Tenant never transfered utility in his name

[Mark Allen]

Renting out an apartment in California. A tenant moved in 2 years ago and I have recently come to find out he never tranfered the electricity into his name. Its in the lease that power and gas are tenants responsibility. I understand it's my fault I am barley realizing now that I have been paying the bill. After notifying the tenant he has tranfered it in his name however now I am wondering if I can charge him with the 24 months of billing that I paid for, a total of $1,800.00. Are there any legal restrictions regarding what I can and can't do in this situation?

[Mark Holencik]

You want to charge someone for your mistake?

[Mike Dymski]

Maybe cut your losses, negotiate with them to reimburse the last few months, and move on.  Getting an attorney and pursuing someone after two years does not sound like a pleasant alternative.

[Mark Holencik]

You want to charge someone for your mistake?

[Mark Allen]

I understand the mistake on my end however it does state in the lease the tenant is responsible for water and power. Is the tenants refusal to pay the bill grounds for eviction?

[Mark Holencik]

You want to evict a tenant you have had for 2 years because you made a mistake? Has he done anything else?

[Amy Beth]

Maybe it is time to use a property manager. If you have been paying utilities for two years and are just realizing it now I think your property is too much for you to manage on your own.

[Randy E.]

If you've been paying the utilities for 2 years and never realized it, you must be very rich.  You don't need to worry about collecting from the tenant.  *sarcasm alert*

Sarcasm aside and admitting I am not a legal professional, as long as the lease states the tenant is responsible for utilities, you probably can pursue a court case if he refuses to agree to a repayment schedule.  However, if you are truly trying to assess blame and have the person at fault pay for the loss, I would probably start by looking in the mirror and admitting that I was 70-80% to blame.

Once, during a short vacancy, I had to have the water and electricity cut on in my name at one of my properties, as I often do during turnover to make make-ready and showings easier.  I informed the new tenant she was to have the water and electricity switched to her name at move-in. Prior to move-in I personally called the power company to have the electricity service in my name discontinued, but I forgot to do that for the water. Two months later, I realized she had not done so either.   I reminded her about switching the water, and she did so that day.  I could have hounded her for that money, but I used the loss as a reminder for MYSELF to not forget to switch off utilities prior to a tenant moving in.

[BOB CRANEY]

Do yourself a favor and make a move in checklist that must be completed when the tenant signs the lease and before move in. No tenant should get keys and access to the rental until all the obligations of the tenant are fulfilled.

If they are allowed to decide whether they want to call the power company to get service in their names or not, more often it will not happen by the move in date.
Suddenly you will find out the tenant has poor credit and the utility will require a $500 deposit to open the account. Guess who doesn’t have that money just lying around!!
Call the power company immediately and tell them to cut off the service. Your tenant has know for the last few years they were not paying for the utilities and said nothing. That tells me they are dishonest but it doesn’t change the fact that they should reimburse you for the back utility bills.

Send them a certified letter explaining the situation and include the copy of your lease with that clause highlighted. Your inaction does not release them from the obligation to pay for the utilities. Propose a payment schedule over 12 months or so to get repaid. You will likely not get your money and they will move out if you try to evict. At that point I hope you have a good fat security deposit because that’s what I would use to reimburse myself for the unpaid utilities.

Get smarter and more formal about how you run your business or get out of it.

[Chad H.]

@Mark Allen, hey, you owned up! It's your fault. Great thing you found out about this now, or it would have gotten more out of hand. I'd recommend that you take the loss and look at it as lesson learned. As Landlords some of us don't make mistakes, some of us do, big or small, but, that's ok. It only makes the owner a better landlord, Thanks for the post.

[Kyle McCorkel]

My simple system is that all utilities that I pay (for example my personal utilities) I put on autopay.

Then when I buy a new property I very deliberately sign up for utilities and elect NOT to do autopay but ensure that I am getting an emailed or paper bill. Then after the tenant moves in, if they don’t switch something to their name, I keep getting the emails. Then I just scan a copy of the bill and ask the tenant to reimburse for that utility, as well as ask them to move it to their name.

The annoying emails that I keep getting serve as my reminder.

[Vanessa Deluca]

I am so busy with all that I do that I could see this happening to me.  I don' t think we need to judge  but that is my opinion.   I would ask the tenant, he is responsible. Otherwise, I don't know if it is legal, but I would take it out of the security deposit.  It is not a small amount of money. 

[Jeremy S.]

Don't listen to the negativity from those who have never made any mistakes. I failed to notice fraudulent charges on my CC for 6 months and didn't get reimbursed for that.

Anyway, I would speak with your tenants about the situation. Act like paying you back is non negotiable BUT you are willing to work with them on a payment plan. Maybe $50-100/mo or something. You may get lucky but it's probably not worth pursuing in court.

I have 2 move-ins this month so thank you for the reminder to confirm utilities transfer. Good luck

[Jeremy S.]

I also forgot to add that if you do not get reimbursed for the electric, make sure to speak with your accountant about deducting those expenses as I'm sure you did not already considering you didn't know you were paying them.

[Craig Herman]

My property management team won’t give the key to the place until the utilities are transferred. It puts the ball in there court to get it done immediately.