Why is it that residential buildings get the power turned off after 1 or 2 missed payments but commercial buildings don’t?

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If I miss 2 payments on my power bill the power company sends someone out to turn of the utility, however I see lots of commercial buildings (old Toys r Us, empty stores ect) with all the lights still on. Is someone still paying?

In: Economics

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Not exactly answering your question, just clarifying something else for you:

Usually when a store goes out of business, the actual property owners keep the lights on to encourage people to take a look at the property in hopes that they will lease the space and make it profitable again. Also, to deter any vandals, squatters from breaking in and looting/making a mess of the emptiness.

Note that just because a store is closing, does not mean that the building goes with it. Most of the time the actual property owners, the ones receiving monthly payments from business owners to conduct business in their space, are the ones who are still responsible for it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

When an individual misses 2 power payments in a row the amount owed and the damages caused by cutting the power is usually too small to be taken to the courts. So the power company can bully the little guy by cutting off the power.

When a corporation does not pay its power bill, cutting the power off can lead to 10’s of thousands of dollars in damages and can end up in front of the courts. So power companies are more careful about cutting the power.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Those stores that shut down were almost always leasing the property from commercial real estate companies. The utility bills are still being paid.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Most of the time, especially in strip-mall type situations, the store doesn’t own their premises, they rent it from whoever owns the building. Therefore, the space doesn’t suddenly become ownerless when Toys R Us leaves.

Anonymous 0 Comments

All the other answers here are correct (i.e., whose name is the service actually under), but having worked at a POCO for years, we would disconnect a commercial enterprise for non-pay just like an individual if they were the ones that the service was billed to.