Utilities Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what California law says, what's specific to Los Angeles - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Cutting your utilities to push you out violates Cal. Civ. Code 789.3, costing the landlord up to $100 for every day it continues.
- There's no ceiling on that daily figure, so a 60-day shutoff exposes your landlord to as much as $6,000.
- The minimum award is $250 per cause of action, and the court must award attorney's fees to the prevailing party.
- Intent matters: the shutoff has to be willful and aimed at ending your tenancy, not a burst pipe or repair outage.
- Los Angeles stacks its Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance on top, treating a deliberate shutoff as harassment with separate city penalties.
Understanding the Utilities Clause
A utilities clause does two jobs: it decides who pays for water, power, gas and trash, and it sets the rules when service stops. Most Los Angeles leases spend a paragraph on the first job and say nothing useful about the second.
California fills that gap for you. Under Cal. Civ. Code 789.3 a landlord who willfully cuts service to make you leave owes your actual damages plus up to $100 for each day it continues - and there's no cap on that total.
What renters assume
Renters assume that if they fall behind on rent, or if the lease says utilities are their responsibility, the landlord can legally have service switched off.
What is actually true
Unpaid rent is never a legal reason to cut service in California. Section 789.3 makes a willful shutoff aimed at ending your tenancy actionable at up to $100 a day, minimum $250.
California and Seattle sit in the same place: $100 a day with no ceiling, which quietly beats a fixed number the longer a shutoff drags on. Compare Atlanta, where the entire penalty is a $500 criminal fine paid to the state - the tenant gets nothing.
Plain English Version
Your utilities clause is the bill-splitting agreement, like roommates deciding who covers the internet. But nobody in that arrangement gets to pull the breaker to win an argument, and in California pulling it costs $100 a day.
Utilities Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Los Angeles, CA
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
Upon Tenant’s request, Landlord will provide a copy of the actual utility bill for the property. In addition, Landlord will make available an accounting of the utility bill prorations.
Quoted from the published opinion in Kutscheid v. Emerald Square Properties, Inc., 770 N.W.2d 529 (Minn. Ct. App. 2009). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“Upon Tenant’s request”
Read the trigger. Nothing happens until you ask, which means the information arrives after you have signed, moved in and opened a bill that surprised you. Minnesota's court held that shape of promise insufficient: under Minn. Stat. § 504B.215, subd. 2a(1) a single-metered building that bills utilities separately from rent has to give prospective tenants the whole building's monthly totals for the most recent calendar year, before signing. The California rule on this page is about shutoffs rather than disclosure, so in Los Angeles asking early is a tactic, not a right.
“will provide a copy”
A copy of the bill is not an audit. It shows the building's total; it does not show how that total became your line item, which is the number actually in dispute. In Kutscheid the tenant had been told her unit would run $60 to $80 a month and then paid $168.18 in December, $171.39 in January and $170.67 in February. A copy of the building's bill would not have warned her.
“the actual utility bill”
“Actual” is doing quiet work - it concedes that the figure on your statement is not the actual bill but a slice of one. Cal. Civ. Code § 789.3 is not aimed at the slice. It is aimed at the service, and narrowly: an interruption is unlawful where the landlord acted willfully and with intent to terminate the occupancy. A genuine repair outage or an accident is outside the section, so the evidence that decides these cases is what the landlord said and did, not the outage itself.
“for the property”
Three words that quietly change the subject from your unit to the whole building. That is the honest description of a shared-meter bill, and it is why Minnesota's statute asks for the whole building's monthly totals rather than an estimate for one apartment - a leasing agent's per-unit average was precisely what the court rejected. The Los Angeles layer is local: the city's Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance treats deliberately cutting utilities or housing services as harassment, with city penalties on top of the state remedy.
A promise to show you the bill later is not disclosure. The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed. The addendum allocated the building's gas bill by share of rentable square footage and its water and sewer bill equally among the units - that is the court's own description of the formula, not the lease's words - and it promised the actual bill on request. That did not satisfy Minn. Stat. § 504B.215, subd. 2a(1), which requires the landlord of a single-metered residential building that bills utilities separately from rent to give prospective tenants, before they sign, the total utility cost for the whole building for each month of the most recent calendar year. A leasing agent's statement that the tenant's own unit averaged $60 to $80 a month was insufficient, and disclosure after signing was irrelevant. Her actual charges ran $168.18 for December 2007, $171.39 for January 2008 and $170.67 for February 2008. The court also held that the treble-damages remedy in § 504B.221(a) does not reach this violation, and remanded for actual damages - a clean win on the rule, and a much smaller one on the money.
