My friend just rented his place out to a new tenant, with a move in date of this coming Thursday. New tenant is going to pay for all utility...
His previous tenant moved out about 2 weeks ago and city shut down water after the move out. My friend does not want to turn the water back on now because city will charge a fee for that... He wanted to wait until the new tenant moves in and have her call the city to put the water back on...
I feel this is so wrong, but I don't know how to explain this to my friend...Does anyone know of a law that says this is wrong?
if the tenant is responsible for utilities they need to have that done before they move in. My tenants are not allowed to take possession until they have untilities transferred. I dont see this as the landlords problem other than not having water in between tenants for the landlords convenience
Investor 路 Orange County, CA 路 Member since 2015 路 2k+ posts 路 3k+ votes
9y
I agree with David D. Painter ... your friend the landlord could send a friendly reminder to the new tenant via text message or email that they should contact the city to turn the water on under their name prior to moving in so it will be already on when they move in. This is pretty standard in my experience, though I'm not in the Bay Area.
At this point, just tell your friend to let the tenant know that it may take up to 24 hours for the water company to turn on the water. Have the tenant give the city a call tomorrow so that they'll have water by the time they move in on Thursday.
This is where it may potentially be penny wise pound foolish. Imagine the water got turned on on Wednesday and the house got flooded because someone forgot to turn a faucet off? The tenant shows up of Thursday to find the house flooded and called the landlord, but that's his issue. 馃榿