In the past year, one of my tenants had a medical emergency surgery and off work to recouperate. He also needed car repairs needed to get to work.. I had no idea until our energy company notified me that his service was disconnected and going under our name. So I called him and found that he exchanged paying his energy bills in the winter when it couldn't be shut off to enable him to keep his car running and get through his recovery from the surgery.

He's always paid his rent and water bills on time for the past 5 years. When we talked a couple times he said he's shifting payments around to continue keeping rent his first priority. He owes approx $1200 to the energy company who will not reconnect his electric service until his arrears are paid in full. He has gas as the utility is not allowed to disconnect that. Checking this a.m. he has not reconnected.

Cut back expenses & increase income.

Such as: no DoorDash or Hulu & a second job.

He's too ashamed to ask his family & friends for help, but not to take it from you?! That's backwards.

Jason & Oregon make good points.

I'm sorry about your tenants situation, but this is an opportunity for us to learn. Many of my "lazy" partners set up "Automatic" utility transfer when a service is going to be turned-off, thinking someone is just moving.

But here in Los Angeles, a LANDLORD is NOT allowed to turn off any tenants services that are in the landlords name. So due to the past pandemic, 2/1/2000 thru 3/1/2004, we had around 37 tenants stop paying their various utility bills so then were transferred into our names. This did not happen with property I own myself. So the several partnerships paid monthly up to 4 years--costing us over $50,000 in losses.

But for those who called me and said they were having issues with their Power or Gas services, there were several possibilities:

1) The City has a program to reduce the utility rates and extend payments over months.

2) Contact your tenants local religious houses of worship and ask for help/donations.

Go by the place and see if he is using extension cords to another house/apt to get power. Also check to see if he bypassed the electric meter somehow to get free electric. This could cause plenty of problems.

Google up your local non-profits for who assist in homelessness prevention. Around here, places like Catholic Charities can pay a large chunk of this to get the good folks back on their feet again. Each state is different though on who doles out these funds.

Many thanks for great ideas. I let out a sigh when I read "no one is ever prepared".

I chose to have the utilites transferred to my name to get the earliest warning should someone move without giving notice. And the "heads up" that there is the potential trouble on the horizon. When I was on the disconnect call I asked to have my name removed--done!

Sounds like a good tenant that had some bad experiences.

That being said I would get him back on track immediately. I have been burned by tenants getting shut off and me picking up the utilities to keep stuff from freezing.

In my case they never put it back into their names and they never paid me. I filed eviction. I also shut off the utilities because they were not paying. The judge scolded me and threatened to hold me in contempt if I did it again.

The water was still in their name. Util company called and said they were getting shut off. I said fine by me. Judge was really mad when he heard that, even tho I never had it in my name. He was something else.

Anyhow, they trashed the place because they knew they were leaving anyhow and they knew I was helpless in front of that judge.

Since the damage is already done get on him to either move or get the utility back in his name pronto.

ZERO: Will be keepin our eyes on the situation for sure.

Wow - I cannot believe that the utility company just "moves it into your name" for a shut off for non-pay. NG here will "leave on for landlord" but ONLY when the tenant is leaving and calls to disconnect (so the utilities will stay on). They also send an email and letter to you advising it will go to our name unless we say "NO". It's our choice.

If the tenant is going to be shut off for non pay - then it's just shut off - it will not go into our name. I would NOT allow that to occur. I just had that happen (squatters moved in when the tenants were moving out) and it was November - I couldn't get the utilities out of my name and they knew it (squatters) because of the time of the year (I couldn't terminate because it was already snowing here and was cold, obviously). Plus, NG won't terminate regardless if someone is living there.

I had to tell one town that I did NOT want utilities put into my name if the tenant claimed they were moving.

They did it as a courtesy to the owner. I said no. They said but what about if the pipes freeze. I said better than paying for a deadbeat to live for free.

Pat - Wait until your smart deadbeat tenant tells the utility provider that they are moving.