Turning off power and winterizing

[Ari Bachrach]

This is more of just a pet peeve than anything else. I've seen a handful of bank or HUD owned properties where they had winterized by turning off the water and the electricity. The water I completely understand, the power less so. Know what needs power to work? The sump pump. On two occasions that I can remember I've gone down to the basement only to find it wet (once there was about 1cm of sitting water across the whole basement) because the sump pump was turned off. All that water sitting there for months is likely to cause other problems too - rot, mold, damage to other appliances in the basement, etc. It drives me crazy because it's serious physical damage being caused by some silly bureaucratic rule somewhere that is not in the owner's best interests. Why on earth do they do that?