Utilities Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what New Jersey law says, what's specific to Newark - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89(a) says no owner or operator shall cause a required service or utility 'to be removed from or shut off from, or discontinued for any occupied dwelling unit or rooming unit'. The exceptions are 'necessary repairs, alterations or emergencies' or another reason the ordinances or an applicable statute permits.
- § 18:1-2.7(a) sets a fine of 'not more than $100 for each such provision violated', and 'each day's failure to comply with any such provision' is a separate offense. Other shutoffs fall under that general penalty, and § 18:1-1.1 names the whole of Title XVIII the Housing Code.
- Elevator service and heat carry their own fines. § 18:3-1.89 names 'not less than $100 but no more than $1,000 for each day' for elevator service, and heat carries a fine under § 18:3-1.19(f) of 'not more than $2,000, but not less than $100 per affected unit and per incident'.
- Two Newark rules set the timing. § 18:3-1.89(c) brings a Municipal Court complaint once the owner has been notified and 'allowed 48 hours to abate the violations', and § 18:1-2.6 says the Director need not 'first give notice of the violation' before a penalty case over § 18:3-1.89.
- State law protects the tenant who keeps service on. Under N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a), rent used 'to continue utility service to the rental premises' after a utility warns of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment 'shall not be deemed to be unpaid rent' as a ground for eviction.
Understanding the Utilities Clause
Whose name is on the gas, electric and water accounts is settled by your lease. Whether a service may be switched off is settled in Newark by another document: the city's Housing Code bars an owner or operator from shutting off a service or utility that the code or the lease requires.
The price of breaking that rule is a city fine set by the day. Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-2.7(a) sets it at 'not more than $100 for each such provision violated', and each day's failure to comply is a separate offense.
New Jersey's statutes come at the problem from the tenant's side. The sections our New Jersey record read set no fixed dollar penalty for a landlord's shutoff, and they protect a tenant who pays the utility directly to keep the service on.
The Newark text was read on ecode360, which marks its copy as including legislation through July 15, 2026, so read the current text of each section before relying on it.
What renters assume
A Newark renter finds the $100 in the city's Housing Code and takes it as the most a landlord could ever be fined for cutting a utility, which makes a shutoff look cheap enough to ignore.
What is actually true
The $100 in Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-2.7(a) is per provision violated, 'each day's failure to comply' is a separate offense, and the section names no total. Elevator service carries its own fine of up to $1,000 for each day under § 18:3-1.89, and heat its own under § 18:3-1.19(f).
The bars further down this page draw 17 rows, and eight of them carry a figure. They run from New York City at $10,000 through Denver at $5,000, Las Vegas at $2,500, Washington, DC at $2,000, Austin at $1,000 and Atlanta at $500, to Chicago and Boston at $300.
Newark is one of the nine rows with no bar. Its label reads $100/day city fine, no cap, the same shape as Los Angeles and Seattle at $100/day, no cap, and a daily amount with no ceiling has no single maximum to plot.
The Los Angeles and Seattle rows put their daily sum on damages; Newark's is a city fine.
The remaining blank rows answer in rent or in proof: Miami in three months' rent, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Portland in two months' rent, Nashville in actual plus punitive damages, and Columbus in actual damages with no fixed sum.
Plain English Version
Your lease can put the utility bills in your name. Newark's Housing Code separately bars an owner from shutting off a service or utility the code or the lease requires, except for necessary repairs, alterations or emergencies or another reason the law permits, and it fines each day of a violation as a separate offense.
If the landlord holds the account, stops paying and the utility warns it will cut service, state law keeps rent you then pay the utility to keep service on from counting as unpaid rent for an eviction. And if the owner uses service charged to you without your consent, state law gives you a case after certified-mail notice.
Utilities Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Newark, NJ
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.
“be responsible for”
Responsibility here means paying. Newark's Housing Code deals separately with the switch: Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89(a) says no owner or operator shall cause a required service or utility “to be removed from or shut off from, or discontinued for any occupied dwelling unit or rooming unit”. The exceptions are “necessary repairs, alterations or emergencies” or another reason the ordinances or an applicable statute permits.