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
California Law on Utilities Clause
- A landlord may not willfully interrupt water, heat, light, electricity, gas, telephone, elevator, or refrigeration service.
- Intent to terminate the occupancy is required - an accidental or repair-related outage is not covered.
- Damages are actual damages plus up to $100 for each day or part of a day the violation continues, with no statutory ceiling.
- The minimum award is $250 per separate cause of action, and the court must award attorney's fees to the prevailing party.
Cal. Civ. Code § 789.3 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Section 789.3 protects a specific list - water, heat, light, electricity, gas, telephone, elevator and refrigeration service - and it turns on intent. The shutoff has to be willful and aimed at ending your occupancy, so a genuine repair outage or a failed transformer isn't covered.
Where California is unusual is the open-ended math. Denver caps out at $5,000 or three months' rent and Austin at $1,000 plus a month's rent, but California just runs $100 a day until service comes back, with a $250 floor and mandatory attorney's fees for whoever wins. A stubborn landlord builds his own liability.
California Tenant Protections
A landlord may not willfully interrupt water, heat, light, electricity, gas, telephone, elevator or refrigeration service to force you out of the unit. Damages are your actual losses plus up to $100 for each day or part of a day the violation continues, with no statutory maximum. Every separate cause of action carries a minimum award of $250, and the court must award attorney's fees to the prevailing party.
What's Specific to Los Angeles
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Los Angeles adds a second layer. The city's Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance treats deliberately cutting utilities or housing services as harassment in its own right, with separate city penalties that sit on top of whatever Section 789.3 already gives you.
Practically, that matters in older LA stock. Master-metered pre-war buildings in Koreatown and East Hollywood often bill utilities back through a shared allocation formula, and LADWP accounts held in the owner's name mean the tenant never sees the meter. Ask before signing which name each account sits in - that answer decides who can pick up the phone and stop service.
It should. A clause that lists water, power, gas and trash one by one leaves no room for a surprise bill in month three.
Ask directly. Accounts in your name at LADWP or SoCalGas mean only you can authorize a disconnection.
Serious red flag. A willful shutoff to force you out runs $100 per day under Cal. Civ. Code 789.3 no matter what the lease says.
Strike it. A waiver doesn't erase the $250 minimum award or the mandatory attorney's fees that follow a violation.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Cal. Civ. Code § 789.3 on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, California's own publication of its statutes.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Shutoff threatened over unpaid rent
Any clause tying service to your rent balance. A willful cut aimed at ending your tenancy costs the landlord up to $100 a day with no cap.
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"Tenant pays all utilities" and nothing else
One vague line covering everything. Without a named list you can end up funding common-area lighting and laundry power you never used.
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Unexplained shared billing formula
A ratio allocation that never shows its math. Ask for a sample bill and the exact formula in writing before you sign the lease.
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Waiver of Section 789.3 remedies
Language having you give up utility protections. It doesn't remove the $250 statutory minimum or the fee award to a prevailing tenant.
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Silence on repair outages
No notice promise for planned shutoffs. Chicago requires seven days' written notice for repair interruptions; California leaves that to your lease.
Your Rights as a Los Angeles Tenant
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$100 for every single day
Cal. Civ. Code 789.3 gives you actual damages plus up to $100 for each day or part of a day a willful shutoff continues, with no ceiling.
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A $250 floor, plus your fees
Each separate cause of action carries a minimum award of $250, and the court must award attorney's fees to whoever prevails.
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Eight services, not just power
The statute names water, heat, light, electricity, gas, telephone, elevator and refrigeration, so a dead elevator in a mid-rise counts every bit as much as a dark unit.
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LA harassment penalties on top
The city's Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance treats a deliberate shutoff as harassment, carrying separate city penalties beyond the state remedy.
What To Do - Step by Step
Timestamp the moment it stopped
Photograph the dead meter, the dark unit, the cold tap. Date and time are what turn $100 a day from a claim into a calculation.
Call the utility, not the landlord
Ask LADWP or SoCalGas who requested the disconnection and when. Their record is the cleanest proof that the shutoff was willful.
Demand restoration in writing
Text or email the property manager, name the service, and ask for it back on today. Keep the thread - silence is evidence too.
Log every dollar it costs you
Hotel nights, spoiled groceries, laundromat runs, restaurant meals. Those are your actual damages, and they stack on top of the daily figure.
Report it to the city
Contact the LA Housing Department about the Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance. City enforcement runs on its own track from your civil claim.
Get a tenant attorney early
Because the court must award attorney's fees to the prevailing party, a strong 789.3 case is one many LA tenant lawyers will take.