Utilities Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Tennessee law says, what's specific to Nashville - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- T.C.A. section 66-28-504 makes it unlawful to willfully diminish essential services by interrupting what your rental agreement provides.
- Recovery is actual damages, punitive damages when appropriate, and reasonable attorney's fees - Tennessee sets no fixed dollar amount.
- Protection tracks the services your rental agreement names, so what the lease says the landlord furnishes is what the statute defends.
- You can also recover possession or terminate the rental agreement after a willful shutoff, not just collect money.
- The Act reaches only counties over 75,000 people, and Davidson County qualifies, so Nashville renters are covered.
Understanding the Utilities Clause
The utilities clause decides who pays for what - Nashville Electric Service power, Metro Water Services water and sewer, Piedmont gas, trash pickup - and how each bill reaches you. Some Nashville leases put every account in your name. Newer complexes bundle water, sewer, and trash into a monthly charge that rides on top of rent.
What no version of this clause can do is let your landlord shut anything off. T.C.A. section 66-28-504 makes it unlawful to willfully diminish essential services your rental agreement provides, and Tennessee answers with actual damages, punitive damages when appropriate, and reasonable attorney's fees. There's no fixed dollar figure anywhere in it, which cuts both ways.
What renters assume
Renters read "no dollar penalty" and conclude a Tennessee shutoff claim isn't worth filing, or they go hunting for a Metro Nashville ordinance with real teeth.
What is actually true
There is no Nashville ordinance, and there can't be. What Tennessee gives instead is open-ended: actual damages plus punitive damages when appropriate and attorney's fees, with no ceiling.
Tennessee has no bar on this chart because the statute names no fixed penalty at all. That isn't automatically worse than Atlanta's $500, which is a criminal fine paid to the state while the renter collects nothing. Tennessee's damages go to you and punitive damages have no cap - the catch is you have to prove them, where a Denver renter just points at $5,000.
Plain English Version
Your utilities are part of the apartment, like the front door, and a landlord can't remove them to make a point. Tennessee doesn't hand you a set price for that; it hands you a bill for what it actually cost you, plus extra if it was deliberate.
Utilities Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Nashville, TN
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.
[t]enant shall be responsible for all utilities and services incurred in connection with the Premises.
Quoted from the published opinion in Dinh v. Raines, No. S-18262 (Alaska Feb. 23, 2024). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“[t]enant shall be”
One tenant, one obligation - and in Tennessee the obligation is only half the document's work, because the same rental agreement is what defines the services the landlord has to keep on. T.C.A. § 66-28-504 attaches to essential services provided in the rental agreement, so what your lease promises is also what the statute protects.
“responsible for all utilities”
In Dinh this phrase did not license a landlord to run his restaurant employees' power and heating fuel through the tenants' meter and tank. Tennessee frames the same limit as willfully diminishing services: a landlord who interrupts an essential service is liable no matter who the lease says pays the bill, and the tenant may end the rental agreement or take possession back.
“and services”
The two words that decide which claim you have. The Alaska court affirmed willful diminution as to heat, hot water and electricity but reversed as to internet and cable, which are not essential services under the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act that governed that tenancy. T.C.A. § 66-28-504 turns on the same word: essential. So “and services” in your lease is a wider phrase than the one the statute covers. The tenants still recovered $1,050 for the internet and cable switch, but as an ordinary breach of the rental agreement rather than a diminution of essential services.
“the Premises”
The defined space, and the boundary of what you agreed to pay for. Dinh turned on exactly that boundary: utilities drawn for unpermitted garage units and a restaurant's staff were not incurred in connection with these tenants' premises, whatever the clause said. If your meter or your fuel tank serves anything you cannot see from inside your own door, that is the question to ask before the first winter bill.
The clause survived. The landlord did not. The Alaska Supreme Court held that a “tenant pays all utilities” clause does not let a landlord shift the cost of utilities he diverts. He had housed his restaurant employees in unpermitted garage units and let them draw electricity and heating fuel through the tenants' meter and fuel tank. That was a willful diminution of essential services under AS 34.03.210, which exposes a landlord to exemplary damages of up to one and one-half times actual damages. The court affirmed that finding as to heat, hot water and electricity, and reversed as to internet and cable, which are not “essential services” under the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. The same utilities clause still carried the day on ordinary contract grounds: the tenants recovered $1,050 under AS 34.03.160 for the internet and cable, once they had given notice. Two things a renter should take from it - a broad “all utilities” clause is normal and enforceable, and it still does not make you the landlord's utility company.
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.
Tennessee Law on Utilities Clause
- Willfully diminishing services by interrupting essential services provided in the rental agreement is unlawful.
- The tenant may recover possession or terminate the rental agreement.
- Recovery is actual damages sustained, punitive damages when appropriate, and reasonable attorney's fees - no fixed dollar amount.
- The Act applies only in counties with more than 75,000 population, which includes Davidson County (Nashville).
