So just purchased my first rental property last week and during closing the seller of the property got stuck paying a lean on the property for $4000 dollars due to several different old tenants not paying their electric bill. Electric company put leans on the owner. So not sure if this is done every where, but the electric company puts a lean on the property if tenants don't pay, even though the electric is in tenants name. How does a landlord protect themself from this ? The electric company has a form that can be filled out by the tenant and the landlord that allows a third party statement if the tenant doesn't pay their electric bill. But how can a landlord protect them self if they don't pay.. its not like you can shut their electric off ??
Depending where you are, some utilities are attached to the house and some to the person living there. Call the electric company and find out what the case is where the house is. If it is tied to the home, you have a few options:
1) include electricity in the rent (down side with that is tenants may be less diligent with electricity use and increase the bill)
2) have the tenant pay it and include a copy of the statement every 1-2 months to show that it is paid in full.
3) have the bill in your name and send a copy to the tenant each month (or whatever the billing cycle is) and they can add the balance to their rent each month. I have to do that with the water bill at two of my rentals as the water company will only allow the owner to pay the bill.
If it is a condition of the lease, you can also give them notice that they are in violation of the lease and start an eviction process. check your local laws as a few people on BP have posted that you can only do evictions for unpaid rent in some areas.
Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
2y
around here the rule is that if the Electric Company is a private company like MetEd or Edison etc. they lien the person activating the electric service, as in the tenant. And many of the companies will send notice to a third party like the property owner if the tenants don't pay the bill or moves out without telling the owner. Where the electric is provided by the city they have additional power to lien the property owner, some places will not even send the bill to the tenants only the owner.