I have two rental homes in the State of Arizona, all the utilities are in the renters names, I do have a security deposit on both, I need to know if in the State of Arizona, if any of the Utility Companies can charge me for the renters unpaid bills and put a lien on either of my houses. Would appreciate any information that is available.
Is the home owner responsible for unpaid utilities on a renter?
9 Responses for “Is the home owner responsible for unpaid utilities on a renter?”
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Yeah, the water and sewer bill will have to be paid by you. You need to always check that this is paid before you return a security deposit. You can take the money from that..
No they have to go after the renters for unpaid bills since they were in the renters names.
As long as the renter is living in the house and under a lease, he should pay; however, if the utilities are under this person’s name, then the landlord is not liable for he is not responsible for switching the name on the utilities.
probably only water.
The cool thing about getting an electric bill in YOUR name is that when you default they hunt YOU down not your landlord.
So NO they will not come looking for you just because you own the property, the person will most likely never get water or lights in their name again unless they pay their bills.
Call your local power or water company and see if this is the case, if they want to hold you accountable and you still have the deposits then you legally can use the deposit to pay that debt. But what you need to do now is make a rent agreement with the clause in it, "Any unpaid utilities are not the responsibility of the landlord, the renter will pay all debts, responsibilities, etc. Otherwise the deposit will be used to pay these debts" Basically you can make them do it.
that would depend on the renting contract if you said that utilities are included on your behalf then it is your responsibility if you dod not include the utilities in the rent contract then it is up to the tenant to pay for them and if they haven’t it is their property that a lien should but put against good luck I know this is such a pain to deal with hope the electric company doesn’t give you drama
The water bill would be the only one. It’s best to always keep that utility in your name and include it as part of the rent.
Many utility companies DO charge the owner for a tenants unpaid bill. I do not believe that they can get a lien on your home for this, but they do sometimes refuse to turn on the utilities for the next tenant until it is paid. That is legal.
This is part of what the deposit is for. Pay any owed utilities out of their deposit. If it is more than their deposit then sue the them for the difference.
I’m not sure about specific local laws on that, but a utility company will usually turn to the owner if the tenant does not pay - whether or not the tenant will ever have utilities allowed in his name is beside the point. For owners, that may mean that utilities for the rental unit may not be activated for the next time.
This is where the security deposit comes in, to pay for possible debt. It’s best to check with local utilities when drawing up your contracts, so that your contract is covered with local laws in mind.