Mom is moving to AL next month. How do I cancel utilities? I'm out of state.

Assuming the house was sold through a realtor, he/she might be able to help.   Way back in another era, my first job out of high school was working for a real estate company.   I remember that we handled the utility transfers for the clients, especially since the utilities were not turned off, and the charges and payments had to be prorated as part of the settlement agreement (just as taxes would be prorated).

Why not just transition the account from current owner to new owner and not cut service. There are risk associated with not having power in a house, even for a day. Insurance policy may require power be kept on. I wouldn’t want a fire to occur right before new owner takes ownership and there’s no insurance coverage.

The new resident of the home will transfer the utilities to their names and accounts. Do not turn off the utilities or it will make it very difficult for the new residents and they may be left for a period without heat/gas. If you actually need them turned off then you can do a three way call with the utility company, you, and your mom. Once they confirm you have her permission to speak for her you can take care of the transaction. I do this all the time with the insurance company for my dad.

When I sold my parents house I had cancelled everything except gas and electric using my POA. When the new owner took possession he simply called and had gas and power accounts transferred to,his name.

This is why Mom set me up as a contact with all her utility companies. One reason to do it was if bills did not get paid I would be notified.

My question, does she own this home? If so, why ru turning the utilities off. Are u selling it? If so, you need to keep basic utilities on so the house can be shown. With my Moms house I turned off phone and cable. I left the electric and heat on. I unplugged all large appliances like frig and small ones. I put a timer on a lamp in the l/r to go on at dark go off at 11pm. I set the heat at 55 to keep pipes from freezing. In my town it costs to shut water off and sewerage cannot be turned off.

If she rents then just basics need to be turned off. If Mom is competent, she needs to do this. Its just a call asking the electric be shut off by a certain time. Same with phone and cable. If she is not competent, then a POA needs to be sent to the utility company. I did this thru email. They need to know the person has authorization to do this.

I suggest that if she is having any utilities hooked up at the AL, they go in ur name or you are made a contact with authorization to make any changes to her acct.

If you are DPOA call and ask. If you are not you are unlikely to be able to do this, and as full as her plate is, you and your Mom are going to have to find a way for her to accomplish this. I had to basically use one day of a trip to my bro to help with accomplishing all the things we had to do with him there, and taxing though it was, I felt lucky at the end he was able to help.

Do you have durable PoA for your mom? I would call each company and explain her dilemma and let them tell you what they suggest. Also, if she's moving from a house and no one will move into it immediately, she will need to keep the heat on during the cold weather so the pipes don't freeze.