Peter Lohmann explains why property owners shouldn't let tenants manage utility accounts. When tenants set up payment plans and disappear, the owner gets stuck with the billāhe saw a $2,500 charge. Keep utilities in your name and pay quarterly instead.
Years can go by where the tenant is deferring the payment on a payment plan. Suddenly the tenant disappears. The city calls the owner and says, hey, there's a $2,500 bill on this property. You had no idea that it was building up that way. So just don't even bother with putting it in the resident's name. Just keep it in your name or the owner's name and just do it quarter by quarter. That way it's a little bit of extra work on your end for facilitating that bill entry and payment. But you're never going to get a situation where the tenant is a year plus behind on the bill.
Yeah, because once you sign that tenant billing agreement, that gives them the authority to negotiate forever.
