Dumb mistake - Dealing with utilities

[David B.]

Hi All, looking for a little advice.

I started renting my house a little over a year ago.  Everything went fine and they moved out when their lease was up, (well 15 days early but... they had paid for the month, eventually)

Apparently they had never switched over the ComEd electric bill.  So for 12 months they did not pay for electricity, then when I got my new tenant in I asked him to call and switch utlities into his name (ComEd keeps telling me I can switch utilities into someone else's name)  Well he did not do so - tells me they won't let him.  In any case they get the power shut off on them.  I call ComEd and get the power put back in my name and now I have a $1200 electric bill on my doorstep.

Did I do some stupid things?  YES.  Any advice on where to go from here?

I know in the future I'll call all the utility companies to make sure that the bill is in the tenants name.  And I won't give back any security deposit until I've made sure the bill is $0 on the property.  I also have a landlord agreement set up with ComEd now but I'm not feeling that it does much.

I am on fairly good terms still with the previous tenant, but according to them... after they fessed up, they only owed $600 and wanted to work out a way to pay me that.

Any thoughts are appreciated.