landlord tenant problems

[Joe Bell]

NYC. what happens if you can not afford to pay the utilities bills because basement tenants are not paying rent.

we have a 2 story house + basement. everyone has moved out except the basement tenants. can i simply tell them that it is there responsibility to pay there own utilities now? what happens if i really cannot afford to pay the utilities(on account of no rent) and utility company shuts off power? i know that i cannot shut the power off to get them out of there legally, but, if con Edison shuts off the power due to lack of payment i wont be legally in trouble, correct?

[Johann Jells]

Sure you'll be in legal trouble if you've been providing utilities, what are you thinking? You should be focusing on evicting the nonpaying tenants. If your own situation is so thin you can't pay utilities while you do that, perhaps you're in the wrong business. Gentrifying takes deep pockets to weather situations like this.