<p>We have a service contract for our rental properties. They come out free of charge to fix certain appliances–furnace, AC, stove, water heater, washer and dryer. They do an annual inspection of the furnace and AC unit. It’s $14/month and we have instructed our renters to call them if they have issues. It’s been WONDERFUL.</p>
<p>I would make the renters pay for the service call as well if it turns out it’s due to non-payment of the bill. It usually takes several months of not paying a bill before they cut off service.</p>
<p>Where we live you have a choice of gas providers and I don’t know who the renters use; that said, it doesn’t matter now. It dawned on me this morning that the one renter that was going to be home when the service company came knew about the gas being turned off before I did. I had texted him at 1:00 as the company arrived at 11:30 and I wanted to see what was going on; I had asked them to give me a call while the tech was at the house so I could talk with him. Since I did not receive that call, I texted. The renter texted back that all that was wrong was the pilot light was out and the rest of the system was working fine and it was an easy visit. At 2:30 the company called me to tell me the gas was off at the meter; that is when I notified the boys. This morning I realized the tech must have told the renter that the gas was off, so he knew well before I received the call.</p>
<p>This morning I contacted them again and mentioned I wanted to know what was going on and were they able to get the gas turned back on. The return message was the gas will be turned back on and they contacted the gas company and got the situation taken care of; there was no mention of the gas company making an error in turning it off. I then replied. "Chalk this up to a life lesson learned; bills should be paid on time! No reply after that, so I have to believe this was the renters error and they will owe us for the service call. </p>
<p>I would be interested in knowing how many bills they “forgot” to pay as I also don’t believe the gas would be cut off after just one non payment. I assume they also had to pay a reconnect fee; oh well!</p>
<p>My leases are very clear that if utilities are turned off for non-payment we can declare the lease void and take possession.</p>
<p>I had the electricity go out WHILE flooring contractors were there using saws on the floor. Tenants knew contractors would be there. I was livid.</p>
<p>In my experience, gas or elec companies are not going to turn off for one month’s late payment. I don’t think in our state the gas co. can turn off gas from Nov-March. Pipes will freeze here and I have auto-revert to my name, but the gas company will contact me if that happens.</p>
<p>I would never ever let a renter move in without utilities being in their name.</p>
<p>The story gets more interesting! I decided to call the gas provider we used to see if the boys had an account with them and see what information I could get. I was able to find out that there was a connect order, but not with them. </p>
<p>Called the second provider and received more information. As we can pick from a number of providers and switch with ease, each provider has access to some of the home’s information. While this also was not the company the boys went with, the gentleman was able to tell me that there was a new connect order, not a reconnect. Seem since we took the gas out of our name in July, there was never a new order. I asked how the house has had heat over the last few months an was told they leave the gas on, but after 6 months of use, the gas was turned off. </p>
<p>Next I called the third company and was told there was indeed a new connect order on our house scheduled for this Thursday; remember i first received a call from the renters last Friday. Luckily it is not so cold that pipes will freeze, but cold enough for the boys to be uncomfortable </p>
<p>Both the second and third provider said my renters would be charged for the gas use since my disconnect date. What I am not sure of is how they will prove the boys were the ones using the gas and not me being dishonest when I ordered the disconnect. I have the signed lease so hopefully it won’t be an issue. </p>
<p>We are sending the renters a letter explaining that we are aware they never set up a gas account and a copy of the bill for the visit from the heating company. I am sure this was an over site on the boys part, but they will learn. I wish they had been honest with me after the heat tech informed the of the issue as did I instead, they told me it was an easy fix as the pilot light was out. </p>
<p>Sounds like a good reason to require that the utilities be in the landlord’s name and that the students pay each month (with a copy of the previous months utility bills) or get evicted. The last months utilities would be subtracted from the security deposit.</p>
<p>My landlord in grad school charged for the electric (and gas? I really don’t remember if there was gas) and gave us a credit of $25 per month towards utilities (they always were more than that). </p>
<p>Or, next time require tenants to inform you of the service providers prior to move in date - at least you will know they are hooked up. </p>
<p>They must have known that utilities were not included, and that they were not paying for what they received???</p>
<p>This is such a challenging situation. How does company #2 know who to bill at the house? Do they work cooperatively with company #3 to get the previous bill paid before the new connect occurs this week? Was company #2 sending a bill to the house for these 6 mos of use, and if so, in whose name? If for any reason the bill was in your/your s’s name, the tenants might have ignored it, figured you forgot to turn it off and they were benefitting from free gas service as it was working and they didn’t have to pay for it (used to happen a lot with the cable tv in apartment buildings). </p>
<p>If company#3 doesnt make the tenants pay up for the 6 mos of service from company # 2 before turning on the gas (maybe thats why its taking a week), when you take back posession of the house after they leave and put utilities back in your name, you could get stuck with paying outstanding bills on the property in order to get the service turned on. Be careful. Since you have 3 gas suppliers it may not be as likely of a problem, but we had it happen when we had property that we’d sold but allowed the purchaser to assume our mortgage (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and we had a second mortgage with them. Not only did they bail and trash the house, stiffing us as well as causing us to pay the back mortgage they’d assumed so it did go into forclosure and also having to fix the damage, but we had to pay their old outstanding water bill, which was quite large, in order to get the water turned on in the property. Sucked. </p>
