His relatives shut down electrical service while the property is still in their possession (some furniture is still in the apartment, etc.). They have 9 more days before next rent payment is due but I am afraid that water pipes will burst from freezing because of cold weather. Were they allowed to shut down electricity without my agreement? What is my next step? Thank you.

First most important thing to do is get service turned back on before anything bad happens, like frozen pipes. I don't know what the law says, you should look in to it. Maybe you can get a pro rated bill from the utility company to give to the family of the deceased. I'm not sure what your rights are, but regardless, you would want to avoid a disaster.

Depending on where you live... they can be held legally liable for damages that occur due to failure to maintain utiilities while the unit is in their possession. What city and state is this so people can find out exactly what your rights as a landlord are. THey can vary considerably.

It is in Waterbury, CT

First most important thing to do is get service turned back on before anything bad happens, like frozen pipes. I don't know what the law says, you should look in to it. Maybe you can get a pro rated bill from the utility company to give to the family of the deceased. I'm not sure what your rights are, but regardless, you would want to avoid a disaster.

This is the Real Estate LAW forum. Please provide answers that conform to actual law.

To olegwild
If the tenant was responsible for paying electricity, then they had the right to shut it off. But you should have been notified. If any damage to the property occurred because of their negligence they would be liable for it.

I would contact the electric company to restore power immediately. Then arrange for an inspection of the property.

Right ScottGem! That's why I emphasized "I don't know what the law says"... however, it is very important to get utilitiy back on BEFORE pipes freeze. That just makes sense and would be so much better and cheaper than new pipes and repair of flood damage if the pipes froze because no one wanted to be responsible for a utility bill...

Right ScottGem! That's why I emphasized "I don't know what the law says".... however, it is very important to get utilitiy back on BEFORE pipes freeze. That just makes sense and would be so much better and cheaper than new pipes and repair of flood damage if the pipes froze because no one wanted to be responsible for a utility bill....


Again - and I just posted this on the medical boards - the legal/medical threads are different from the others. We take great pride in our answers on the legal boards. Ths is not a forum for "I guess" or "I think" or "my cousin told me."

What makes sense to a layperson may very well NOT be what makes sense to the legal system.

Scott is 100% "on."

Call up the utility and have the power turned on in your own name. You are the owner; take care of your property.

Not a lawyer, but I am a landlord.

Comments on this post thisisit (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/members/thisisit.html) agrees: I agree, I sure would not let my property get frozen pipes because the tenant or deceased tenant's family failed to uphold a contract


See this is part of the problem. Why do you think the family failed to uphold a contract? In fact, that was not the case. The lease ended with the death of the tenant. If the electricity was in the tenant's name, then they had the right to turn it off.

What they didn't have a right to do was to jeopardize the landlord's property. Which they may have done by exposing the property to the cold.

So your comment was actually inaccurate legally. As Judy said, we take a lot of pride in the accuracy of the advice given here.

If the question was posted in a home maintenance forum, your answer would be OK. But since it was posted in a legal forum, it was not.

No intent to threadjack...

I'm curious about this topic... I know the laws may vary particularly with rent controlled areas etc...

But since the contract was with the Tenant... who is dead... didn't the contract end at that point, and at that point exactly what right would any relatives of the deceased have to maintain possession in such a case as they are not recognised as the legal tennants, and at what point would it become due diligence of the landlord to hook up utilities to protect their investment.

Because I have thought about picking up a forclosed property or two to rent out and wondered what happened in such a situation. We had similar situations of tenants skipping town and cutting off utilities resulting in everything containing water freezeing and breaking. Pipes fixtures etc. In PA, we could have sued for the damages and won... but getting awarded damages and collecting are two different things. Hard to get something from someone who has nothing. Particularly after legal fees.

Theorectically, the estate takes over the lease until they can clear out the apartment. Also, since the rent is paid up they have until the rent is due to clear things out.

But turning off the electricity in the dead of winter is negligence.

Thank you very much for all your response! That is the most helpful forum I found on internet. I am in the process of turning the service back on and changing the door locks. I have notified relatives not to enter the premises without prior agreement with me. I am just confused what to do with the rest of furniture if they do not remove it by the due date (they have removed some of it - the most expensive I guess). Would I be able to give it to charity? I know that I could hire a lawyer but the legal fee related to rent I used to collect is much larger. If anyone has any ideas it would be very, very helpful. Thank you very much.
P.S. Please do not take this email to impersonate me as a bad human being. I have called them many times to remove it before due date and I will return unused portion of rent but they are just slow on response and action.

How long you have to "store" the belongings varies by State. I would minimally send a registered letter to the next of kin giving a date by which you want the belongings removed and stating that as of that date you will store them and charge $X a day.

That should get them moving!

No, you can't just dispose of the belongings.