Utilities Clause
in Your Lease
How this page is sourced
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 Oklahoma law says, what's specific to Oklahoma City - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- If the landlord willfully or negligently fails to supply heat, water, power or gas, § 121(C) gives you four routes.
- End the agreement, buy the service and deduct it, claim lost rental value, or take substitute housing rent free.
- None of these routes arises until you give the landlord written notice (§ 121(E)).
- Landlords must supply running water, hot water and heat, except single-family homes and separately metered units (§ 118(A)(5)).
- Leases cannot waive these remedies (§ 113(A)(1)). Our record of the city code finds no landlord shutoff rule.
Count it for your dates
48 hours: when does it end?
What it means: The city may not end water service before this time, and it must post the notice again on the day of termination. Applies to the City of Oklahoma City as water supplier, on a city bill unpaid ten days after it becomes delinquent; it is not a rule on landlord shutoffs (Oklahoma City Municipal Code § 55-79). Calendar arithmetic only; check how the section counts days before you rely on a date.
Copy and send: As soon as heat, water, hot water, electric, gas or another essential service stops and you plan to use a remedy
Written notice of a missing service
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
Understanding the Utilities Clause
This page is for Oklahoma City renters reading the utilities paragraph of a lease, or living without heat, water or power right now. The clause decides whose name is on each account and who pays it.
It does not decide what happens when the landlord fails to supply a service. State law answers that, and every remedy in § 121 starts with the same step: a written notice to the landlord.
Send it first, keep a dated copy, then choose the route that fits.
What renters assume
A landlord who cuts my utilities in Oklahoma owes a set fine, so I can just wait and claim it.
What is actually true
No section we read in Title 41 sets a fixed dollar penalty. Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(C) gives you routes instead, and under § 121(E) none of them arises until you give written notice.
Twelve of the 26 rows carry a fixed dollar figure, from New York City at $10,000 and Denver and Milwaukee at $5,000 down to Detroit at $200. Oklahoma City is one of the fourteen blank rows, and its label reads No fixed sum; deduct or exit.
The blank rows answer in other units. Miami and Louisville count in months of rent, three in each; Phoenix, Philadelphia and Portland carry two months' rent; Los Angeles and Seattle run $100 a day; Kansas City and Newark carry daily city fines.
Columbus, Charlotte and Indianapolis, like Oklahoma City, carry no fixed sum, and Nashville reads actual plus punitive damages.
Oklahoma's label names routes rather than an amount. After written notice under Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(C), the tenant may end the agreement, buy the service and deduct its cost, recover lost rental value, or take substitute housing and owe no rent for that period.
Utilities Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Oklahoma City, OK
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.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“[t]enant shall be”
Who pays is set by the lease, but Oklahoma's Act first says who supplies. Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 118(A)(5) requires the landlord to supply running water, reasonable amounts of hot water at all times and reasonable heat. It lifts that duty in two cases: a single-family residence, and service “supplied by direct and independently metered utility connections to the dwelling unit.” The section speaks of supplying a service, and our record does not say how it bears on a clause that bills you a share of a building meter.
See the example
“responsible for all utilities”
A promise to pay every bill is not a promise to go without. Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(C) applies where, “contrary to the rental agreement or Section 118 of this title, the landlord willfully or negligently fails to supply heat, running water, hot water, electric, gas or other essential service”. The Alaska ruling on this clause split essential services from internet and cable under Alaska's Act; our Oklahoma record does not define “other essential service”, so read the list in § 121(C) as the part that is written down.
See the example
“and services incurred”
Incurred by whom is the question the Alaska landlord lost on: he ran his workers' electricity and heating fuel through the tenants' meter and tank. Oklahoma's Act asks the cause question from the other side. Under Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(E), the tenant's rights “do not arise until he or she has given written notice to the landlord”. Nor do they arise where the tenant, a household member, a pet or a guest caused the condition by a deliberate or negligent act or omission.