“all utilities and”
“All” reads as though every bill arrives on an account of your own. The account behind your service may still be in the landlord's name, and New Jersey protects the tenant caught in that gap. Under N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a), rent used “to continue utility service to the rental premises” after a utility warns of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment “shall not be deemed to be unpaid rent” as a ground for eviction.
“services incurred”
New Jersey's § 2A:42-88(b) reads close to the Alaska facts. It lets a public officer, an affected tenant or the utility bring a case where the owner used service charged to the tenant without the tenant's consent. The test the section writes is consent, which makes it the question to put to any usage on your bill that you did not make yourself.
“in connection with”
The Premises sit inside a building, and some of what reaches your door is the building's service rather than a meter in your name. Newark prices elevator service and heat on their own. § 18:3-1.89 names a fine for elevator service of “not less than $100 but no more than $1,000 for each day”. Heat carries its own penalty in § 18:3-1.19(f): “not more than $2,000, but not less than $100 per affected unit and per incident”.
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.
New Jersey Law on Utilities Clause
- Newark bars owners from shutting off required services. Section 18:3-1.89(a) says no owner or operator shall cause a required service or utility "to be removed from or shut off from, or discontinued for any occupied dwelling unit or rooming unit". The exceptions are "necessary repairs, alterations or emergencies" or another reason the ordinances or an applicable statute permits.
- Two Newark rules set the timing. Section 18:3-1.89(c) says a Municipal Court complaint follows once the owner has been notified and "allowed 48 hours to abate the violations". Section 18:1-2.6 says the Director need not "first give notice of the violation" before a penalty case over § 18:3-1.89.
- The general fine is up to $100 a day. Section 18:1-2.7(a) says a violator "shall upon conviction be punished by a fine of not more than $100 for each such provision violated". "Each day's failure to comply with any such provision" is a separate offense. Its one carve-out, § 18:1-2.7(e), covers renting a building declared unfit for human habitation.
- State law protects a tenant who pays the utility to keep service on. Under § 2A:18-61.1(a), rent used "to continue utility service to the rental premises" after a utility warns of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment "shall not be deemed to be unpaid rent" as a ground for eviction. Where the utility cannot bill tenants individually, §§ 2A:18-61.60 and 2A:18-61.61 let a tenants' organization take over billing, with each tenant's share of the landlord's arrears capped at 15 percent of rent.
- A diverted utility can be the basis of a case under § 2A:42-88(b). That section lets a public officer, an affected tenant or the utility bring a case where the owner diverted service from a tenant, or used service charged to the tenant, without the tenant's consent. The owner must have failed to correct it "within 30 days of receipt" of notice by certified mail.
Sources include Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89; Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-2.7; Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-1.1; Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-2.6; Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.19(f); N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a); N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.60; N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.61; N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:42-88(b) - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
The New Jersey statutes our record read set no fixed dollar penalty for a landlord who shuts off a utility. What they do is protect the tenant who steps in to keep service on, and give a route against an owner who diverts service or uses service charged to the tenant.
Read the current text of each section named here before relying on it.
The first protection sits in the eviction statute. Under N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a), rent a tenant used 'to continue utility service to the rental premises', after a utility warned of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment, 'shall not be deemed to be unpaid rent' as a ground for eviction.
The trigger in that sentence is the utility's warning, and the reason for it is the landlord's nonpayment. Keep the warning, keep the receipt for what you paid the utility, and keep both with your rent records, because together they show the money went where the section says.
A building can be harder to protect one tenant at a time. Where the utility cannot bill tenants individually, § 2A:18-61.60 and § 2A:18-61.61 let a tenants' organization take over billing. Each tenant's share of the landlord's arrears is capped at 15 percent of rent.
The second route is about service used rather than service cut. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:42-88(b) lets a public officer, an affected tenant or the utility bring a case where the owner diverted service from a tenant, or used service charged to the tenant, without the tenant's consent.
