APS allows landlords to have landlord agreement on file

As a property manager and also as a landlord, I love it when I learn something new that saves time, effort, or money for my management clients.  It’s even better when I learn something that saves time, effort, AND money.  Recently, I had a tenant in one of my own rental properties (I own 9), that skipped out on their September rent.  Actually, they first wrote a bad check, then they skipped.  Fortunately, they left the house in decent shape, though writing me bad checks isn’t the way I like to leave things.

As it turns out, I wasn’t the only person this tenant wrote bad checks to.  APS and City of Phoenix also have collection accounts open with the tenant.  As a result of the collection accounts, APS required that I appear in person at an APS location, to prove that I am the owner of the property, before they would agree to turn service back on.  Honestly, I found that annoying, although I suppose they were doing it to protect me from having my identity stolen by a deadbeat tenant.

While I was there, APS informed me that they have a program to allow any landlord to register with them.  Landlord registration enables APS to automatically move service into the landlord’s name, when a tenant provides a notice of disconnect, thus there is no disruption in power.  That can be handy to keep the plants from wilting away in the summer, due to lack of power to the sprinkler timer, as well as having power for the normal cleaning/repairs that invariably follow a vacancy.  Another benefit, is that APS does not charge their $25 account activation fee when a landlord establishes service in this way.

The only limitation to registration, is that the landlord must have existing APS service, from any property, for 12 consecutive months.  This limitation is likely to rule out at least half of my property management clients, but for current APS customers, the benefits are nice.

So to summarize, a landlord stands to save $25 per vacancy, as well as save the time and effort needed to call APS and re-establish service.

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