My husband, who was not used to the rental process rented to Mr. Cox. He presented himself very well, provided verifiable references and gave one month's rent with security deposit. Part of his rental agreement/lease stated he must have the utilities in his name. He was given the keys on 10/25/09 and showed my husband something that showed he had ordered the electric switched into his name on 11/1, the actual lease start day. We gave him free rent for 7 days. When he paid his rent in December he still had not had the electric switched.
Shortly before Christmas they still had not been switched so my husband got a check for the utilities he'd used and a promise to have them switched immediately. A few days later the check bounced. He could not pay his rent nor make the check good. I asked him to vacate rather than face eviction. He stalled until I had the utilities shut off on 1/5 but didn't actually vacate until the 10th. The porch light was on, indicating the power was still on when checked on 1/7. I called the electric company thinking they either had not turned it off or he was "stealing power". They put in an order to investigate.
On 1/13 the power was turned off. When I called the power company to have it turned back on I was told I had to pay the investigative fees ($82.77), usage charge ($54.99), turn on fee ($28.00) and a doposit of $270.00. That's another "Ripoff" by the electric company.
If you're considering renting to this man my advice is get a huge deposit up front. Good luck.
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