Can I hold my electrical utilities company accountable for allowing?
No. Sorry. The utility company is not responsible for the financial irresponsibility of your tenant or your failure to foresee this possibility and prevent it. If you tried to hold the utility accountable, what would you sue them for? It is your tenant who owes you, not the utility. In the future, you might want to stop paying utilities, with the possible exception of water, for tenants. As long as you are paying, what do the unscrupulous ones care? And even apparently nice people with decent background checks can surprise you. I never paid one penny of utility for anyone. But one of my clients insisted on letting a tenant, one I had cautioned him against, borrow his account, still open from market prep use by a contractor, for 5 days. She had failed to plan ahead to open her own account in time, but she couldn't wait 5 days or any days to move in. ( I think she was scamming him.) He said she begged him to trust her and let her get water for those 5 days under his account , and she promised that she would have it in her name by the 6th day. He said she was so sweet and so sad that he just couldn't resist. I told him he would regret it, and surely enough, he did. He got a surprise just like yours months later. Of course. She didn't pay him. She trashed the house for a few thousand dollars worth and abandoned it. I hope you can get your money back. If it were me, I would sue the tenant in small claims so at least you have a judgment on their records. And maybe they have property of value the court could order seized for you.