Tenant security deposits and unpaid utilities

[Kelly G.]

Greetings;

Apparently, my current and previous tenants have failed to pay their water bills, per the rental agreement.  My PM knew nothing of this until  .  . . well . . I'm not sure how they found out . . Anyway - when a tenant moves out, can a PM check that all utilities have been paid and retain from the tenant deposit any unpaid utilities?  Would the PM be 'negligent' for not having verified this at move out? 

thanks

Kelly

[Jeremy Pace]

This is going to sound silly, but bear with me.

1) does it say in writing in your lease that the tenant is responsible for the water bill?

2) Does you lease lay out the different, explicit reasons why you may withhold their deposit?

3) does your PM contract explicitly state that they are authorized and expected to monitor utility usage and payment by the tenant?

Water is lien-able almost everywhere, so you need to pay close attention.  

And I don't know how they do it in Cali, but here in PA, they generally won't shut off 'essential utilities' in the winter, which means come spring, the tenant can be WAY behind.  I had a tenant that was six months delinquent gas & electric when the spring thaw finally came, off went all the things that glow and burn.