Step 26 To Selling a Home: Schedule Your Utilities to End/Transfer

This is one of those annoying tasks that no one thinks about doing ahead of time, but it is crucial, as you don’t want to forget and end up paying the buyer’s electricity bill for the first month.

Call now to let the utility companies know that you’re moving. Ask to have all utilities taken out of your name the day of closing, except for your water bill, which we ask you to keep in your name for a day or two after closing as a courtesy to your buyer. (Water service in Georgia cannot be put into a new owner's name until they have a signed closing statement, which they receive at the end of closing.) We will let the buyer's REALTOR® know that their client needs to be diligent about transferring the water service as soon as the closing ends!

PLEASE NOTE: If you’re moving to a new home in Georgia, you will want to get all of these annoying calls out of the way on the same day. We will ask the listing agent to send us a list of the utilities companies for your new home so that you can have those transferred into your name as of the day of closing. Of course, similar to the buyer on your home, you will not be able to put water service into your name until the closing concludes, so we will ask that seller to extend you the courtesy of leaving the water in their name for a day or two after closing to allow you to be able to.