Tenants haven't put utilities in their name yet

[Robert Tinker]

So it's been a month and the tenants haven't put the utilities in their name yet. Contacted my property manager and he said have the utilities turned off. Lease agreement clearly states they pay for all utilities. What would you do?

[Sam Leon]

My lease explicitly stated no key release until utilities are under their names.

If this is not addressed in your lease, then the tenant simply owns you the amount of the utilities.  Let's say the rent is $2000 and utilities owed is $200, then they owe you $2200.

If they pay only $2000, then take the $200 out of the $2000 and apply that to the utilities FIRST, then let them know their rent payment of $1800 is insufficient to cover rent.  You should have a clause in your lease that says tenant payment, no matter how they designate it, will first go to pay for late fees, fines, court costs, unpaid utilities, unpaid repairs, unpaid damages that they are responsible for, prior months' rent blah blah blah, then the balance goes to rent.  If the balance is less than the rent, then it's a partial rent.  Your situation then becomes partial rent and you deal with it the same way someone pays you half the rent.

Turning off utilities may not be the best idea.  Check with your lawyer.  In some states under certain conditions it's illegal to do so, for examine, turning off tenant's gas or electric in the middle of winter in Minnesota, to my understanding, could get you in trouble.