Transferring Utilities: A Complete Guide for Renters

To transfer utilities for a rental move, schedule service in your name to start at the new place on the day you get the keys, and coordinate each old account's stop date with your landlord under your lease's requirements. You remain responsible for the old account until the provider's effective stop date, even if you have returned the keys. Your lease decides which services you set up yourself. A deposit is often avoidable: New York bars gas and electric utilities from requiring one from most new residential customers, and PG&E in California cannot charge one for new residential service.

Which utilities does your lease make yours?

Start with the utilities clause in your lease, or the utility addendum if there is one. California's Department of Real Estate (DRE) tells renters to ask who pays for gas, electric, water, internet, and trash collection, and lists that split among the terms a rental agreement should state. Each service falls into one of three setups:

• In your name. You open an account with the utility, and it bills you directly. This works when your unit has its own meter.
• In the landlord's name, billed to you. The landlord keeps the account and charges you a share, measured by a submeter (a meter the owner installs for your unit) or divided by a formula.
• Included in rent. The landlord pays, and you have nothing to set up.

If roommates share the unit, settle whose name goes on each account before anyone calls a utility. For how billing splits and submeters work, see who pays for utilities under a lease.

Ask the landlord what the last tenant paid each month. The DRE suggests this so you can check whether rent and utilities together fit your budget, and any utility deposit belongs in your moving budget.

How to set the stop and start dates

Check both leases' required service periods alongside your key pickup, key return, and final walkthrough dates.

1. Contact each provider as soon as your dates are set. Utilities set minimum lead times. PG&E's rules hold you responsible for service until two days after it receives your stop request or until the stop date you give, whichever is later. In New York, a gas or electric utility generally must start service within five business days after you apply, or owe you $25 for each day of delay unless the state Public Service Commission finds it had good cause.
2. Ask for a transfer if the same company serves both addresses. One request can set both dates. New York treats a move within the same utility's service area as a continuation of service, so a payment plan you already have carries over.
3. Start new service on your key date, or on the lease start date if the lease requires the account to be in your name by then.
4. Confirm the old stop date with your landlord and utility. Keep service through the period your lease requires, even if you return keys early, and coordinate any transfer to the landlord or next tenant.
5. Write down each confirmation number and the dates the provider confirmed.

Overlap costs depend on the number of days, your usage, and any fixed service charges. If your electric bill averages $90 a month, about $3 a day, two extra days on the old account cost about $6. Forgetting to stop service costs more: another month at the same rate is about $90.

For internet or cable, ask whether your plan can move to the new address and how to return any equipment you rent from the provider.

Can you avoid a utility deposit?

A utility may ask for a deposit when you open an account, but some states limit deposits, and in others a record of on-time payments can stand in for one.

Where no rule bars a deposit, ask for a waiver based on your record:

1. Before you close your current account, get your payment history in writing, such as a letter or account statement showing 12 months of on-time payments. Texas requires electricity providers to keep a former customer's payment history for two years so they can supply it on request, and lets a new provider obtain that history from your old one with your permission.
2. Give the new utility that record and ask whether it will waive or lower the deposit.
3. Ask how a required deposit comes back. In New York, a deposit earns interest and must be refunded promptly after a year without delinquency under state rules. An isolated late payment does not necessarily disqualify you.

Final meter readings and final bills

Your final bill covers service through your stop date. Under PG&E's rules, for example, the closing bill uses the meter reading on the stop date you requested, your average daily use during the billing period multiplied by the days you had service, or actual daily usage data. To check the numbers:

• Photograph each meter you pay for on your last day at the old unit and your first day at the new one, with the date visible. Compare the photos with the final bill and the first new bill.
• Give the old utility your new mailing address for the final bill and any refund.
• Pay the final bill promptly. PG&E treats a closing bill as due when you receive it and can require payment of outstanding bills before it connects service. In New York, an applicant who still owes on an earlier account in their own name is entitled to service after paying that balance or agreeing to a deferred payment plan, which spreads the old balance over installments, with a down payment of no more than half the amount owed or three months of average bills, whichever is less.
• Check what happened to any deposit. When service ends, PG&E refunds the deposit minus any unpaid bills.

When the landlord bills you for utilities

If an account stays in the landlord's name, you have nothing to stop or start, but you still owe your share through your last day. Before you move out, ask the landlord in writing:

• Which meter reading date or billing period it will use for your final charge.
• How it will calculate the last partial month.
• Whether it will bill you separately or deduct the amount from your security deposit.

In California, a landlord that divides utility costs among units cannot charge more than the actual cost, and you can ask how the charges are divided. California also requires a landlord to tell you before you sign, or as soon as it finds out, if your gas or electric meter also measures service outside your unit, such as a hallway or laundry room, and the two of you should put the arrangement for who pays in writing.

Record your service start dates and meter photos on your move-in checklist, and use the move-out timeline to fit utility calls around your notice, packing, and key dates.