Landlord accounts-utilities - Landlord Forum thread 357696

Landlord accounts-utilities by Anonymous on June 9, 2018 @21:57

Anyone have one? I know they're for easy transfers of utilities back and forth, but can you access a tenant's account if you have one at their property?

[ Reply ] [ Return to forum ]

Re: Landlord accounts-utilities by Anonymous on June 10, 2018 @08:35	[ Reply ]

Whatever utility you are talking about, you would need to contact that particular U company, to find out what their rules and regs are regarding your questions.

Re: Landlord accounts-utilities by Nicole (PA) on June 11, 2018 @11:48	[ Reply ]

I have these for water, electric and natural gas at all my properties. When the tenant cancels service, it automatically goes into my name with no discontinuance of service ... so no need to meet anyone there to get service started. It also eliminates any service transfer fees. I never allow my properties to be without utilities. It does NOT allow me access to the tenant's account info ...in today's world of privacy, I cannot imagine any company allowing you that access. If tenant has utilities shut off for nonpayment, I also don't receive notice due to privacy issues ... but it also won't go into my name. All my utility companies allow you to have third party notification due to payment issues ... I used to have them all set me up on this but as I've got lower end units, it was a pain since most of them were scheduled for termination more often than not ...then they'd set up repayment plans, get some type assistance, or pay minimums just in time.

Re: Landlord accounts-utilities by Anonymous on June 11, 2018 @14:18	[ Reply ]

I'm in Washington State, all my utilities are set up similar to Nichole's. That is they automatically switch to me when the tenant vacates. As for notification of termination notices, only the utility that can put a lien on my property notifies me of this. The electric & gas can't put a lien on my property so I never get notified about tenant problems. When my son & I had properties in Texas we couldn't set up anything like what I have now. For electricity there it's the wild west with multiple vendors and the tenant can pick his own vendor. We looked into setting up the automatic switch over to us but we were told we had to be a lot bigger (many more units). My son's work around was to switch the electricity back into our name a couple days before the tenant left. He found that the cost of a couple day's electricity was a lot less than the re-connect charge if we let the tenant stop the service.