Tenants upset about utilities

[Michael Dallas]

I am a 1st time house hacker and my tenants which were also teammates were signed to a lease from Aug of last year to July of this year. Since it’s now summer and they all moved back home and are also graduating they are no longer staying at the house. I have also moved back home for the summer, so the house is empty. Should they still be responsible for splitting the utilities (which we have done the whole year) or should I shut everything off and be responsible for anything I leave on. I am worried about cutting off the power and then there be mold grow as we are in Alabama. Thank you so much for the insight!!

[JD Martin]

Crazy to shut off all the utilities. Leave the AC set at 76 or 77 so you get enough air movement and dehumidification to keep moisture problems down, and split the utilities for those few months. Shut the water off at the street so you don't come back to any burst pipes (unless you need it for irrigation). You should literally be talking about peanuts here, water and electric with no one using them shouldn't cost hardly anything. When my 3k sf STR in Florida is empty with the AC set at 77 my electric bill runs about $175 for the month, and water is maybe 40-50 bucks depending on how much irrigation I need. That's 200 bucks each for 3 guys for 3 months. If $200 breaks them you need new tenants and better teammates. How do they think the utilities are going to work if they're shut off?