When moving to your own place after a year spent in the dorms, it’s now your responsibility to set up the utilities. Luckily, local property manager Scott Gilbert said a good owner won’t leave you to fend for yourself.
“It’s more common for college students to be led a little more carefully down the path or directed a little more specifically,” said Gilbert, owner and manager of Hoosier Rentals in Bloomington. “It benefits property managers and owners for tenants to come in as smoothly as they can.”
Property managers won’t want tenants to be in the dark about how to set up utilities when they first move in. Your landlord will likely explain to you how to go about the process when you sign your lease or with an email when you’re about to move in, Gilbert said. The information may be on the company’s website, too.
Long story short: Don’t freak out — they’ll guide you through it.
You and your housemates will likely be responsible for setting up the electric, gas and water in your new house or apartment. Gilbert said he’s never heard of an instance when the property manager didn’t guide tenants toward the resources they needed in order to set up the bills in their name.
Gilbert said if one of the utilities is shut off, first identify which housemate is responsible for the bill and make sure they’ve been paying it.
If the answer is yes, then call the company directly or your landlord to make sure you know what’s going on. Have all the companies’ numbers easily accessible.
Gilbert also gave some tips for saving money on the utility bills.
His No. 1 suggestion was if there’s not a programmable thermostat in the house to ask the landlord if they’ll install one for you. Stay aware of manually lowering the heat when no one’s around, Gilbert said.
“If you’re paying for it, you don’t want to leave it on around the clock,” he said.
Don’t forget about your trash. Gilbert said landowners of the single-family houses that college students typically rent will often provide trashcans to their tenants to reduce “time and turbulence” of the move in. If not, trashcans can be found at Walmart or similar stores.
Tenants at apartment complexes will have dumpsters, dumpster chutes or dumpster enclosures into which they can put their trash.
If they have individual cans, tenants will also need to purchase their own yellow trash stickers, which can be found at grocery stores, and attach one to the outside of their can on trash day.
Gilbert’s final tip was that tenants remember to shut off the utilities once they leave places at the end of a lease.
“It’s important to be diligent when you’re wrapping up the bill in your name,” Gilbert said. “You just want to make sure you button it up with the utility company.”
