Landlord/Tenant Agreement Carryover

[Frank Jennings]

I purchased a duplex last March. Before I purchased it it was in Property Management. I have always managed it myself and had no agreement with that property management company. It was fully rented but last October a tenant moved out. The old tenant had all the utilities in theur name. I didn't put the utilities in my name right away (I thought I would just have the new tenant put them in their name) because the utility companies said that you don't have to do that and it would revert back to them and eventually they would just turn utilities off, but I didn't have to put them in my name if I didn't want to. After a couple weeks (and realizing I wanted to do some upgrades) I put the gas and electric in my name because I was worried about having to run the heat because it was getting cold and then I put the water in my name after about a mouth. Well, that property management company had a landlord tenant agreement with the utility companies, so those utilities switched back to them without me even knowing. Then they started sending me the bills. I contacted them and a woman there said I'm sorry, she'll take care of it. But the bills kept coming and I tried to get a hold of whoever was responsible and eventually the controller in the accounting department left me a voicemail and said these are my responsibilities any bills after they gave up management of it are mine and stop bothering them. I spoke with the utility companies and they said it is not my responsibility because those bills they are sending me are in the property management companies name and their account number. I also don't think it's my responsibility because if the property management company would have just canceled their landlord tenant agreements after they gave up management then nobody would have received the bills during the time that it was in no one's name. It just is kind of harassing and I'm not sure what to do at this point.