Tenant moved out didn’t pay utilities

[I_forget]

What’s my next step? He didn’t pay utilities for 2 months. I have a signed rental agreement that covers the time period

[ak77]

Forgive and forget.
If not probably going to have to go through the small claims, and yaddayadayadda... Probably gonna spend more fighting it than you are owed.
Or find a couple of shady individuals with bats (not the covid kind)...

[Off in the Bushes]

I fail to understand how that falls on you to pay it.

[fishinisgood]

Don’t they have the utilities in their name?

[Getzcold]

If the utilities are in there name you have nothing to worry about. Let the utility companies deal with them as it will follow them around. If it’s in your name I’d pay them and if you have lots of energy go after them in court to be paying d back.
I’ve had tenants that had the power shut off. They stole another person’s meter and put it on the house so they would have power. When they left I had Enmax saying there was no power at that location. Took abit to get them over there to put the meter that was assigned to that house back on. I never paid any of the back charges for those renters.


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[EZM]

Originally Posted by Off in the Bushes

I fail to understand how that falls on you to pay it.

As the landlord, when they "turn off the lights" to his rental property all liability, as assumed by the tenant (assuming the utilities were under the tenants name) become nothing more than an arguing point for the landlord with the utilities provider.

You may be able to "argue" liability, however, what a pain in the neck that could become.

But you are correct "it's not his problem" ......... or is it?

Unfortunately, if the utilities people think they can collect on bad debt, they are quite willing to be real PITA people to deal with and can make this miserable for the landlord.

Is it worth it?

Hopefully there is a holdback in the form of a damage deposit that should cover that expense (as long as that was collected and is proportionate).

[liar]

Welcome to the world of landlords !

[Jigsalot]

I have had that happen to me with my BC properties. Just pay it and move on. Bit of a tax break. Last time it happened the ***** left his 3000 dollar excercise machine and he never picked it up. Day 30 it was in my truck back to Alberta and it’s great for drying clothes. 😬
They also broke the 1 year rental agreement so I kept the deposit. Still a pain. Being a landlord is not much fun at times. Might get out of the game in March. See what the market looks like.

[Ken07AOVette]

pm me

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by liar

Welcome to the world of landlords !

X2. sufficient Damage deposit ?

Grizz

[darren32]

100% pay it and move on. Not worth your time.

[58thecat]

my son went through this...well that owing came out of the damage deposit...

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Ken07AOVette

pm me

Ken put the baseball bat away...........

but I do have a slightly used Louisville slugger I can loan'ya!

[Dynamic]

I have nothing to add other than saying thank you. I sometimes have the urge to buy a rental property but I keep hearing rental horror stories and I halt my plans very quickly.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Dean2

Triple net commercial properties are a whole lot less aggravation than residential rental and the rate of return is a lot better.


To the OP, call Ken07AOvette. He is a great collector.



As others have said, if the utilities are in their names, it isn't your problem anyhow, tell the utility companies to pound sand if they come to you for payment. Alberta has very strong regulations on collections, a company trying to collect a debt you don't owe them would make serious trouble for themselves. If they do push you to collect for a debt read through this and file a formal complaint.


https://www.alberta.ca/information-c...repayment.aspx

yup first months rent and damage deposit up front, lease signed and don't have any utilites etc in your name as the tenant will be responsible for that...you will go through a few idiots along the way but also getting a good tenant is awesome and usually they stay for a while too if they are happy.

[darren32]

Originally Posted by Dean2

Triple net commercial properties are a whole lot less aggravation than residential rental and the rate of return is a lot better.

And a whole lot more costly to get into and can remain vacant for much longer periods of time (especially right now).

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by darren32

And a whole lot more costly to get into and can remain vacant for much longer periods of time (especially right now).

Average house is north of 400,000. You can buy many commercial properties for that price. What to buy and where to buy it all factor in. I have a lot of farm land that has never been not rented in all the years I have owned it. One section, the rent collected over the 12 years I have owned that particular property has now returned more than the original purchase price. A couple of the self storage outfits return their original purchase price every three years and there is always a waiting list for spots. Shop and office space owned for 25 years, been empty for 1 month in all that time. Cost was 200,000 25 years ago, earns 60,000 a year in rent.

