I would appreciate any contacts or leads in the right direction but time is vital in this situation.

They have a habit of not paying bills, maybe they won't pay yours.

Submetering allows people can see a correlation on their bills when they change their habits.

I would start with something simple and very convenient like mobile app for budgeting- it's much more easy to turn tracking expenses into habit when you can do it immediately (and with benefit of taking photos as well) without need to "deal" with them later.

A lot of it will have to do with lifestyle habits.

It is vital to understand the responsibilities you take on when entering this industry.

Everything else is typical habitable property stuff like locking doors, running water, heat, etc.

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If this is a complete gut to the studs, then clearly you have the legal ability to pay the tenants currently in there to move as it will not be habitable.

Without utilities the house is not habitable and if them paying utilities is part of the lease, then they are in violation of the lease and need to either leave or get the utilities sorted.