Can I turn the electric off ?
This is in the state of Florida - and the title isn't Exactly what I am asking. I'll explain -
A SFH tenant wants to move into a property. But the electric company wants some Huge deposits made first. I know this is true because I have had to pay them myself. As a result the new tenants can't move in until they get paid again.
I told management to just write up a letter of agreement with them stating that they could move in immediately, leave the utilities in my name until some future date (say three weeks from now) at which time they would pay the electric company's deposit, change the electric into their name, and then they would pay me for whatever electric they used in the meantime. Get them both to sign and date their agreement-to-terms and that would be that.
Management says that if they move in and then refuse to change the electric into my name - that I cannot have the electric shut off. My position is that if they don't pay me - I can't pay the electric company - so the electric company would turn the power off in their standard way.
My further position is that if these are the sort of people who would try to cheat me if presented even the slightest chance to do so - I don't want them as tenants in the first place. <g>
Can the law really take the position that I am obligated to fulfill my portion of a contracted arrangement while the other party to the same contract refuses to fulfill theirs? <g>