Just want to know what other landlord do for utility during vacancy.

Who pay the utility for repair and inspection after move out?

Funny you should ask this questions. I'm a contractor and a client of mine who owns around 200 units wanted me to upgrade the electrical in each unit upon a vacancy. Changing the main and sub electrical panels from fuses to breakers and changing all outlets and switches from ungrounded to fully grounded.

She would forget and let the service be turned off, telling me afterwards to use an extension cord from the common area. That's what her painters would do. I had to remind her that I was working on the electrical and since all of the outlets were only two prongs, over the years her handymen would revers polarity switching the Hot for the Neutral. I needed the power to check and insure things were done to code.

So to answer your question, it is the owner of the property to monitor and turn on power for workers.

I one time got a $120,000 remodel job on a single family home. The owner forgot to turn on service to the property. They wanted me to work with one of my generators. It was going to take the Utility one week to transfer service and turn it on.

The schedule was tight. The owner was going to give the home to his newly married son and daughter-in-law as a surprise. The surprises was on the owner because my contract gave me a two week time limit. I was going to work 18 hours a day with two shirts of employee's. But my contract called for working Power, Water, Gas and Sewer service. I had to back away from the job and renegotiate the terms of the contract. Which was, one shift and 60 days to complete the job for 10% extra. No more discounts and going crazy to help a client who refuses to take on their responsibility seriously.

I always have a new tenant signed up to lease an apartment when the old tenant departs. So, I ask the new tenant to turn on utilities for a few days while I get his apartment ready.

To be sure, utilities for the down time are owner's (my) responsibility. But this scheme has always worked out well. I always prorate rent for the downtime, and cost of utilities for a couple of days is always small enough that tenants don't mind.

Very interesting Moshe. I have thought of doing this many times, but can't remember if I ever actually did it. Glad to hear it works for you.

Trouble with that method, JB and NE, if a tenant doesn't pay their bill and the power gets turned off for non-payment, doesn't it flip back to your name then too? And here, the only way you would know is when you got the first bill...

Set up your lease to address this, and there will be zero confusion.

Per our lease, there is always a clearly specified termination date, and it is always the last day of the month. I don't care if they move out on the 2nd: the tenants agreed at the lease signing that they are responsible for the utility bill until the last day (28th, 30th or 31st) of the lease or any extensions thereof. Also, if the utilities are switched back to our name prior to the last day of the lease or extension period, we bill their security deposit at a rate of $10 per day.

Tenant claims they moved out on the 15th of May and shut off utilities at that time? Okay, that's easy:

Count number of day covering the 15th thru 31st = 17 days.

17 days * $10/day utility fee = $170.

On the security deposit move out statement:

* Charge due to tenant transferring utilities out of tenant's name prior to end of lease: $170.

Easy cheesy!

Sid, your faith in the absolute enforcement of anything written into a lease may be somewhat misplaced. While you may insist that in your jurisdiction, anything in a lease goes, there may be scholarly principles that apply.

Most judges (actual judges, more than just temporary judges) are trained in legal theories in law school, they keep in touch with new developments elsewhere in the US, if not in the world, and they need the respect of their colleagues to be able to continue doing a good, professional job, if not to win elections.

Generally, tenants' responsibility ends when they vacate the property, and they are no longer responsible for maintaining utilities which were engaged by them for their use. That is true especially when the extension of utilities is for the convenience of the landlord in preparing the property for his next tenant. In CA, landlord is entitled to recover the cost of preparing the dwelling for re-rental, when the tenant has failed to fulfill his obligation under the lease and abandoned the dwelling before the end of term, but that is a result of CA having re-written its law to make the meaning of the lease a matter of contract law rather than a matter of old-fashioned Real Property law.

In any case, once a tenant has fulfilled his obligations under the lease and vacated the property, costs of preparation for re-rental are the obligation of the landlord, no matter what the lease may say.

I would take on that responsibility myself, except for the hassle and expense of obtaining and paying for a 2-day turn-on.