Utilities Clause
in Your Lease
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Statutes verified against primary state sources
Every statute cited here was read in its published text before this page went live: on the state's own site where that site can be reached, otherwise on a republished copy of the code. Court decisions are quoted from the published opinion and linked to it, so you can read the original yourself.
Primary sourcesNot legal advice
Content verified against primary state statutes before publicationLast updated: October 2026
What it actually means, what Florida law says, what's specific to Miami - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- § 83.67 bars a landlord from causing a utility cutoff directly or indirectly, including by not paying the bill.
- You recover actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater.
- Costs and attorney's fees are recoverable too. The section fixes no flat dollar penalty.
- Covered: water, heat, light, electricity, gas, elevator, garbage collection and refrigeration.
- No Miami section we read adds its own shutoff rule. Florida's state Act supplies the remedy statewide.
Copy and send: As soon as a service stops and the utility tells you the account was closed or went unpaid
Ask for your service back
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
Understanding the Utilities Clause
This page is for Miami renters reading the utilities paragraph of a lease, or sitting in a unit where the power or water just went off. The clause says who pays each bill.
In many Miami leases you pay FPL for power while the landlord covers water and trash, or a flat utility charge rides on top of rent. What no version of this clause can do is give your landlord permission to shut anything off.
What renters assume
A shutoff only counts if my landlord calls the utility, and late rent gives them the right to do it.
What is actually true
Florida bans causing an interruption directly or indirectly, so letting a master-metered bill lapse counts. Late rent changes nothing, and damages start at three months' rent.
Florida has no bar to plot here because the statute sets no flat penalty. Compare Atlanta, where the $500 on this chart is a criminal fine paid to the state and the tenant collects nothing - Florida's three months' rent goes straight to you, and it scales with what you actually pay.
Utilities Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Miami, FL
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.
Under any allocation method, [the tenant] may be paying for part of the utility usage in common areas or in other residential units as well as administrative fees.
Quoted from the published opinion in Northland Investment Corp. v. Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, 349 Conn. 35 (2024). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“allocation method”
Two words that tell you the bill is a calculation. Fla. Stat. § 83.67 reaches the termination or interruption of service, not the arithmetic behind the charge, and a South Carolina appellate court has held that its own state's utility regulator cannot review that arithmetic either. In Zito v. Strata Audubon, LLC, Op. No. 6129 (S.C. Ct. App., filed Jan. 14, 2026, withdrawn, substituted and refiled Feb. 18, 2026), the court affirmed the Public Service Commission's dismissal of a tenants' complaint: owners who do not submeter and simply pass a municipal water and sewer bill through, with a third-party company performing the billing, do not furnish or supply water or sewerage for compensation and so are not public utilities under S.C. Code Ann. § 58-5-10(4). No submetering, no power to switch the service off, no jurisdiction over the rate. Connecticut voided the practice; South Carolina held the Commission could not review it.
“for part of the utility usage”
“Part” is the whole issue. A formula share is not a meter reading, and once the bill is a share, the question a Florida renter can put real weight behind is not the size of it but whether the service can be switched off over it. It cannot, and the ban is drafted to catch the indirect route as well as the direct one.
See the example
“common areas”
Corridor lights and the pool pump, arriving on a resident's statement. Florida's shutoff statute has nothing to say about who is billed for them. It has a great deal to say about what a landlord may never do to collect: the protected list is written into the section itself - water, heat, light, electricity, gas, elevator, garbage collection and refrigeration - and none of it may be interrupted, whoever is being billed for what.
“administrative fees”
Price the fee, not just the utility. An administrative charge for the act of dividing a bill is a monthly amount you agree to in advance, so total it across the whole term before you sign, because nothing in Fla. Stat. § 83.67 reaches a charge like that. The Connecticut court's warning about that lease is the shape to test for: its administrative fees were not defined or limited anywhere in the document.
See the example
Ratio utility billing lost. The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority's ruling that billing residential tenants a formula-derived share of a master-metered bill is unlawful. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-262e (c) makes the owner of a multiunit residential dwelling liable for the costs of all utility services furnished to the building, except service that is individually metered or billed for one unit's exclusive use - and an allocated share is neither. Because the clause charged the tenant for usage the tenant did not exclusively consume, and backed the charge with late fees and eviction, it could not be enforced. The court left the landlord one lawful route: forecast the year's utility costs and build them into fixed rent at signing, where a renter can see the number before agreeing to it. Three justices dissented. The court also observed that the administrative fees this lease allowed were not defined or limited anywhere in it.
