Tenants In 7-Unit Building Left In The Dark As Landlord In Foreclosure Decides To Cut His Losses & Stiffs Utility Company, Leading To Power Shutoff

In Fort Pierce, Florida, WPTV Channel 5 reports:

• Todi Marinack paid her April rent on Friday. Her studio apartment on South Hutchinson Island in Ft. Pierce costs $600, including utilities. The power went out Monday morning and Marinack tried calling her landlord. When she couldn't get in touch with him, she talked to her neighbors in the small complex of 7 units.
• "He had contacted a couple people in here, I don't know which ones at first," says Marinack. "But he said that he was going to have the electricity turned off."
• Ft. Pierce Utilities shut off the power after several months of late payments or no payments at all. Now the few residents left in the complex are in the dark.

***

• [The landlord] told us over the phone he's cutting his losses. He says months of tenants not paying rent left him broke and though he'd like to pay the power bill, he doesn't have the $1,800 needed to turn the electricity back on.
• [He] told us the building is in foreclosure and should belong to the bank in a couple of weeks. Tenants at the complex wonder how long it will take to get the power restored. "It's either this or I live in my car," says Marinack. "I don't know what to do."(1)

Source: Tenants powerless after landlord doesn't pay bill.

For story update, see Tenants still powerless after landlord doesn't pay bill (Florida Legal Aid is now helping the Marinacks build a case against their landlord).

(1) Presumably, the landlord hasn't paid the water bill, either, so a water shutoff can't be far behind. At that point, the building will be 'ripe' for a local code enforcement 'vacate order' giving all the residents an immediate 'boot' because of the health and safety hazards caused by the utility shutoffs.