Tenant not paying utilities

[Kameron Starr]

New to rentals as of 1/1/21. Bought property with tenant already living there. Tenant is responsible for utilities in lease but hasn’t paid utilities company yet. I just received notice that they will shut off utilities if they don’t get paid by 23rd. How should I handle this? I would like to enforce the contract and have tenant pay. However if they don’t then shutting off utilities will cause pipes to freeze and all other issues?? I don’t want to just pay the bill and make it seem like them paying utilities is optional?