The first branch is service taken away from your unit; the second is service your account pays for that someone else consumes.
That case has a notice step a tenant controls. The owner must have failed to correct the problem 'within 30 days of receipt' of notice sent by certified mail, so the mailing receipt and the delivery date are worth keeping from the first day.
What our New Jersey record does not carry is a state section that puts a fixed sum, a rent multiple or a daily figure on a landlord's shutoff. The dollar figures on this page come from Newark's Housing Code, the city layer below.
New Jersey Tenant Protections
Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89(a) says no owner or operator shall cause a required service or utility to be removed from or shut off from, or discontinued for any occupied dwelling unit or rooming unit. The exceptions are necessary repairs, alterations or emergencies or another reason the ordinances or an applicable statute permits.
Section 18:1-2.7(a) fines a violator not more than $100 for each provision violated, and each day's failure to comply is a separate offense; § 18:1-1.1 names the whole of Title XVIII the Housing Code. Elevator service carries its own fine under § 18:3-1.89 of not less than $100 but no more than $1,000 for each day, and a repeat offender within one year faces a fine not exceeding $1,000, jail or community service.
Heat carries its own penalty in § 18:3-1.19(f), a fine of not more than $2,000, but not less than $100 per affected unit and per incident, with 30 days to cure when a fine exceeds $1,250. Under N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a), rent used to continue utility service after a utility warns of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment is not unpaid rent as a ground for eviction.
Where the utility cannot bill tenants individually, §§ 2A:18-61.60 and 2A:18-61.61 let a tenants' organization take over billing, each tenant's share of the landlord's arrears capped at 15 percent of rent. Section 2A:42-88(b) lets a public officer, an affected tenant or the utility bring a case over service diverted from a tenant, or service charged to the tenant and used without consent.
The owner must have failed to correct it within 30 days of receipt of certified-mail notice.
What's Specific to Newark
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.
Newark is where the dollar figures on this clause live. Our New Jersey record read Newark's Housing Code, Title XVIII, and its Rent Control chapters on ecode360, which marks its copy as including legislation through July 15, 2026.
Treat every figure below as something to confirm against the current text, because a codifier's copy can trail an ordinance the city has already adopted.
The ban comes first. Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89(a) says no owner or operator shall cause a required service or utility 'to be removed from or shut off from, or discontinued for any occupied dwelling unit or rooming unit'.
The exceptions are 'necessary repairs, alterations or emergencies' or another reason the ordinances or an applicable statute permits.
The general penalty is § 18:1-2.7(a), which fines a violation of 'any provision of this Housing Code' at 'not more than $100 for each such provision violated'. 'Each day's failure to comply with any such provision' is a separate offense, and § 18:1-1.1 names the whole of Title XVIII the Housing Code. Its one carve-out, § 18:1-2.7(e), covers renting a building declared unfit for human habitation.
Elevator service and heat are priced on their own. § 18:3-1.89 names a fine for elevator service of 'not less than $100 but no more than $1,000 for each day', and for a repeat offender within one year 'a fine not exceeding $1,000', jail or community service. Heat carries its own penalty in § 18:3-1.19(f): 'not more than $2,000, but not less than $100 per affected unit and per incident', with 30 days to cure when a fine exceeds $1,250.
Two rules set the timing, and they are worth reading side by side. § 18:3-1.89(c) brings a Municipal Court complaint once the owner has been notified and 'allowed 48 hours to abate the violations'. § 18:1-2.6 says the Director need not 'first give notice of the violation' before a penalty case over § 18:3-1.89. This page states both as written and does not predict how a court would fit them together.
Every figure in this layer is a fine. Our record of Newark's ordinances carries no fixed sum the city awards to a tenant for a shutoff.
The tenant-side routes our record holds are the state sections above: rent paid to keep service on, a tenants' organization taking the bill, and a case over diverted service.
It decides which route fits. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a) protects rent used to keep service on after a utility warns of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment, so know which accounts stay in the landlord's name.
