tenant keep water flow, end up with large water bill to landlord

[Zocky Zhang]

I have a rental property in Philadelphia and the tenant was late with rental for 2 months, we decided to evict the tenant have a court date at beginning of next month.

now we received a large water bill for last month, over $700 in a month for a 1200 sqft townhouse.

is there an option I can do now? in Philadelphia, water is the landlord's responsibility. can I request to shut it off?

[PJ M.]

@Zocky Zhang just to clarify the water does not have to be the landlord's responsibility in Philly.  It's true that the water stays in the landlord's name and that it is a lien-able item on the property, but you can pass the costs back to the tenant.  

I don't include water in my rentals any more.  Tenant's are responsible for all utilities.  Each month the water invoice gets forwarded to the tenant and it becomes "rent due" with the next rent payment.  That way if there's a $700 water bill it;s totally the tenant's responsibility.

Prior to this, I used to have it in my leases that I covered the first $30 of the water bill (this was a long time ago when water was generally included as part of the rent) and any amount over that was the tenant's responsibility.  $30 at that time covered more than enough usage for a family.  If anything was over $40 the same thing happened then that happens now, the bill was forwarded to the tenant with an invoice letting them know it was due with the next month;s rent.

For this, I agree with @Patricia Steiner, it's a perfect time to go in and check out the property.  Make sure there isn't a leak or anything.  Try and schedule it with them but if not, let them know that you consider this an emergency and will be entering to perform a leak inspection.