Watch a video on utilities
A tenant's rights regarding utilities depends on how the
tenant pays for the utility service. There are essentially
three possible situations:
1. Tenant pays utility directly. Even if
the service is not in the tenant's name, if the tenant
is paying the bill directly to the utility company
then the landlord should not interfere with utilites
except in rare circumstances. (If the bill is not in
your name, it is a good idea to consider switching the
bill to your own name as this is helpful in
establishing credit, and might prevent a landlord from
easily harassing you by calling the utility company
and asking that "their service" be disconnected. While
this would likely be illegal, it is better sometimes
to prevent the problem from happening in the first
place.)
2. Tenant pays the landlord and the
service is submetered, or allocated by a formula. This
is happening more and more and the rules are fairly
complicated -- especially when it comes to an
allocated bill (this is a bill based upon everyone's
usage, rather than the tenant usage).
3. The utility service is included in the rent
payment. When the tenant does not pay the utility
company directly and does not pay the landlord for the
utility separately, then the utility is being provided
by the landlord and the costs are being paid with the
rent. For example, an "all bills paid" lease agreement
means that all the utilities are included with the
rent (and the tenant will not receive a separate bill
for the utilities).
Note: If the utility service has or is about to be shutoff
because the landlord has failed to pay the utility company,
then you have rights to take against the landlord, and you
may be able to use your rent to avert any threatened
cutoff. See Landlord Nonpayment.