Giving tenants access to utilities

[Jobee Vincent Buenaventura]

Hey everyone. New landlord here of just under a week with a 2 family home. Inherited seemingly good tenants on the first floor unit and the second floor is vacant for now. I’m in the middle of the process with my realtor in setting up lease agreements and landlord-tenant forms... Been busy at my main employed job this week.. which is my excuse for the delays.

One complaint the current tenants told me is that neither of the units have access to the basement, which is where all the utilities are. They said that they had to wait hours some days for the previous landlord to come by and do something as simple as flipping a breaker switch.

Of course since I’m new to all this, my initial thought was that it was rather cruel. Meanwhile, my girlfriend’s cousins are currently renting a single family and they have access to every livable square foot of the house.

My question is to you all is: Why, or why not, to give tenants access to the utilities?

Thanks in advance!