Sometimes, a property owner pays the utility bills for usage within a tenant’s apartment. For example, the tenants may live in an old building that has only one gas-fired boiler or furnace, and the owner pays the gas heating bills. Or the tenants may live in an old building that has one “master meter” for all of the electricity in the entire building.
The Department has special rules that apply when the utility company terminates service to a property owner’s account, if that termination will ultimately affect tenants living in the building. Those rules are contained in 220 C.M.R. § 25.04. Companies are required to take reasonable steps to identify buildings where a property owner is paying for service to a residential building, and to identify the tenants by apartment number and address who would be affected by a termination. Prior to terminating service to the owner, the company must give notice at least 30 days in advance to the tenants. This notice must include a “projected bill” (an estimate of the usage and billing for the next billing period) and clear notice of the right of the tenants to continue the utility service by paying the projected bills as they come due. The company cannot terminate the service, even if the tenants do not pay the entire projected bill, without first giving notice to the Department, and the Department will consider a variety of relevant facts in deciding whether to allow a termination to proceed, including: any amount the tenants have actually paid, relative to the projected bill; the number of vacant units in the building; whether the tenants are engaged in rent withholding; weather conditions; whether any of the tenants are seriously ill; the age of persons residing in the building; and other factors.
As this list makes clear, the Department is required to make the decision whether to allow termination of a tenanted building based on several factors unique to that building. Whenever tenants receive a notice that the owner’s service may be terminated for non-payment, the tenants should contact the Department’s Consumer Division as soon as possible, so that the Consumer Division can begin to gather all of the relevant facts. The tenants should also seek out the assistance of a local legal services program or tenant advocacy group, as negotiating with the Consumer Division as to the size of the payments that will be required can be a complicated process.