Tenant responsible unpaid utilities

[Jeffrey Hennen]

Hello, I am trying to understand the legalities of what a Utility company can do in the event a tenant does not pay their utilities, mainly electric and Gas. I ran into a situation specifically for my water bill that they were in charge of, however, they did not pay for their water bill for nearly a year and a half and I didn't notice and then almost got assessed onto my taxes for the following year. Ultimately they paid for it but was too close. 

For the case of Gas/Electric, what can these utility companies legally do. Here is an example of the laws associated with utility companies (That I know of).
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/2021/cite/325E.025

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/2021/cite/327C.01

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/2021/cite/327B.01

From my interpretation "A utility may recover or attempt to recover payment for a tenant's outstanding bill or charge from a property owner where the manager, acting as the owner's agent, contracted for the utility service." I as the owner would be ultimately responsible for the utility bill?

[James Hamling]

@Jeffrey Hennen in general, in MN, a tenant creates there own account with utility provider, no different than if they made a cell phone account. And for that, all billing is A-B with tenant and utility, including collections if such were a case. 

Water and sewer is the major exception to this, probably because it's the only government utility, and ran with such "fantastic" efficiency we have come to expect from government ran entities. 

If your doing things correctly, with a correct lease, you have multiple details and clauses in your lease speaking to various agreement's and remedies as it speaks to utilities. So, you should lean more so on that and not getting lost in statute detail's with utility providers. 

On water/sewer, that's a continuing down slide. It's very possible in a near future it will be best to just install a privately owned meter, have an agreement in lease for a billing rate per unit, and direct bill it monthly. In theory one could use the statement, but problem is the significant lag time in those, zero ability to look up to get a reading on request, ever. And with the private unit's one can get now, it just solves all that, readings on demand. 

And lastly, make sure to rent appropriately. If your leasing to people that have no fear of collections, judgement or garnishment, well ya better be johnny-on-the-spot with enforcement actions to mitigate loss exposure, and know you will be paying some water bills.     Or, like me, lease to people who are risk/loss averse, with credit to protect, incomes garnishable etc..