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Renter's Handbook Utilities
Applying for Services
Applying for Services
When you apply for utility services, the utility company will first
decide if you owe that company any money. They can look only at your
payment record for the same services as those that you are applying for.
This means that if you are applying for electric service, the electric
company can only look to see if you have a past due bill for electricity.
If you did not pay your water bill or some other bill, the electric
company cannot refuse to give you service for that reason.
If the utility company determines that you failed to pay a past due
bill for the same class of service at your present or some former address,
they can refuse to give you services unless you pay your past due bills
and/or provide a deposit, and/or enter into a deferred payment agreement.
See Deferred Payment Agreements.
Deposit The utility company can ask for a deposit if you are applying for
services and have failed to pay your past due bills. If you are already a
customer, during the first 24 months of service, the utility company can
require that you pay a deposit if you pay late. If you receive a bill
every month, you must pay late 4 times during a 12-month period before the
utility company can require a deposit. If you are billed every two months,
you must be late 3 times in a 12-month period or late 2 times in a row. If
you are billed every 3 or 6 months, you must be late only 2 times in a
12-month period before the utility company can require a deposit. You must
pay a deposit, if requested, any time you tamper with the wiring, pipes,
meter or any other service equipment. If the company wants to ask for a
deposit, they must do it within 45 days after the event which gives rise
to the request for a deposit.
If you have a question about the amount of your deposit, ask the
utility company about it. For gas or electric, it should be 1/6 or less of
your estimated yearly charge and you have to be given at least two billing
periods to pay for it. You may also have to pay up to 1/3 of the deposit
with in 12 days. For water or sewer, it should be 1/3 or less of your
estimated yearly charge to be paid within 30 days. They can ask you to pay
1/3 of your deposit within 12 days of their request for a deposit.
Generally, you should get your deposit back with interest after one
year or when you stop services so long as you don't owe the company any
money and so long as you haven't repeatedly paid late or tampered with
their service equipment. If you don't receive your deposit back, find out
why not - If you are still not satisfied, make a complaint. See
Dispute
and complaint Procedures
Deferred Payment Agreements Generally, if you owe money to a utility company and you are already a
customer, that utility company must give you a chance to pay the debt off
in installments. That is, you must be given the opportunity to make
arrangements with the utility company to retire your debt by periodic
payments known as a deferred payment agreement. The only time a utility
does not have to give a customer a deferred payment agreement is when the
customer has failed to make a payment under such a plan during the past 12
months.
If you are applying for new service from the utility company, but owe a
past due bill, it is up to the utility company to decide whether to give
you a deferred payment agreement. If you are a former customer who has
been cut off and is applying for a winter re-connection, the utility
company must offer you a deferred payment agreement, but only if you are
otherwise eligible under special rules. See Winter
Re-connection Rules.
Any deferred payment agreement must be reduced to writing and will
require that you pay a certain amount of money for a certain number of
months. This will be in addition to the regular bill, as it comes due. You
will be required to pay up to 1/4 of the amount past due at the time of
entering into the agreement. (See the sections on
Shutting
Off Your Services and
Winter Re-connection Rules
for situations where your down-payment on a deferred payment agreement can
be smaller.) The size and duration of your payments must be determined
after taking into account a number of factors including the size of the
debt, your ability to pay, your payment history, the reason for the debt,
and any other relevant factors. The maximum duration of the agreement is
12 months, and the minimum is two months or four months for gas or
electric.
If your financial circumstances change during the period of the
agreement, you are allowed to renegotiate the terms and conditions of the
agreement, taking into account your new circumstances. You cannot
renegotiate if more than 14 days have passed since you missed a payment
under the agreement.
If you break a deferred payment agreement by missing a scheduled
payment, but your gas or electric services have not been discontinued, you
can get your agreement reinstated by paying all past due amounts. You have
this right only once during the course of a deferred payment agreement. If
any deferred payment agreement is broken and not reinstated, the utility
company has the right to terminate your service.
Estimated Bills
Your bill is determined by reading your meter which measures how much
energy you have used. All utility companies are required to make an actual
meter reading at least every second billing period, unless they have been
prevented from doing so. If the utility company is unable to read your
meter, the company may leave a card and request that you mark it and mail
it in or have you call your reading in. If this is not done, the company
will estimate how much you have used by looking at the past service
history of your residence.
When the utility company does get out to read your meter, the estimate
is corrected and you could be in for a surprise of a very large bill or a
very small bill. Often, however, the estimates turn out to be close to
correct. At any rate, you end up paying only for what you use. If you do
receive a card, it is to your benefit to read the meter and send the card
to the company or call it in to protect yourself from surprises. If you
have questions about how to read the meter, the utility company will
explain it to you or send you a pamphlet.
Your due date is printed on the bill. If you don't pay by then, you may
be billed a late payment charge. You get a two-business-day grace period
from the due date if you have mailed your payment in. A utility may
consider a mailed payment to be late if it is postmarked after the due
date printed on the bill.
