This varies from location to location, so you should ask your agent.

When I purchased my current home, I made the arrangements with the utility companies.

Private sale, no RE agent. Should I ask my attorney? NY state.

Here (Florida) when the new occupants of the residence call to get utilities in their name, the previous responsible party is taken off, declared ‘inactive’. That said, as soon as you close check your account to be sure you are off of them. It wouldn’t hurt for you to call in advance to inform the utility people of your closing date.

You arrange the shut off, the buyer arranges the turn on. If the buyer wants no interruption of service, they probably need to call the providers directly and make the arrangements for their new accounts and to coordinate with your shutoff order. No matter whether the transition date is before, on, or after the change of ownership. If there's gas service, the gas company will prefer a seamless transition because otherwise they need to send someone out for the shutoff and again for the resumption of service.

You and I do this once in a while, the providers do it every day. C Martin's advice is right on.

Just something that may not affect you but some utilities want to read the actual meter if there still is one. I have a reader outside but when I wanted to switch to my name one utility insisted on reading the inside meter.

Hmm. that's interesting. We've had smart meters for so long I guess I'd assumed they were everywhere but maybe not. With smart meters, the major utilities have daily and, for electricity, hourly readings in their IT systems. When reading could be needed but not feasible, sometimes the buyer and seller can agree to a proration of a period's charges based on days of ownership.

Please say a little more about your comment, are you saying you have two meters? That's a new one on me, why is more than one needed?

The way I typically do it is to coordinate the date with the buyer. Once this date is identified, the seller contacts all of the respective utilities and services informing them of the sale, the need to terminate the service and the date of closing. At this time you will give the servicer a forwarding address. The final bill will be sent to you.

I give the buyer a list of all of the utilities and services with phone numbers. It is up to them to start their service on the identified date. A new account is opened in their name and the future bills will go to them.

Oil and propane tanks are separate issues. Usually you arrange with your servicer to fill the tank to the appropriate fill level on the day before closing. The servicer will give you a slip showing the full level. The buyer will pay for the oil/gas at the going rate at the time of closing.

"The buyer will pay for the oil/gas at the going rate at the time of closing."

Yeah, but that risks producing over and under payments if the price has changed. Because the pre-top-up amount would have been purchased at a different price. Probably no way to avoid it to some extent, other than to have the delivery service estimate the tank quantity before filling it to the top (if possible) and then computing a weighted average cost between the current charge and the last prior purchase. .

Elmer the reader which is probably what you are calling a smart meter in your area is connected to the original meter that is inside the house. That was how the water department was doing it when they switched from manual to electronic reading. Nothing was said about replacing the old meter other than if it was ever repaired it needed to be lowered. It was that way when we purchased the house so I have no idea why the meter dials are less than a foot from the ceiling.

Interesting, stax. Sounds like a lazy approach with no effort made for fairness. If I were a seller and the price had dropped, I wouldn't be happy about the money haircut. But I've never bought a home that had anything other than natural gas.

maifleur, water meters in my area are not inside, they're outside adjacent to the street in a buried concrete box with a pull off lid. That's also where the water shutoff is. When the water company switched to smart (RF readable) meters, they had a lot of plumbing work to do - they removed the old meters in the boxes up and down the street and replaced them with the new ones.

You hadn't mentioned you were had water meters in mind but maybe that's why I was puzzled because both electricity and natural gas meters are similarly outside houses and installing the smart meters involved removing the old style dumb, analog ones. Nothing is inside and in fact, there is no "inside" if that means a basement.

Electric and gas does not freeze. Water does. Water meters are inside or in a water pit.

Some of our utilities will not transfer to the buyers name until the seller calls to cancel service.

I'm sure there are different practices in different parts of the country and it may vary by age of the house. I do know that curbside water meters in buried concrete boxes are used in some places where freezing temperatures are the norm in winter. Your water supply pipe is in the ground too, add a meter to the line and there you have it.

So, I called the gas and electricity providers and they said that my contract will be cancelled when the new owner establishes his own account. For internet, since there are two providers, I’ll do the same; if he chooses the provider I’m NOT using, I’ll have to cancel the service myself. The only only problem I see is the return of the equipment.
One little twist is that I have a renter on the same utilities who is going to continue with the new owner (they met yesterday and worked out their arrangements).

