Hi, there! Joe White here from Grow Property Management, your trusted property management company in Philadelphia.
I recently started working with a new landlord client who’s clearly in distress. He owns a duplex in Fishtown, Philadelphia, and just onboarded with my property management company. One of the units has a tenant who hasn’t been paying rent, and from what the landlord tells me, it’s been a while. We’re still trying to fully unravel the situation since we only brought him on yesterday, but it’s clear this has been an ongoing issue that’s now turned into a much bigger problem.
Instead of addressing it early, the landlord chose to wait until the lease ended, hoping the problem would just resolve itself – what I call “hopium.” Of course, that didn’t happen. The tenant didn’t move out and is now holding over without paying rent. This is a tough spot, and unfortunately, it’s one I’ve seen more times than I’d like. Landlords often hope things will just fix themselves to avoid the expense and hassle of eviction, but that strategy almost always backfires. Had he started the eviction process sooner, he wouldn’t be stuck now with a non-paying tenant who refuses to leave.
To make matters worse, the tenant never put the utilities in his name, even though the lease requires it. So the landlord has been stuck footing the utility bills = an incredibly frustrating and costly situation. Understandably, he asked me if he could just shut off the utilities since the tenant isn’t paying for them. It’s a fair question, and I get why he’d ask – but the answer is a hard no.
I’m not an attorney, so I can’t give legal advice, but I’ve been in property management a long time and have seen a lot. Turning off utilities would be considered a form of self-help eviction, which is absolutely illegal. As maddening as it is to pay someone else’s bills – especially someone who’s abusing the situation – you can’t retaliate like that. You can’t flip breakers, turn off water, or remove doors to try to push a tenant out. These actions are illegal, and judges don’t take kindly to landlords trying to skirt the law. You could end up facing criminal charges and serious penalties.
I’ve seen landlords try all sorts of extreme and frankly dumb things, like removing doors and pretending it’s for repairs that take weeks. But the courts aren’t stupid. These tactics don’t work – they only get landlords into deeper trouble. Yes, it’s incredibly frustrating, and yes, it feels completely unfair, but the law is clear: you can’t take matters into your own hands.
You do have the option to pursue the tenant for the utility payments, since it’s in the lease. But you can’t shut off their access to essential services. So for now, the landlord has to keep the utilities on and keep paying them. It’s a hard situation, but it has to be handled the right way.
Just a humble property manager here in Philly, doing my best to guide landlords through tough situations. Happy rental property investing.