The due date printed on the bill may not be less than 21 days after the
date of postmark on the bill. The amount of the late charge cannot exceed
1-1/2% per month of the amount past due. Certain customers who receive a
monthly benefit or support check which comes after the due date can ask
the utility for a preferred payment date.
Shutting off Your Services
A utility company can shut off your utility services for a variety of
reasons. If you fail to pay a proper deposit or pay a past due bill, or if
you fail to make a payment required by the terms of a deferred payment
agreement, or deny access to a meter, or violate utility rules, then the
utility company can shut your service off. However, before they can shut
off service, they must give you a proper written notice.
The notice must be delivered to you at least five days before shutting
off the service or eight days if the notice is mailed. A shut off notice
is effective for two consecutive 20-day periods, provided you get a call
from the utility during each period. If the utility does not shut off the
service within the two periods, then the utility must issue a new notice
before it can do so. The notice must be in a certain form. See Sample
Notice 1.
Utility service cannot be shut off lawfully, or if it is shut off, must
be restored if a deferred payment agreement is entered into and followed.
Also, utility service cannot be shut off and, if shut off, must be
restored if the reason for the shut off is being disputed with the utility
company or the Illinois Commerce Commission. See Dispute
and Complaint Procedures.
In addition, where gas or electric service is necessary to heat your
residence, shut off is prohibited on any day when the National Weather
Service forecasts, for the area of your residence, that the temperature
will be 32 degrees or less at any time during the following 24 hours.
Likewise, shut off is prohibited on any day before a weekend or holiday if
the forecast indicates that the temperature will be 32 degrees or less
during the weekend or holiday.
Also, shut off is prohibited for up to 60 days whenever the shut off
will aggravate an existing serious illness of any person living in the
residence. You must have a doctor or local board of health certify the
illness. See Sample Notice 2.
During the winter months, (December 1 through March 31) the electric
and gas utilities are prohibited from shutting off service necessary to
heat the residence unless the utility has first offered the customer a
deferred payment agreement and a levelized payment plan. The maximum down
payment which the utility can demand for a deferred payment agreement in
this situation is 10% of the amount due. In a levelized plan, the customer
pays for current service in approximately the same dollar amount every
month. In addition, the utility must provide the customer threatened with
shut off with names and numbers of agencies that help people pay their
utility bills.
If you receive a winter shut off notice, you have six business days
from the date of the notice before the utility company can act. You must
move quickly. Talk to the company about it. If you get no results, contact
an attorney immediately. Don't wait until your utilities are shut off. You
have more rights before your utilities are shut off. If your utilities
have been shut off, you may have to pay the entire charge to be
reconnected, unless you qualify for the winter re-connection rules.
Winter Re-connection Rules If your utility service has been disconnected for non-payment of a bill
or deposit at any time since December 1 of the prior winter, you can get
service turned back on between November 1 and April 1 of the current
heating season, if you satisfy special winter re-connection rules. To
qualify, you must not have used the special winter re-connection rules the
previous year. Also, you must have paid at least 1/3 of all utility
services charged since December 1 of the prior winter. You cannot qualify
for special winter re-connection if the utility can prove you benefited
from any tampering with its equipment.
If you qualify in this way, then the utility company must reconnect
your service as soon as possible, provided you enter into a deferred
payment agreement with the utility company, pay 1/3 of the amount past due
and pay 1/3 of any required deposit. If you can show the utility company
that you cannot afford to pay those amounts, you can get reconnected upon
paying 20% of the amount past due and 20% of any required deposit.
Dispute and Complaint Procedures
If you question a bill or have a problem with your utility service that
isn't being resolved, you can call the utility company and ask for a staff
person who handles disputes. If the dispute still cannot be resolved, you
have the right to have the problem considered and acted on by a utility
supervisor. If the dispute still cannot be resolved, you have the right to
have the problem reviewed by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), the
state agency which regulates public utilities.
The ICC has both an informal and a formal complaint procedure. The
first step is an informal complaint to the ICC Consumer Assistance
Section. The utility will give you their phone number. That office will
investigate the complaint and try to resolve it to the satisfaction of all
the parties, but it cannot force an agreement.
If the dispute still has not been resolved, then you can file a formal
complaint with the ICC. If you do so, you must follow the ICC Rules of
Practice and an attorney is recommended. There will be a hearing before a
hearing examiner who has the power to resolve the dispute by order and
whose orders can be reviewed in the courts.
When you do question a bill, a utility company cannot shut off your
services for non-payment during the complaint process so long as you: (1)
pay the undisputed portion of the bill; (2) pay all future monthly bills
by the due date; and, (3) follow in good faith the dispute procedures of
the utility company and the ICC.
