Those that insist the M2M lease is the only way to go, I need to know where your properties are located.

I can see insisting on the first back in the day if you had to go in person and collect the rent.

If yes, charge it to the tenant and see if he still insists on disconnection.Eventually, you may want to consider another gas appliance, like a water heater or range, so tenants can't ask for disconnection.  

Ours is v strict - although it has a one month minimum the HOA insists on at least 30 days in advance written applications with $100 fee and credit pull.

He insisted his payment issues were due to traveling out of town for his Grandmother's funeral, then some kind of bank glitch. 

So at his insistence we took over and are building the additional 6 houses - that just happen to be "little houses"They are about 30 feet apart. 

If they insist you can't have that, then you might have to walk.

I guess it depends on the size of your portfolio.. at one time we had 350 homes.. that would be a little wild to have 350 LLC's and do 350 tax returns..I had a partner that insisted on some new builds we were doing.. that each be its own LLC.. so there you go own LLC own checking account separate tax returns.. by the time we got to about the 5th one he said screw that this is too much work.plus you cant just bank rupt an LLC if you do they come after you personally.. these do not protect you personally..  

I would insist on full payment and then they collect from the deadbeat.

He WILL start getting the message that you moved on; and if worse comes to show and insists on final payment and goes as far as filing a lien against the property (which is highly unlikely because of the amount of fees and time involved) show the paperwork to the town of the vague contract  and pictures of the house in the AS-IS condition it is in; and you could also say he was suppose to finish the work in a certain time frame and it's still in this condition.You could also report his company to the BBB if worse comes to show.