T.C.A. § 66-28-504 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
T.C.A. section 66-28-504 makes it unlawful for a landlord to willfully diminish services by interrupting essential services provided in the rental agreement. That last phrase carries real weight here - what your lease says the landlord furnishes is what the statute defends. Remedies are your actual damages, punitive damages when appropriate, and reasonable attorney's fees, plus the right to recover possession or end the rental agreement.
Tennessee names no number, and that's the trade. A Denver renter collects $5,000 or three times monthly rent automatically, Seattle and Los Angeles run a $100-a-day meter, and Miami's floor is three months' rent. A Nashville renter with one dark night and forty dollars of spoiled groceries starts at forty dollars - but Tennessee is one of the few states that names punitive damages outright, so a deliberate or repeated shutoff can outrun any fixed cap.
Tennessee Tenant Protections
A landlord who willfully interrupts the essential services your rental agreement provides violates T.C.A. section 66-28-504, and the ban isn't written with an unpaid-rent exception. You aren't limited to money either - after a willful shutoff you can recover possession or terminate the rental agreement outright. Reasonable attorney's fees are recoverable on top of damages, which is what makes a strong case worth a lawyer's time even when your own out-of-pocket loss is small.
What's Specific to Nashville
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.
Nashville adds nothing, and legally it can't. Tennessee's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act preempts the field in the counties where it applies, so Metro Council has no room to stack a local shutoff penalty on top the way New York City layers HPD enforcement over state law. The upside is coverage - the Act only reaches counties above 75,000 people, and Davidson County clears that easily, while a renter an hour out in a small county may have no such statute at all.
The local wrinkle is billing, not shutoffs. Plenty of Gulch, Midtown, and East Nashville buildings push water, sewer, and trash back to renters through a third-party allocation service rather than a meter, so a "utilities included" pitch can still land as a monthly line item. Section 66-28-504 governs interruption of service, not how a building's bill gets divided, so that part has to be pinned down in the lease.
Electricity, water, sewer, gas, and trash should each be assigned by name. A vague "tenant pays utilities" line is where a surprise allocation charge hides.
This one is Tennessee-specific. Section 66-28-504 protects essential services provided in the rental agreement, so naming heat, water, and electricity in the lease strengthens any later claim.
Strike it before you sign. Tennessee bans willful interruption of essential services, and doing it anyway exposes your landlord to punitive damages and your attorney's fees.
Push to have that language removed. With no fixed dollar floor in Tennessee law, signing away actual and punitive damages leaves you with essentially nothing to claim.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- T.C.A. § 66-28-504, read on codes.findlaw.com. Tennessee publishes its official code through LexisNexis; there is no free government edition. FindLaw marks its copy of this section current as of January 2, 2024; confirm the current text with the Tennessee General Assembly before relying on it.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Shutoff threatened over unpaid rent
A lease clause or a text saying the power goes off if rent is late. Tennessee makes willful interruption of essential services unlawful, and that message becomes your evidence.
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Utilities described as a courtesy
Wording that calls water, heat, or trash an amenity the landlord may pause. Section 66-28-504 protects services provided in the rental agreement, so that framing is aimed at your remedy.
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Landlord holds the account, no promise
You pay rent, the landlord pays NES or Metro Water, and nothing in the lease commits them to keep it current. Get that obligation in writing.
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Allocation billing with no source bill
Water and sewer split across the building by occupancy, with no cap and no right to see the master bill. Demand a written right to inspect it.
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Waiver of statutory utility remedies
Any clause giving up your rights under Tennessee's landlord-tenant Act. Without punitive damages and attorney's fees, a shutoff claim here has no floor to stand on.
Your Rights as a Nashville Tenant
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Willful shutoffs are unlawful
T.C.A. section 66-28-504 bars a landlord from willfully diminishing services by interrupting the essential services your rental agreement provides.
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Punitive damages are available
Tennessee allows punitive damages when appropriate on top of actual damages - a remedy Florida, Arizona, and Washington never put on the table.
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Terminate or recover possession
You can end the rental agreement or recover possession after a willful shutoff, so you aren't trapped in a unit you can't safely live in.
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Attorney's fees on top
Reasonable attorney's fees are recoverable, which is often what gets a Nashville tenant lawyer to take a shutoff case you couldn't fund yourself.
What To Do - Step by Step
Document the outage immediately
Photograph the dark unit, the thermostat, the meter, and a clock. With no fixed penalty in Tennessee, your evidence is the entire size of your claim.
Call the utility, not the landlord
Ask NES, Metro Water Services, or Piedmont whether the account was closed, went unpaid, or is a neighborhood outage. That answer tells you who caused it.
Demand restoration in writing
Email your landlord the exact date and time service stopped and ask for immediate restoration. Name T.C.A. section 66-28-504 and keep a copy.
Log every dollar it costs
Hotel nights, meals out, spoiled groceries, a space heater. Those receipts are your actual damages, and in Tennessee they're the base everything else builds on.
Build the willfulness record
Save texts, voicemails, and the timing around any dispute. Punitive damages turn on whether it was deliberate, not on how long you sat in the dark.
Get Davidson County help
Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands assists income-eligible renters at no cost, and civil claims are filed in Davidson County General Sessions Court.