One of our biggest headaches is chasing after unpaid utility charges. For some reason tenants that pay their rent on time don’t pay the utilities on time. Water, sewer, and garbage collecting when not included in the rent are major collection problem. We find out about the delinquency when the owner’s property is liened.

Some water companies don’t shut off the water, the just lien the owner. If they would shut off the water then we wouldn’t have this collection problem.

To solve this problem you can apply the unpaid charges against the security deposit, but the problem is that depleting the deposit may cause a shortage for move-out damages.

Another way to solve is to apply funds received from the tenant for rent to charges first and rent last. This way it will cause a delinquency for rent. However, the lease must state this will be the procedure. You can then serve a 3 day pay or quit notice.

Anyone with suggestions on how to handle this problem are welcome.

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