SFH Utilities Responsibility?!

@Garrett Keith In our area most of the uti;ities are privately owned, that is they are companies, some of which are on the S & P 500. Electric, Natural Gas, and Water are usually these private companies.  In all those case we have the tenant directly contact the utility company provide their information including SSN and take direct responsibility for the utilities.

In some areas the private trash companies have a exclusive contract with the muncipality and sometimes they bill the property owner directly and sometimes the muncipality bills and collects the trash fee.  Most of the sewer bills are billed by the muncipality, but we now have some private companies that have bought the muncipal sewer faciities. The state law here is if the bills are sent out by the muncipality they are always sent to the property owner and are the responsibility of the owner and are lienable against the property if unpaid,  However, if the billing originates from a private company in it not lienable against the property.  Stormwater bills always come from the muncipality. For all bills that are muncipal billed we ALWAYS charge back to the tenant for 100% payment of that service.  In some areas Sewer billing is flat rates and in others is based on your water consumption, even if the sewer is muncipal billed and the water is private billed.  They work together to share usage information for billing.

We have also had utility billing in other states where the electric, as well as water, sewer and trash are owned by the muncipality and they will bill the  tenant directly.  But if not we forward the bill to the tenant for payment.

In all cases we have the tenant pay either directly or indirectly all electric, natural gas, water, sewer and trash.  At properties where there is a propane gas tank, the tenants deal directly with the private company. (The propane tanks are usaually owned by the propane company, and if you switch companies they come and remove their tanks even the buried underground tanks.  Ask me how I know that? We bought a property with a large underground propane tank that the seller told us they bought. We used the tank for several years with the tenant paying the propane company directly.  After a 9 years, the tenant moved and we decided to remodel and convert to heat pump.  One day when we wern't there the propane company excavated and removed whatwas their tank and left a big hole in the yard unfilled and dangerous.)