<p>So as much as its also a risk to have the utilities in your name, it makes sense for you to be able to monitor it and include it in the rent. Might be worth considering next time offering an all inclusive lease (electric, gas, water, sewer) and let them get their own cable. If there is a next time, that is. What a headache.</p>
<p>I agree. So sorry you’re going through this. Brings back very bad memories of when my H and I were landlords back in the 80’s. A friend, who was a realtor, convinced us that we needed to invest in real estate. Bad move. I know this isn’t your situation and that you are holding on to the house until the real estate prices improve in your area. Hope prices turn around soon. Do you have any idea how long that might be? How much will the value of your home have to increase before you would consider selling it?</p>
<p>The problem with all-inclusive leases is the renters have absolutely no incentive to be conservative in their use of electricity, water, heat, etc.</p>
<p>Thats true, but the landlord can come up with a reasonable estimate to include in the rent, and have a clause that if the utilities exceed X dollars in any month that they will be responsible for the overage. In the longrun, its probably cheaper to maintain control of the utilities and minimize the headaches and cost incurred by all of the above scenarios.</p>
<p>Bundled utilities are an open invitation for things like open windows in the middle of winter, or not turning of a light ever. I’ve seen places with the windows wide open in the middle of winter, and you know it’s not the tenants paying the bill.</p>
<p>
I don’t think this would be legal in my state, so make sure it is legal to do this if you go down this road.</p>
On the landlord pain scale of 1 to meth lab, this is pretty minor. Utilities deal with these kinds of issues all the time, it is not a big deal for them.</p>
<p>In MA, you can have different suppliers, but they all use the same delivery company. The bill is broken into 2 parts, for delivery and supply. I think the delivery company is the one that does the billing, so they coordinate with all the suppliers.</p>
<p>I didn’t read the entire thread but I would highly recommend that any landlord should study the landlord/tenant laws in his/her area and figure out precisely what repairs are the landlord’s responsibility and which are not. Under the laws of most states, unless the lease says something else, a landlord has a legal obligation to maintain the property so that it is “habitable.” No more, no less. The same standard applies to all rental units in the jurisdiction. What constitutes “habitable” should be spelled out in the statutes or regulations. There are varying laws as to what kind of repair expenses may be deducted from the rent. I know of no law that would permit you to refuse to deal with whoever the tenants appointed as their agent, just as the tenants could not refuse to deal with a property manager if you appointed one. (I don’t know if the tenants have actually authorized the mom to deal with you on their behalf or not). Although I am a lawyer, I don’t deal with area of the law and I am not intending to give you legal advice. I am just saying that the rights and obligations of all concerned are pretty clearly spelled out in the law and you need to study those laws (or consult with a lawyer) to figure out what those are. A good resource for this kind of thing is the “self-help” section of the website of the local court. Good luck.</p>
Well, if it isn’t allowed then collecting 2 mos up front and billing them back for each months utilities is the other option, so it seems. </p>
<p>There were some complexes here in town that had community shared utilities-- ie each supposedly paid their portion of one gigundo bill. Failed miserably. People used resources excessively and then several tenants didnt pay their bills.</p>
<p>I don’t think this would be allowed in MA, either! The law here has specific requirements for what deposits are allowed, and utilities is not one of them. Utilities must either be paid for by the landlord, or separately metered.</p>
<p>Good thing the OP doesnt live in MA, I guess!!</p>
<p>I’ve heard of landlords, even here on cc, requiring several months rent paid in advance,. Perhaps this is considered different form a “deposit” per se. The utilities are probably a separate issue.</p>
<p>Wow-how do young people even afford an apartment like that? “Several months” to me is 4 or 5. My older D just rented a 2 BR apartment with a friend with a rent of $925/mo plus utilities. That’s about average for that size apartment if you’re not in the heart of the city or the high income areas. “Several months” of advance rent would be $4500, PLUS a deposit, which is usually another month’s rent around here, and some posts have mentioned pre-paid cleaning fees, so we’re up in the $6000 range or more. No wonder so many kids live at home with mom and dad! There is no way most young 20’s could afford that unless they’re independently wealthy or mom and dad help out.</p>
<p>The situations I was thinking about requiring several months rent werent students. They were adults (older adults-non-students) with bad credit who the landlord was taking a chance on, and the other was in a long term vacation rental property. I think artloversplus or another poster with a lot of rental property also discussed this issue.</p>
<p>In some cases, getting $$$$ up front makes good business sense.</p>
<p>In most cases, the prospective tenant will have to first pass a credit check or get the lease cosigned by someone with good credit. If the alternative to collecting several mos in advance is not getting the apt, which is worse?</p>
<p>We require 3 months up-front, which is the maximum allowed by our state laws.</p>
<p>First month’s rent, last month’s rent, and a security deposit equal to one month’s rent.</p>
<p>On a $925 apartment with a roommate, that’s just under $1400. A third of that is the first month’s rent, which would be immediately due anyway. And if you paid last month’s rent up front at your previous place, that’s another third you should have because you didn’t have to pay rent this month. So it doesn’t seem excessive to me.</p>
<p>Our feeling is that if you are so close to the edge financially that you can’t come up with the up-front money, you are a more risky choice for a tenant.</p>
<p>Three month’s rent is less than “several” PLUS a security deposit and possibly a cleaning fee (non-refundable, of course) as mentioned above. And it’s not really about living close to the edge. Utilities require deposits to set up, even if you already have an account with them and are simply moving. There’s the cost of moving itself, even if it’s just renting a truck. For some places in Seattle, parking costs extra. That’s a lot more than $1,400 and that’s a lot of start-up cost for a young kid in a first job. And it’s not like they’ll be getting their deposit back.</p>
<p>Maybe $1,400-$2,000 on-hand is “close to the edge” for some,but I don’t know too many kids with that kind of money laying around.</p>
No reply after that, so I have to believe this was the renters error and they will owe us for the service call. </p>
</p>