How this state's law treats this clause
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.
Florida Law on Utilities Clause
- A landlord may not directly or indirectly cause the termination or interruption of any utility service furnished to the tenant.
- The protected list includes water, heat, light, electricity, gas, elevator, garbage collection, and refrigeration.
- The tenant recovers actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater.
- Costs and attorney's fees are also recoverable, but section 83.67 fixes no flat dollar penalty.
Sources include Fla. Stat. § 83.67 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Florida's utility rule for renters is Fla. Stat. § 83.67:
- The ban. A landlord may not directly or indirectly cause the termination or interruption of any utility service furnished to the tenant.
- Indirect counts. In a master-metered building, a landlord who stops paying the bill has broken the rule as surely as one who calls the utility and closes the account.
- Covered services. Water, heat, light, electricity, gas, elevator, garbage collection and refrigeration.
- The remedy. Actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater, plus costs and attorney's fees. No flat dollar penalty is written in.
Because the floor is set in rent, it is the same whether service was out for one night or thirty. Your receipts raise the figure only when they add up to more than three months' rent.
What's Specific to Miami
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.
No Miami section we read adds a shutoff rule of its own. Florida's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act applies statewide, so a renter in Brickell, Hialeah or Homestead has the same claim.
Fla. Stat. § 83.425 supersedes local rules on matters the state act covers. What is different here is the housing.
Many Miami rentals are individually owned condos, so when the owner falls behind on a master-metered bill, a dry tap can look like a building problem and still be your landlord indirectly causing it.
Electricity, water, sewer, trash and gas should each be assigned. Vague "tenant pays utilities" wording is where a surprise submetered charge hides.
Flat fee, submeter and ratio billing give very different numbers. A fair lease names the method and lets you see the master bill.
Strike it. § 83.67 bans causing any utility interruption, directly or indirectly.
Ask for that language to be removed before you sign, so the damages and fee remedies stay yours.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Fla. Stat. § 83.67 on flsenate.gov, Florida's own publication of its statutes.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Shutoff threatened over late rent
A lease line or a text saying the power goes off if rent is late. That is the conduct § 83.67 bans.
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Master-metered bill in landlord's name
You pay rent, the landlord pays the utility, and nothing in the lease promises the bill gets paid. Letting it lapse is causing the interruption indirectly.
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Elevator or trash called an amenity
Some condo leases treat garbage pickup or elevator service as a perk that can be paused. Florida names elevator and garbage collection as protected services.
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Waiver of statutory utility rights
Any line giving up your remedies under Florida's landlord-tenant Act. Those remedies are the three months' rent floor plus costs and fees.
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Uncapped utility allocation charges
Ratio billing that splits the building's total by occupancy with no cap and no copy of the source bill. Ask for a written right to see the master bill.
Your Rights as a Miami Tenant
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No shutoff, direct or indirect
Your landlord may not cause any utility interruption, whether by calling the provider or by quietly not paying the bill.
-
Three months' rent as a floor
Even a short outage carries a real figure, because you get your damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater.
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A wide list of covered services
Protection reaches the elevator, garbage collection and refrigeration, not only water, heat, light, electricity and gas.
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Fees and costs on top
Costs and attorney's fees are recoverable on top of damages, which helps when you need a lawyer.
What To Do - Step by Step
Document the outage now
Photograph the dark unit, the thermostat, the meter and the clock. Timestamps turn "the power was out" into a damages figure a judge can use.
Call the utility directly
Ask FPL or Miami-Dade Water and Sewer whether the account was closed, went unpaid, or is a general outage. That answer tells you whether your landlord caused it.
Put the demand in writing
Email your landlord the date and time service stopped and ask for it back right away. Name Fla. Stat. § 83.67 and keep a copy.
Track every dollar it costs
Hotel nights, meals out, spoiled groceries, a rented generator. These are your consequential damages, and they count if they top three months' rent.
Call code enforcement
County and city code enforcement handle habitability problems on a separate track from your damages claim.
Call a tenant lawyer
Legal Services of Greater Miami helps income-eligible renters at no cost. Fee recovery under the statute can make a private lawyer willing to take a strong case.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Utilities rules near Florida
The same clause in the nearest states we cover.
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