Utilities and charges: who pays for what, and whose name is on the account

The utilities clause is three sentences long and rarely argued about while a tenancy is running. It becomes the subject of an argument on the last day, when a final bill arrives, nobody is sure whose name it is in, and the deposit is still being held.

The split: what you use, and what you own

Our clause, which matches the CEA template on this point, divides the bills along one simple line. The tenant pays for the services they consume while living there: electricity, water, gas, internet, telephone and television. The landlord pays the charges that come with owning the property: property tax, and the maintenance, conservancy or management charges, including management corporation contributions for a condominium.

The line is easy to remember because it follows who controls the cost. A tenant can turn off the air-conditioning. Nobody living in the flat can change what the management corporation charges for the pool.

Whose name is on the account

The clause also asks the tenant to register the utility accounts in their own name where that applies. It reads like administration, and it is the part that matters most in practice.

An account left in the landlord’s name means the landlord is the one a supplier chases, and the landlord is the one with a final bill arriving weeks after the tenant has left, to be recovered from a deposit that may already have been returned. An account in the tenant’s name puts the bill and the relationship with the supplier with the person using the service, which is where the clause put the cost in the first place.

When rent “includes” something

Plenty of lets, especially a room or a furnished unit, quote a rent that includes some utilities or the internet. That is a perfectly good arrangement, and it overrides the default split, so it has to be written down. An agreement that says the tenant pays all utilities, sitting beside a verbal promise that the rent covers them, is the usual reason two parties disagree about whether rent was paid in full.

Evidence, on request

The third sentence of the clause asks each party to show the other proof of payment for their own charges when reasonably asked. It is the least used line in the clause and the one worth invoking at the end: the final paid bill is what lets the landlord return a deposit without holding back an amount against a charge nobody can see.

Three things worth doing on handover day

• Read the meters, and photograph them. At the start and at the end. A dated photograph of a meter settles an argument that a memory cannot.
• Move the accounts. Into the tenant’s name at the start, and closed or transferred at the end, with the final reading given to the supplier.
• Write down anything the rent includes. Which services, and whether there is a limit. If it is not in the agreement, the clause’s default applies.

This explains what the clause does. It is not legal or tax advice, and whether any particular term binds in a particular dispute is a question for a lawyer rather than for a blog post.