See the example
“with the Premises”
The Premises are the unit you are entitled to occupy, and Oklahoma's Act deals with losing the unit in a section of its own. Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 123 covers a landlord who “wrongfully removes or excludes a tenant from possession of a dwelling unit”, with recovery of not more than twice the average monthly rental or twice actual damages, whichever is greater. Its text does not name utilities, and our record includes no court decision on whether a shutoff is an exclusion under it.
See the example
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.
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.
Oklahoma Law on Utilities Clause
- The utility remedy is a set of options, not a sum.
Read the law's words
Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(C) provides that if, "contrary to the rental agreement or Section 118 of this title, the landlord willfully or negligently fails to supply heat, running water, hot water, electric, gas or other essential service", the tenant may give written notice and then may terminate the rental agreement on written notice, "Procure reasonable amounts" of the service and "deduct their actual and reasonable cost from the rent", "Recover damages based upon the diminution of the fair rental value of the dwelling unit", or procure reasonable substitute housing and be "excused from paying rent for the period of the landlord's noncompliance." - Written notice comes first, and the duty to supply has exceptions.
Read the law's words
Under Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(E), the tenant's rights under the section "do not arise until he or she has given written notice to the landlord", or if the condition was caused by the deliberate or negligent act or omission of the tenant, a household member, a pet or a guest. Section 118(A)(5) requires a landlord to supply running water, reasonable amounts of hot water at all times and reasonable heat, except in a single-family residence or "where the service is supplied by direct and independently metered utility connections to the dwelling unit." - A lockout carries a capped multiple.
Read the law's words
Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 123 provides that "If a landlord wrongfully removes or excludes a tenant from possession of a dwelling unit", the tenant may recover possession in court or terminate the rental agreement after notice, "and in either case recover an amount not more than twice the average monthly rental, or twice his actual damages, whichever is greater." The section's text does not name utilities, and our record does not include a court decision deciding whether a utility shutoff is an exclusion under it. - The tenant's remedies cannot be signed away, and fees follow the winner.
Read the law's words
Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 113(A)(1) bars a rental agreement from providing that either party "Agrees to waive or forego rights or remedies" under the Act, and § 103(B) makes a conflicting agreement unenforceable. Section 105(B) makes any right or remedy in the Act enforceable in any court of appropriate jurisdiction, including small claims court, and entitles the prevailing party in an action to enforce it to "reasonable attorneys' fees."
Sources include Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(C); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(E); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 118(A)(5); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 123; Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 105(B); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 103(B); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 113(A)(1); Oklahoma City Municipal Code § 55-79; Oklahoma City Municipal Code § 24-11; Okla. Stat. tit. 11, § 14-101; Okla. Stat. tit. 11, § 14-101.1 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
The rules sit in Title 41:
- § 121(C) Remedies. If, contrary to the lease or § 118, the landlord willfully or negligently fails to supply heat, running water, hot water, electric, gas or other essential service, you may end the agreement, buy reasonable amounts of the service and "deduct their actual and reasonable cost from the rent", recover damages for lost fair rental value, or take substitute housing and owe no rent for that period.
- § 121(E) Notice first. These rights do not arise until you give written notice, or if you, a household member, a pet or a guest caused the condition.
- § 118(A)(5) Supply duty. Running water, reasonable hot water at all times and reasonable heat, except in a single-family residence or where the service comes through direct and independently metered connections.
- § 113(A)(1) and § 103(B) No waiver. A lease cannot waive these remedies; a conflicting term is unenforceable.
- § 105(B) Court. Any court of appropriate jurisdiction, small claims included, can enforce them, with "reasonable attorneys' fees" to the winner.
- § 123 Lockouts. A tenant wrongfully removed or excluded may recover up to twice the average monthly rental or twice actual damages, whichever is greater. Its text does not name utilities, and no decision we read says whether a shutoff counts.
Check the current text on oscn.net.
What's Specific to Oklahoma City
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.
