Tenant Utility Bill Obligation

[Garrett Brunell]

If the lease that your tenant signed states that they are responsible for the electric and gas utilities does the start date for those utility responsibilities coincide with the start date of the lease? If it does and the tenant did not transfer the utilities into their name within a reasonable amount of time (say 1-2 days) then is it a good idea to try and get the utility bill pro-rated to the tenant for the additional time that they owe on the bill? Say the extra bill time amounted to 2 weeks and the landlord is paying the bill for that interim.

Does anyone have experience with making this a smooth financial transition? Advice for the next time...