Landlords cannot always trust tenants with their property. Even the best tenants can and will do the seemingly unreasonable. One such thing they can do is leave in the middle of a lease term without telling you they are doing so. They can and will pack up their stuff, leave and turn off the utilities. Your property, unbeknownst to you, can be left in the dark and cold. Keeping the utilities on and our properties protected is an issue we landlords have to deal with
Having your tenant leave in the middle of the night is one thing, but having them turn off the utilities without your knowledge is another. It may not sound like a very big deal but what if it is in the middle of winter? The cold could very well cause your water pipes to freeze and burst. Reconnecting the utilities can also cost you money and time. Surly you have better uses for re-connection charges and for the time you have to spend waiting for the utility technician to show. In short, having the utilities turned off without your knowledge can at a minimum be a pain or possibly cause thousands of dollars in damage.
Your Local Utility May Be Able To Help
To help you, your local utility company may have a program that can prevent the utilities from being turned off. Here in Memphis, the utility has an apartment owner’s re-connect program. The program will automatically switch the utility connection back to our company anytime the tenant turns off the utilities or even if they fail to pay. It helps us to ensure that the utilities do not get turned off in the dead of winter. It also helps us not waste time and money on re-connection fees and meeting technicians. This program has saved our butt more than once.
The Catch
The catch however is that you need to stay on top of this program. Generally, the utility company will send you a written notice when the tenant has turned the utilities off or is behind on their payments. These notices can easily be lost in the shuffle of all the paper that being a landlord generates. Beware that less scrupulous tenants know of this program and may try to use it in hopes that you will not notice and thus pay their utilities for a while.
Watch For Notices
Those notices from the utility thus become very important. They can also be an advance warning to potential trouble. Especially if a tenant is getting behind in their utility payments. But, if you have a lot of properties, the notice can be easy to miss or forget about. The smarterlandlord therefore sets up some type of system to double check the status of their property when such a notice is received. A simple phone call or a property drive by could head off trouble.
These re-connect programs can be quite helpful, like anything else they can be abused and need to be monitored. Use them to help your business, but do not abdicate your responsibility to stay on top of things.
