TEP Temporary Power Program

 

blue house downtown - by andrecarol on flickrTucson Electric Power (TEP) and the City of Tucson Planning and Development Services Department are rolling out a new temporary power program for distressed properties.

If you’ve ever been shopping for a distressed home, you’ll know that often the utilities are off.  Sometimes, utilities are turned on if an offer is accepted and sometimes the owner refuses to turn on the utilities – more common if the owner is a bank and the property is in very poor condition.  Often, it is up to the prospective purchaser to have utilities turned on in their name in order to conduct inspections.

Every once in a while, TEP will refuse to turn on power to a home because of minor code violations or safety issues.  Which makes sense – if turning on the power is a safety issue, then yeah, don’t turn the power on.  But sometimes there are just minor code violations that a purchaser would be happy to correct in the process of fixing the rest of the house.  In those instances, TEP will now provide a 15 day temporary power permit for that prospective home buyer to look at the house with the power on.

The brochure for the TEP temporary power program is here.

Basically, the house has to be vacant and have no life/safety issues.  I believe the real estate agent has to request the temporary permit, and after TEP does an initial inspection (I’m still looking to see if there’s a cost involved with that inspection), the power can be turned on for 15 days for $75.

It’s just a pilot program right now, lasting through the end of May 2010, and – oddly – is only open to licensed real estate agents.

photo via Flickr, by andrecarol

Equal Housing Opportunity Realtor