How to handle utilities mid-eviction

[Jon Blackburn]

Looking for some non-licensed legal advice for a rookie Ohio landlord! Recently closed on a multi-unit property where one tenant is part way through the eviction process (hopefully wrapping up by the end of September). Per the signed lease, the tenant is responsible for paying all utilities. However, the city informed me that the tenant never established utilities in their name...so my options are to foot the bill myself or give the utility company access to the unit so they can shut off water. 

I'm wanting to tread lightly, as I'm reading a lot of articles about how legally you cannot use utility shut offs as a means for forcing out a tenant...so I don't want that to be the implication here given they are being evicted! Am I allowed to give 24 hour notice of entry, in order to shut the water off? How would you all handle this?

[David Terbeek]

We deal with 4 different water departments around the Cleveland area, all are owned by the city.  In each case, the water bill follows the owner not the occupant.  A good chance this applies to you as well if the water co is owned by the city.  All of our owners have the accounts in their own name and we back bill the tenants for the charges.  (yes, there is a theoretical way for tenants to start their own account with a deposit but the agreement says that the owner of the property is STILL responsible in the end so why exhaust the effort to try to get the tenant to actually do it)

Ohio Eviction and Landlord Tenant Law is a highly recommended resource for a landlord, it is a huge book that covers almost every scenario and cites case law.  It seems that there is conflicting case law on the subject of turning off water when the tenant is responsible.  We err on the side of caution, partly because the courts around here are tenant friendly and just pay it.  In fact, we would owe it afterwards anyway so might as well just get it paid now.