Topic: Curious if anyone has experience with charging a premium for access to washer/dryer hookups?

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Curious if anyone has experience with charging a premium for access to washer/dryer hookups?
One of our complexes has washer/dryer hookups, but they are in a common area in the basement of each 4-family -- they are not in unit.
The residents supply their own W/D, and thus, not all residents do, so a premium could be done.
The water is our cost; the electric to run them is on the resident's own meter.
Our water rates have increase significantly and the owner has me looking into charging a premium for access to the basement water taps to help cover the increased water costs -- they'd be locked out with a faucet lock if premium is not paid.
So, I'm wondering,
  1. if anyone has experience with this?
And,
2. What would be a reasonable cost for access to water for a washing machine? I'm thinking $20/month.
Background: this is a market-rate 64 unit 1960s garden style complex in a small working-class town in Illinois outside of St. Louis. This is the only complex of ours there that even has W/D hookups -- the others have on-site laundromats.
Posted 3 weeks 2 hours ago
Brooke Nuber-Soldate's Avatar
Brooke Nuber-Soldate
I'm a little confused on the setup - If the hook ups aren't in the unit are they in a space exclusive to the resident using them? or could multiple residents access them?
If it's in a communal space at all, I'm not sure how you could reasonably charge for it. That's essentially a resident providing a laundry room amenity to other residents as well as themselves and it seems unfair to charge them for providing it when you don't.
If they aren't in the unit, but they are exclusive to an individual resident, then you'd likely need a separate addendum for use of that space since it is not part of the dwelling space of the resident and lease contract. Almost like a storage unit rental but for W/D hook up space.
Posted 3 weeks 1 hour ago
Guest Insider's Avatar Topic Author
  • Karma:
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It's #2. The hookups are in a shared basement that is non-exclusive, all residents can access it. The rest of the basement is maintenance area, or storage areas.
Posted 3 weeks 1 hour ago
Brooke Nuber-Soldate's Avatar
Brooke Nuber-Soldate
Devin Campbell if it's essentially a communal space, then I'd recommend putting in your own units and charging per laundry use. Since it is not exclusive to a specific resident, it would be difficult to attach to a specific unit and charge appropriately. Especially if another resident uses their appliances - the resident takes on the expense of a laundry room which is definitely unfair and likely to lead to complaints. But if the appliances belong to the property you can definitely charge for their use.
If you don't want to manage a per use laundry, then you can have a "free" laundry space and add to the rent for all units like any other community-wide amenities.
Or, add some sort of locking door to the appliance space so the space can be rented like storage for residents to use their own appliances exclusively.
If the space isn't secure and it's open to everyone, it can't realistically be attached to just one resident to be charged. If any other resident can and does use it, it is putting a cost burden to the resident that is unequal to others potentially leading to fair housing issues.
Posted 3 weeks 1 hour ago
Donje Putnam's Avatar
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How many apartments have access to the space? Could you not rent a w/d and calculate your costs of renting and utility and divide by all apartments with access and raise the rent to cover costs plus a bit of a premium (especially with no local comps with this benefit)? Otherwise it seems really complicated to try to have a resident provide a W/D in a public access area and bill them more, when others will have access to their appliances.
Posted 3 weeks 1 hour ago
Mike Powers's Avatar
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Sounds like a coin op wash dry set up was in place as shared.
How would you charge unit 1 and not unit 3 if the basement is common space ?
Posted 3 weeks 1 hour ago
Khara House's Avatar
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I don't have direct experience with this but I had friends and family back east who were charged a premium like this and it was a nightmare; i.e., paying a premium to place their own washer/dryer in a common area then not being able to use their own devices because others used it because it was there ... theft of property ... questions of who took on liability for damage to the unit ... etc. Seems like it would be easier to create a communal laundry space in this area and either charge for use or add it as a reasonable amenity fee.
Posted 3 weeks 1 hour ago
Laura Renaldo's Avatar
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Missed opportunity for the owners to install coin laundry it seems like. Offer a credit on rent or free laundry to unit that pays the electric.
Posted 3 weeks 1 hour ago
Monica Whitaker's Avatar
Monica Whitaker
I would say your getting greedy . Don't offer the hookups or put in the coin operating units .
Posted 3 weeks 1 hour ago
Cindy Shearer's Avatar
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Personally I think charging a premium would be a good idea. They would end up spending at least $20 at the laundromat, plus having to load everything in their car to haul it there, and bring it back.
Posted 3 weeks 57 minutes ago