Our record of the Oklahoma City code finds no city rule on a landlord shutting off a tenant's utilities and no city penalty for one. The termination rule it does carry is the city's own, as water supplier.
Under § 55-79, the city may end water service when a city bill is unpaid ten days after it becomes delinquent, after a notice posted at least 48 hours before and again on the day. That notice gives a city number to call and be heard. Read the current code before you rely on it.
Heat, water, gas and power are separate bills. A line for each shows what you owe next to the landlord's duty under § 118(A)(5).
§ 118(A)(5) lifts the landlord's duty to supply water, hot water and heat where the unit has direct and independently metered connections.
Your remedies wait on written notice under § 121(E). A stated address lets you prove where and when the notice went.
Red flag. § 113(A)(1) bars a lease from waiving rights or remedies under the Act, and § 103(B) makes that term unenforceable.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(C); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 121(E); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 118(A)(5); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 123; Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 105(B); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 103(B); Okla. Stat. tit. 41, § 113(A)(1); Oklahoma City Municipal Code § 55-79; Oklahoma City Municipal Code § 24-11; Okla. Stat. tit. 11, § 14-101; Okla. Stat. tit. 11, § 14-101.1, read on oklegislature.gov. The Oklahoma Legislature's compiled Title 41, which the legislature's statutes page says was last updated on November 18, 2025, prints § 121 with the history line ending Laws 2022, c. 230, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2022, and an Internet Archive copy of the Oklahoma State Courts Network page for § 121 captured August 5, 2025 prints the same text.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Acting before written notice
Under § 121(E), the exit, deduct, damages and substitute housing routes do not arise until you give written notice. Send it first and keep a copy.
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Heat and water billed in a shared building
§ 118(A)(5) puts running water, hot water and heat on the landlord, except in a single-family residence or a unit with direct and independently metered connections.
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Deducting a round number
The deduct route in § 121(C) covers the "actual and reasonable cost" of what you buy. Deduct only what your receipts show.
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A changed lock, not just a cut service
§ 123 covers a landlord who wrongfully removes or excludes a tenant from possession. Its text does not name utilities, so read it beside the facts.
-
A city water notice on your door
Oklahoma City's § 55-79 lets the city end water on an unpaid city bill after a notice posted at least 48 hours ahead. Call the number on it.
Your Rights as a Oklahoma City Tenant
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Four routes after written notice
§ 121(C) lets you end the agreement, buy and deduct, recover lost rental value, or take substitute housing when the landlord fails to supply an essential service.
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No rent while you are housed elsewhere
If you take reasonable substitute housing, § 121(C) excuses rent "for the period of the landlord's noncompliance."
-
Remedies a lease cannot remove
§ 113(A)(1) bars a lease from making you waive rights or remedies under the Act, and § 103(B) makes a conflicting term unenforceable.
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Small claims and fees for the winner
§ 105(B) makes the Act's remedies enforceable in any court of appropriate jurisdiction, including small claims court, with reasonable attorneys' fees to the prevailing party.
What To Do - Step by Step
Log the outage as it happens
Note the date and hour each service failed and came back, with photos. The damages route in § 121(C) is based on lost rental value, so the length matters.
Check the meter and the lease
§ 118(A)(5) turns on whether the unit is a single-family residence or independently metered. Note which bills are in your name.
Give written notice to the landlord
Name the service and the date it failed, and keep a dated copy. Under § 121(E), no remedy arises until you do.
Choose a route and keep receipts
Exit, deduct, damages and substitute housing are separate routes in § 121(C). Keep receipts for anything you buy and any room you take.
If you are kept out, read the lockout section
§ 123 allows up to twice the average monthly rental or twice actual damages for a wrongful removal or exclusion. Its text does not name utilities.
Check the text, then get advice
Read § 118, § 121 and § 123 of Title 41 on oscn.net as they stand today. Oklahoma legal aid can review the facts before you act.
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Utilities rules near Oklahoma
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