing you to bill them accordingly.
With all that being said, we’d say that the potential disadvantages with bills-included tenancies are still massively outweighed by the benefits they bring.
How Does Resooma’s Bill Management Service Work?
While marketing your properties as bills-included does place more responsibility on your shoulders, a utility bill management service can take plenty of the hassle out of looking after bills for your properties.
By switching to Resooma, we’ll manage all of your existing property bills in one straightforward monthly payment, including council tax. We can also handle bills set up for any new properties and add these to your existing portfolio in a matter of minutes. Another plus is our void management. Landlords can mark properties as empty so we don’t fully charge them for bills.
When offering a bills-inclusive service to tenants, we can include as many or few bills as you like. Choose from green energy, water, wifi, TV licence, Sky TV and council tax.
Resooma is a brilliant choice as we list properties for free, provide an easy to use dashboard and offer competitive commission rates when referring tenants to start using Resooma for their bills. We handle the switch over and get everything set up so you can concentrate on more important things.
Want to list properties as bills included or make extra revenue through referring tenants to use Resooma Bills? Find out more about listing with bills included.