Tenant or owner pays Utilities

[Carlos Cevallos]

I'm new to real estate and am in the education phase.  While reading @Brandon Turner 's Book on Rental Property Investing in chapter 10 under utilities it states that you should look for properties where utilities can be paid directly by the tenants. I thought all properties were like this, if they are not, how do you determine whether the tenants can pay directly or the owner has to pay?

[Bill F.]

@Carlos Cevallos If you look in some older multi family units, they only have one meter for the entire property. Sometimes the owner can pay to have the unit sub metered and bill the tenants for what they use, but that is not always feasible.  For instance there may not be dedicated hot and cold water lines for each unit or more than one unit shares a water heater.