Landlord Advice: Cutting Costs and Building Relationships.

Landlord¼s and tenants may not always see eye to eye, but there is one topic that they

can always agree on: the lower the bills the better.

From a landlord¼s perspective it makes sense to encourage tenants to use as little

power and water as possible. The landlord may be charging a flat rate for utilities so its

plain that they would want the bill from the utility company to be as low as possible.

Even if they do not charge a flat rate, when the utilities usage decreases it implies that

the amenities are also getting used less. When they get used less they break less and

so in the long run could save a landlord a lot of money.

Encouraging tenants to use less power is an easy conversation. Since the environment

is on the forefront on everybody¼s mind these days consensus building becomes easy

when you broach the topic by saying, “It would be great if we could use less water and

energy, it will save on bills AND it¼s good for the environment.”

From a tenant¼s perspective it also makes a lot of sense to cut down the bills. Obviously

if the tenant is paying their own utilities they will want the bill to be as low as possible.

Even if the Landlord is paying the utilities (utilities included in rent) it still makes a lot of

sense for the tenant - if for no other reason, “It¼s good for the environment.”

Here are some examples of easy ways to save on utility expenses in any property:

1. Fix leaking toilets. First check if it¼s leaking. It¼s easy to do. Just add some die into

the tank and wait an hour. If if the die appears in the bowl the toilet is leaking. More

often than not it is just a case of a worn out plunger. Most any hardware store will be

able to sell you a replacement for $20 or less. They¼re even easy to instal.

2. Instal high efficiency toilets and showers. Some municipalities even offer

compensation for people replacing old toilets with new high efficiency models. High

efficiency shower heads can be a tough sell, but improvements in design have made

it possible to create the same feeling of “pressure” while still using less water.

3. Instal low flow aerators in all the taps. This just mixes more air with the water so you

use less every time you turn on a tap.

4. Buy a drying rack. Especially in dry cities like Calgary a drying rack not only saves

enormous amounts of energy by limiting the use of a drying machine it also ads a

fragrant (Tide, Gain, or whatever you wash you clothes in) source of humidity to the

air.

5. If you¼re going to use the drying machine, make sure the vents and filters are all clear.

The more readily air can come in and out of the machine the less energy it takes to

dry the clothes.

There are many other ideas to cut the bills that I¼m sure you can think of. There¼s a

hidden benefit to having this discussion with your tenant or landlord, too: this is an easy

topic that may open the door to deal with the issues that you¼re really concerned with,

but don¼t want to bring up.