[darren32]

Originally Posted by Dean2

Average house is north of 400,000. You can buy many commercial properties for that price. What to buy and where to buy it all factor in. I have a lot of farm land that has never been not rented in all the years I have owned it. One section, the rent collected over the 12 years I have owned that particular property has now returned more than the original purchase price. A couple of the self storage outfits return their original purchase price every three years and there is always a waiting list for spots. Shop and office space owned for 25 years, been empty for 1 month in all that time. Cost was 200,000 25 years ago, earns 60,000 a year in rent.

You would be a little out of the league of the "average" person looking for an investment in property both in experience and buying power.

[leeelmer]

I know our rural power provider, now makes the land lord(property owner) sign the contract as well for the renter, basically making the land lord responsible for the power bill and gas if the renter fails to pay the bill.
Or they plain won't hook up the power or gas, not sure it is totally legal or not, but that is what is happening here. They also send a copy of the power bill to the land owner, in there name, just with the renters contract number on it.
We found this out this year, as I have a house on my mothers quarter section, and her name is on the deed, so they send her a copy of my bill and made her sign my contract or they were going to cut my power off.
NOt sure what everyone else is doing, but thats they way it works here. And we don't have a choice who we use for power, Blue Mountain CO-OP or nothing.

[molly]

We have never included utilities on our rental, for that very reason. The only one we end up on the hook for potentially is the Town bill for water and sewer, which we got screwed on twice out of nine sets of tenants so far.

[FishHunterPro]

I think there might be a site that you can flag a tenant for doing shady stuff like this . Might screw the guy for renting on the future or scare him to pay up ?

[Ken07AOVette]

Originally Posted by FishHunterPro

I think there might be a site that you can flag a tenant for doing shady stuff like this . Might screw the guy for renting on the future or scare him to pay up ?

No, it will cement in his mind all the reasons he had for not paying. We refer to them as excuses. He wil right, the dirty landlord is always wrong, in his mind.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by darren32

You would be a little out of the league of the "average" person looking for an investment in property both in experience and buying power.

ya gotta be creative....early 90's...4 fellas at work mustered up 10k each for a chunk of land outside moose jaw....graveled it, fenced it, turned it into a storage facility.....dam...hmmmm...chaching

others bought a duplex...rented out one side which paid the mortagage and fixed up the other side....5 years later tenant moves out so they move into the other side...rinse and repeat but this time they increase the rent...doubling down on mortgage….now this was a fixer upper from the start….10 years later paid off and sold for 3 times what they paid for....renters paid for mortgage and then some...a little paint and trim...chaching!!!!!!

[EZM]

Originally Posted by 58thecat

ya gotta be creative....early 90's...4 fellas at work mustered up 10k each for a chunk of land outside moose jaw....graveled it, fenced it, turned it into a storage facility.....dam...hmmmm...chaching

others bought a duplex...rented out one side which paid the mortagage and fixed up the other side....5 years later tenant moves out so they move into the other side...rinse and repeat but this time they increase the rent...doubling down on mortgage….now this was a fixer upper from the start….10 years later paid off and sold for 3 times what they paid for....renters paid for mortgage and then some...a little paint and trim...chaching!!!!!!

YUP

The key is to a ROI within 10 years is buying a "rentable property" - duplex, 4plex, condo, townhome because the value from and investment to income ratio is great.

A 50%-70% return (expense/return) is common in this segment

Sure you will get screwed in this segment - as people will be people and some will will be scumbags and deadbeats.

But they will tell you all of us landlords are scumbags too.

But hey, thanks for helping me build my equity, pay my mortgage off on my investment, and thank you for helping me retire with a few more nickels in my pocket a few years earlier to live a slightly more comfortable life when it's time to retire .............

so from scumbag to scumbag ............ I thank you