How to protect yourself as an owner who pays utilities

[Danielle Weaver]

I have a house that’s a long term rental upstairs and a medium term downstairs. Since everything is on one meter we have decided to pay for utilities. We have rented the long term unit to family friends for over a year and the bills were always reasonable. They are about to move out and I’m nervous to rent to a stranger in the future with this same policy. I’m wondering how I can protect myself if they somehow rack up the bills/ abuse the policy.