Where it cannot, §§ 2A:18-61.60 and 2A:18-61.61 let a tenants' organization take over billing, each tenant's share of the landlord's arrears capped at 15 percent of rent.
Red flag. Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89(a) bars an owner or operator from shutting off a service or utility the code or the lease requires, outside necessary repairs, alterations, emergencies or another reason the law permits.
Ask before signing. § 2A:42-88(b) reaches an owner's use, without the tenant's consent, of service charged to the tenant, once the owner has failed to correct it within 30 days of receiving certified-mail notice.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89; Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-2.7; Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-1.1; Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-2.6; Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.19(f); N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a); N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.60; N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.61; N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:42-88(b), read on ecode360.com. ecode360 marks its copy of the Newark code as including legislation through July 15, 2026.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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A shutoff reserved for late rent
Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89(a) bars an owner or operator from shutting off a required service or utility outside repairs, alterations, emergencies or another reason the law permits, and § 18:1-2.7(a) fines each day as a separate offense.
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A meter shared with space that is not yours
N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:42-88(b) reaches service diverted from a tenant, and service charged to the tenant but used by the owner without consent. Ask what else runs on your meter before you sign.
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'Tenant pays all utilities' in a one-meter building
Where the utility cannot bill tenants individually, §§ 2A:18-61.60 and 2A:18-61.61 let a tenants' organization take over billing, with each tenant's share of the landlord's arrears capped at 15 percent of rent.
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A penalty for paying the utility yourself
Under § 2A:18-61.1(a), rent used to continue utility service after a utility warns of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment 'shall not be deemed to be unpaid rent' as a ground for eviction.
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Heat or elevator service 'as available'
Newark prices both on their own: elevator service at up to $1,000 for each day under § 18:3-1.89, and heat under § 18:3-1.19(f) at 'not more than $2,000, but not less than $100 per affected unit and per incident'.
Your Rights as a Newark Tenant
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Required services stay on
Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:3-1.89(a) bars an owner or operator from shutting off a service or utility the code or the lease requires, except for necessary repairs, alterations or emergencies or another reason the law permits.
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Money paid to keep service on is not unpaid rent
N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a) keeps rent used to continue utility service, after a warning of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment, from counting as unpaid rent for an eviction.
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A tenants' organization can take the bill
Where the utility cannot bill tenants individually, §§ 2A:18-61.60 and 2A:18-61.61 let a tenants' organization take over billing, each tenant's arrears share capped at 15 percent of rent.
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A case over diverted service
§ 2A:42-88(b) lets a public officer, an affected tenant or the utility bring a case over diverted or unconsented use of service, once the owner fails to correct it within 30 days of receiving certified-mail notice.
What To Do - Step by Step
Write down when the service stopped
Date and time, with a photograph of the meter or thermostat. Under Newark Rev. Gen. Ord. § 18:1-2.7(a) each day's failure to comply is a separate offense, so every day needs its own entry.
Ask the utility why the service stopped
The answer points to the route. A warning of discontinuance for the landlord's nonpayment is the trigger in N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1(a); usage you did not make points to § 2A:42-88(b).
Put the shutoff in front of the city
A penalty case under the Housing Code runs to the Municipal Court. § 18:3-1.89(c) brings a complaint once the owner has been notified and allowed 48 hours to abate, and § 18:1-2.6 says the Director need not first give notice.
Keep the warning before you pay the utility
Rent used to keep service on counts as paid only in the circumstances § 2A:18-61.1(a) describes, so keep the utility's notice, your receipt and your rent records together.
Send certified mail about diverted service
§ 2A:42-88(b) asks whether the owner failed to correct the diversion or use within 30 days of receipt of certified-mail notice. Keep the receipt and the delivery date.
Read the current text, then take advice
The Newark copy read includes legislation through July 15, 2026. Open § 18:3-1.89, § 18:1-2.7 and § 2A:18-61.1 as they read today, and speak to a tenant lawyer or legal aid office before withholding rent.