You make the arrangements to cancel your utilities (effective date is closing date) by contacting them individually. Get confirmation of cancellation in writing (email), including confirmation of cancellation of autopay if you have that set up.

Go ahead and return the modem and cable box. Chances are they’re due for an upgrade anyway.

I can't return the modem and cable box without cutting both internet and phone for my renter. Keeping the utilities working through the transfer is more important to me than worrying about a few days of usage.

So it sounds like you just need to work this out. Common practice doesn’t seem to be working for you. By the way, pulling out equipment doesn’t terminate service. We upgrade our equipment by exchanging it periodically. Install the new stuff and reboot.

Cancel your services - all of them - as of the future date of closing and do not rely on the buyer for their startup to soft-close your accounts. You are not responsible for holding the buyers hand. It's up to them to start services as they see fit. Good to be looking out for your soon-to-be-former renter's needs, but they will have a new landlord as of closing and if the buyer can't figure out utility startup then the renter's in trouble anyway. The renter may experience an interruption in cable/tele service because of the equipment return, but you are removed from the equation as of closing. Sure the buyer will have a busy closing day because of a continuing occupant and moving in themselves, don't you linger around in this situation.

"So, I called the gas and electricity providers and they said that my contract will be cancelled when the new owner establishes his own account." Uh, terrible idea. What if the new owner doesn't bother to get his own account for 30-45 days after closing?

Can you make the switchover a precondition before closing? That puts the monkey on the buyer's back instead of yours. Ask the lawyer.

Most people do the right thing. You are usually sent a notice of transfer or disconnection to your email or text account. If you are concerned, call the utility the day after closing to confirm cancellation or transfer.

Any equipment needs to be returned to the company asap. Having a tenant in residence using cable boxes is a complication that will require lots of coordination on everyone's part. I know that you are dealing with this remotely. You need to get someone to return the equipment and get a receipt or proof of return. Otherwise, the cable company will continue to charge you. They are bad about this type of thing. I suggest you try to coordinate this with the purchaser or get your tenant to return the equipment. You may have to pay the tenant for their trouble as an incentive.

I know cable companies can be bad about this, but it is essential that the internet connection be maintained continuously - the tenant's livelihood depends on it, and it's the only phone service there (no cell without the internet "booster"). Just last week, the router failed and I just had to exchange it for a new one - no charge. If the new owner wants to use a different internet service, he will coordinate with the tenant, who will return the equipment. Both ISPs are notoriously slow in responding to service calls, so if the other ISP is selected, it must be implemented before the current one is cancelled. Note that I am using the term ISP, because no television service is involved (the second ISP doesn't provide TV service).

Bottom line - I think everything is going to be OK; complete cooperation with the new owner and tenant.

"but it is essential that the internet connection be maintained continuously"

"Just last week, the router failed and I just had to exchange it for a new one"

These two points contradicted each other, but the tenant survived it anyway. All will be fine for them to work out, take your money and say adios amigo. Sounds like the renter is family though.

I should have said continually - i.e. no unplanned breaks

This is one of those things I never worry about, I have had people do all kinds of crazy things when transferring property but transfer of utilities have never cost me more than a few dollars each. As for ISP's many will just transfer the equipment to the new owner's account and the whole thing is pretty convenient. They regularly do this for my renters.

Stax, I've participated in conversations with sushipup in another forum for many years. She's a very nice person and I personally appreciate her vigilance in trying to identify annoying or nefarious people who bump old threads and often bury spam or spam-like links in them. Or set up to do same.

No one bats 1.000. If she strikes out a time or two, her batting average is high and the few strikeouts now and again don't undo the benefit of the vast majority of times she hits a home run.

(Yeah, baseball season is starting).

I find the callouts irritating and unnecessary and always tag them as inappropriate. Tag the spam and be done with it! Suspicious posts I find that are not yet spam, I bookmark them in a list for review every couple/few days and tag the spam if/when it occurs. No debris left behind, like the drivel above.

Drivel? If it's drivel, at least it's interesting.