Tenants not paying electric bill, owner is responsible

[Tom Server]

So just purchased my first rental property last week and during closing the seller of the property got stuck paying a lean on the property for $4000 dollars due to several different old tenants not paying their electric bill.  Electric company put leans on the owner. So not sure if this is done every where, but the electric company puts a lean on the property if tenants don't pay, even though the electric is in tenants name. How does a landlord protect themself from this ? The electric company has a form that can be filled out by the tenant and the landlord that allows a third party statement if the tenant doesn't pay their electric bill.  But how can a landlord protect them self if they don't pay.. its not like you can shut their electric off ??