Posted by By Oretta Croushore, Property Manager for Home Rental Services
What was your favorite promise of the future from The Jetsons? I would be willing to bet the most common answer is flying cars. For me, I think I would have to go with that thing that lets you try different hairstyles without commitment. I will also accept a Rosie that cooks and cleans while offering my family heartfelt advice. I thought it was so cool how much of our lives would be automated in the future. I love to set it and forget it!
One thing that’s supposed to work on a “set it and forget it” system in our world is utilities.
When we onboard a new owner or bring on a new house, one of the owners’ tasks is to set up “revert to owner” on gas and electric services. When a renter moves out and disconnects services in their name, the service should stay active and the billing reverts back to the owner while the house is vacant. Seems pretty simple and flawless, right?
George Jetson learned a few things about the failings of automated systems during his time. I, too, learned the hard way at a young age. Let’s just say programming the VCR to record The Young and the Restless, while I was in school, wasn’t without it’s failures. The same can be said for the set up of revert to owner. With the changeover from KCPL to Evergy, we’ve seen more issues. I suspect something got lost in transition. Kansas Gas changed their revert to owner policy last year. If they don’t have a new, signed copy of the revert to owner request on file, they will cancel it.
The move out inspection is completed a day or two after the renter moves out. So, if they cancel their electric service for their lease end date and the inspector shows up a day later to conduct the move out inspection, he could end up doing that in the dark. As you can imagine, a house shows much better to potential renters when the lights are on. There are mechanical concerns when the utilities are off as well. Without gas and electricity, the heat typically doesn’t work. That can lead to frozen pipes during cold weather. No electricity also means no AC in the summer. This could lead to some yucky mold growth if the humidity levels rise.
PSA for Investment Property Owners
Please take a few moments to check with the electric and gas providers for your rental homes to confirm they have everything they need to revert to your name without interrupting service. The utilities need to be in the name of the owner of the property. However, the bills should be sent to Home Rental Services. The mailing address is 6900 College Blvd. Ste 990 Overland Park, KS 66211. The bills can also be emailed, which is preferred, to propertymanagers@home4rent.com. On a side note, there’s not a revert to owner process for the water companies. They prefer not to have water on in a vacant home. (You can request to have the service turned on while vacant with a phone call. We may ask you to do this if work is being conducted at the house while it is vacant.)
Here are some common utility providers:
Evergy: Revert to owner agreement form
Phone: 888-471-5275
Kansas Gas: 800-794-4780
Atmos Energy: 888-286-6700
BPU: 913-573-9000
Missouri Gas Energy: 816-854-5252
Please email any forms or confirmations you complete for these requests to: propertymanagers@home4rent.com so we can keep them on file.
If you’re living your best Jetson’s life, you can get Rosie to take care of all of this for you while you get a massage from your robot masseuse!
Home Rental Services Blog 