Source: https://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/lt1-chapter-6-common-problems
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 14:04:07+00:00

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To obtain the benefit of this rule, you should call the utility company and ask that a new account be opened in your name. You should do this as quickly as possible. If you do not inform the company that your husband has left, a dispute will often arise as to when he actually left. The company may also claim that you accepted responsibility for your husband's old bills by leaving the account in his name for as long as you did. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you make the change promptly.
When a landlord wishes to transfer responsibility for a utility bill from herself to a tenant, she cannot simply do so by calling the company. The tenant must agree in writing with the landlord and the utility must be separately metered.39 If you have not agreed in writing to a utility bill being put in your name, call the utility company and ask that the bill be taken out of your name. If your landlord then refuses to pay the bill, the company cannot shut off your service without giving you notice. For more information, see the section in this chapter called Your Right to Continued Service.
Utility companies are required to read your meter on a regular basis. When they read your meter and send you a bill, your bill is based on your actual use. Utility companies are also allowed to send customers "estimated bills" based on your estimated use. The problem with too many estimated bills is that if the company estimates your utility use on the low side, you eventually will receive a very large "catch-up" bill once a company reads your meter and determines your actual use. Companies can also estimate on the high side and you may be paying more than you should.
If you want your bill to be based on your actual use every month, you can read the meter yourself. If you do this, you can report your reading to the company over the phone or through a meter reading card provided by the company. You can also contact the company and make arrangements for your meter to be read at a time when you will be home, including in the evening or on a Saturday.
Customers often complain that their utility bills are too high. Unfortunately, the reason in most cases is simply that rates are so high. If you heat with gas or electricity, your utility bills can easily exceed $2,000 per year. Even the electricity needed to run lights, a refrigerator, and a few other appliances can cost $75 or more per month.
A high bill may, however, indicate that you have a problem. In some cases, someone may be illegally tapping into your utility lines—that is, someone may be using utility service from the line you pay for. This is more common in apartment buildings, where all the meters may be accessible in a common area, such as a basement. If you suspect that your gas or electrical service is being illegally tapped or diverted, call the utility company and the DPU.
Although neither the company nor the DPU is required by law to conduct a thorough physical inspection of your premises for illegal tapping, they may offer to test a meter or help in some fashion. If the company and the DPU can't or won't help you, you may have to hire an electrician or plumber to locate the problem.
If you believe that the owner has violated the provisions of the Sanitary Code regarding metering requirements, call the local Board of Health and ask for an inspection. If the Board of Health says that there is a metering problem, give a copy of the Board's report to the utility company within 60 days. The law requires the utility company to switch your entire bill to your landlord's name until the Board of Health certifies that the problem has been fixed.
You may have defective or inefficient appliances that are using too much electricity or gas, thus causing unusually high bills. Again, you can try calling the utility company to see if they can offer any help. But you may have to hire a plumber or electrician to get a satisfactory answer to your problem. If the appliances belong to the landlord, she may have an obligation to keep them in good working order under the state Sanitary Code.
Your landlord may legally be responsible for utility bills that you have verbally agreed to pay. The state Sanitary Code requires a landlord to pay for the fuel used for hot water and space heating, as well as other electric and gas bills, unless you have signed a written agreement stating that you are responsible for these bills.44 If you have not agreed in writing to pay these bills, the landlord cannot make you pay them.
However, if you pay the bills under a verbal agreement, you may have trouble getting the landlord to reimburse you later. The Massachusetts courts agree that it is a deceptive practice under the state's consumer rights law for a landlord to force a tenant to pay utility bills without a written agreement. However, even if there is such an agreement, the courts usually will not order a landlord to reimburse the tenant for bills that the tenant has already paid. Instead, the courts simply award the tenant $25 in damages and require the landlord to pay the tenant's legal fees.
37 . G.L. c. 209, §7 (but note that the constitutionality of this law has been questioned, see Pioneer Valley Postal Fed. Credit Union v. Soja, 2002 Mass. App. Div. 193 (Dist. Ct. 2002).
38 . Key v. Boston Edison Co., DPU 19355 (1978).
39 . 105 C.M.R. §410.354. Corey v. Boston Gas Co., DPU 19758 (1980).
40 . 220 C.M.R. §25.02(2).
41 . See the following summary process cases for discussions of incorrect metering (the courts may refer to this as cross-metering, even where the problem is incorrect metering rather than meters that are completely switched between tenants): Swedberg v. Welvaert, Mass. Housing Ct., No. 10-SP-0784 (Western Div.) (Aug. 2, 2010) (ordering three months rent as damages for cross-metering); Lavigne v. Dupelle, Mass. Housing Ct., No. 09SP3770 (Western Div.) (July 9, 2010) (unlawful to charge tenants for entire utility bill where there was one meter for building with two units) (even with dashes in between the case number); Lynn v. Adeeko, Mass. Housing Ct., No. 10-SP-1379 (May 4, 2010) (where metering problem resulted in tenant paying for electricity for common areas, tenant was awarded damages equal to three months of rent); Marquez v. Guerrero, Mass. Housing Ct., No. 09-SP-1658 (June 2009) (tenant awarded three months of rent as damages for cross-metering); Rainaud v. Worknick, Mass. Housing Ct., No. 04-SP-4449 (Jan. 19, 2005) (awarding tenant three months rent as damages for cross-metering); Shuman v. Burns,, Mass. Housing Ct. No. 98-00938 (April 1, 1998) (ordering three months rent as damages for cross-metering): Gilmore v. Lafreniere, Mass. Housing Ct., No. 88-SP-7406-WS (Nov. 1, 1988) (tenants unlawfully billed for heat and hot water, landlord required to pay whole bill as remedy). See also, Silva v. Brandon, Mass. Housing Ct., No. 96-CV-00136 (Southeastern Div.) (Nov. 18, 1996) (default judgment in civil action awarded damages for cross-metering).
42 . See 220 C.M.R. §§29.01-29.13.
43 . As the DPU noted in Rapice v. Mass. Electric Company, DPU 84-86-28, at 5 (Sept. 8, 1994), a "company may bill a customer retroactively for electricity used, but not originally billed, when that billing results from cross-metering that was not the fault of the Company [citation omitted]. . . . However, when the Department has determined that a Company was at fault for not discovering cross-metering after complaints from customers, it has found that a full abatement was warranted." See also Thomas v. Boston Edison Company, DPU 93-AD-30 (Nov. 1, 1994); Van Buskirk v. Boston Gas Company, DPU 3 (1982).
44 . 105 C.M.R. §410.190 (hot water), §410.201 (heating), §410.354 (gas and electric).
45 . See Knott v. Laythe, 42 Mass. App. Ct. 908, 910 (1997) (if the combined cost of rent plus utilities does not exceed the fair market value of the apartment with utilities included, tenant can only recover $25 and reasonable attorney's fees under G.L. c. 93A); Poncz v. Loftin, 34 Mass. App. Ct. 909 (1993), rev. den'd 415 Mass. 1102 (1993) (tenant cannot recover cost of paying for heat and hot water under verbal agreement with landlord when tenant never asked landlord to pay bills and cannot show that apartment was made uninhabitable by defective heating equipment or interruptions in service; tenant is entitled only to nominal damages of $25 and reasonable attorney's fees under G.L. c. 93A); Young v. Patukonis, 24 Mass. App. Ct. 907, 908-909 (1987) (verbal agreement to pay for heat or hot water is void). These decisions were based on the theory that the Sanitary Code allows landlords to shift the burden of payment to tenants via written agreement and that the failure to reduce a verbal agreement to writing does not in itself make the apartment uninhabitable.

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