If Your Landlord Provides Utilities
If your lease or other agreement with the landlord requires the
landlord to pay the water, gas or electric utilities an he or she doesn't
pay the bills, there are things you can do to prevent a shut off. In this
situation, the tenant or a group of tenants served by a common meter, may
pay for the utility service if non-payment threatens continuation of
service. Any amounts which a tenant pays for utilities that the landlord
was required to pay may be deducted from the rent due by the tenant or
tenants. The landlord cannot evict you for this nor can he raise the
rents. In buildings with three or more apartments, the utility company
cannot terminate service for the landlord's non-payment until they deliver
a special notice to all the tenants. If the utility company receives
payment in full of all past due amounts from the tenants, the utility
company must restore service to the tenants.
The utility company must also restore and continue service to any
tenant who requests that the utility put the bill in her/his name and
establishes satisfactory credit references or pays a security deposit. If
the tenant is billed an amount for service to parts of the premises not
occupied by the tenant, the landlord is liable to the tenant for those
bills.
Also, when tenants in multi-unit buildings receive notice from the
utility company that service is going to be shut off because the landlord
didn't pay, the tenants can petition the court for a "receiver"
to accept the rents and pay the utilities. An attorney is required for
this procedure.
It is against the law for a landlord to rent any unit in which the
tenant is responsible for payment of utilities for common areas of the
building or for other tenants, unless the landlord gives the tenant
certain information in writing before the lease is signed or other rental
agreement is made. If this happens to you, check with an attorney to see
if you got the proper information. Also, it is against the law for a
landlord in a multi-unit building with a master meter to demand that the
tenants pay a share of the utilities, unless the landlord discloses in
writing to the tenant the formula used by the landlord for allocating
utility payments among the tenants.
It is also against the law for a landlord to cause utility service to
tenants to be interrupted or terminated by failing to pay bills which the
landlord is responsible for or by tampering with the utility's equipment
or lines. If this happens, the tenant is not required to pay rent for each
month that utility service is interrupted this way. If service was
interrupted this way for only part of any month, then the tenant is
responsible for only part of that month's rent. A court could also order
the landlord to pay other damages to tenants in this situation, including
statutory damages up to $300 per tenant if the landlord was reckless or
willfully disregarded the tenant's rights.
Contact the utility company before you move in so that you can have
your service connected the day you arrive. You must allow at least one
business day for turning on your electricity and gas. You can probably do
this by phone rather than by going to their office.
If you smell gas at any time, call the gas company. They will send
someone out as soon as possible to identify the problem. If you cannot
reach the gas company, call the fire department for emergency shut off.
If you have any questions about who pays for electricity and/or gas,
refer to your lease. If the lease does not mention who pays for these
utilities or you do not have a written lease, contact your landlord and
ask. If he or she has agreed to pay for one or both of the utilities, make
sure t his agreement is in writing or is in your lease. This will save a
lot of trouble once the bills start arriving. If you pay for these
utilities, then it is an added expense you must consider with your rent.
When moving to an apartment, you should ask how much these bills usually
cost. Think about this when deciding whether or not to rent the apartment.
Water
There are both private and municipal water companies. In larger
apartment complexes, generally the landlord will supply water at no extra
charge to the tenant. If you have any questions, look at your lease or ask
your landlord. If water is not mentioned, be sure to contact your landlord
before calling the water company. If the landlord is going to supply you
with water, be sure to get it in writing immediately in order to avoid
future problems.
If your water bill is high, check for leaky faucets and toilets. Check
the valve inside the tank of your toilet to make sure it is not leaking.
If repairs are necessary, contact your landlord. If he or she is paying
the water bill, you should receive speedy service and a
"thanks".
Contact the telephone company listed in the yellow pages of your local
phone book. Stop by the office or call in advance and they will try to
install the phone the day you arrive. They require at least two business
days' notice for installation, but would prefer one week.
There will be a minimum installation charge if the telephone jacks are
already in place and you supply the phone. If the equipment is not already
in place, the fee will vary depending on the number of phone lines and
services requested. If this is your first telephone, the company will
usually require an advance payment of one average monthly bill. If you
have had phone service in the past and have paid your bills on time, there
is no reason why you would have to pay a deposit. Complain to the
supervisor if you feel you are being treated unfairly. If you are required
to pay a deposit, you will receive interest on your deposit after one
year. The amount of the deposit will depend on your service and credit
rating.
When someone moves out and the phone bill is in her/his name, it may be
necessary for the person leaving and whoever is going to take over the
phone bill to visit the phone company to make the necessary changes in
writing. Make sure the person using the phone is the one being billed for
it.
Call forwarding, call waiting and similar services may cost "only
pennies a day", but can be very expensive over time. Resist the sales
pitches of the phone company, and get only the phone service you actually
need.
Energy Saving Tips
With today's prices, it is important that you take a good look at the
expense of your utility bills. Heating and cooling your home/apartment is
a large portion of energy costs. Therefore, do not waste that heated or
cooled air. There are several ways you can reduce the load on your heating
or cooling equipment. The following are some heating energy savers:
Cooling Energy Savers Overcooling is also a problem in the summer with overuse of air
conditioning. Try not to use more than you need. The following are
preventive tips:
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