What Utilities Can a Landlord Charge the Tenant For?

In Pennsylvania, which utilities the tenant pays is primarily a matter of the lease, not a fixed statutory list. The lease should state, for every utility, who pays: electric, gas, water, sewer, trash, and internet. If the lease is silent, disputes follow, and a judge tends to resolve silence in favor of the tenant's expectations about what a rental includes. Write the allocation down before move-in.

What you can charge is not the same as what is wise to charge. Shifting every bill to the tenant lowers your carrying costs, but it can make the unit less competitive if comparable rentals include utilities. In practice, most Philadelphia-area landlords charge tenants for separately metered electric and gas, include water, sewer, and trash in the rent for single-family rentals, or use submeters and RUBS in multi-unit buildings.

Whatever you choose, the allocation must be in the lease, explained at signing, and stable for the term. Changing who pays mid-lease requires a signed addendum, not a notice.

The fairest and simplest arrangement is a separately metered unit, where the tenant's own electric or gas account is in their name. The utility company bills the tenant directly, you never touch the money, and there is no allocation argument. For single-family rentals and units with individual meters, this is the standard arrangement.

In multi-unit buildings without separate meters, landlords use submeters, which measure each unit's usage from the master meter, or a ratio utility billing system, which allocates the bill by formula based on factors like square footage or occupancy. Pennsylvania law allows these arrangements but regulates them for fairness, with requirements around disclosure, billing, and charges.

If you bill tenants for submetered or ratio usage, the lease must disclose the method, the bills must reflect actual or reasonably allocated usage, and you cannot mark up the cost beyond what the rules allow. Billing tenants for other tenants' usage is one of the fastest ways to lose a deposit dispute or a lawsuit.

Winter Utility Season

Pennsylvania winters put the utility clause to its hardest test. Clarify in the lease how the heating season works: who pays the fuel, who handles the thermostat expectations, and who responds if the heat fails. A tenant who knows the winter rules keeps the heat at a safe level, reports problems early, and does not discover the arrangement during a January freeze.

Before the season, confirm the heating system is serviced and the tenant knows the emergency contacts. The utility clause that anticipates winter is the one that survives it.

You cannot shut off essential services such as heat, water, or electricity to force payment, and you cannot let them lapse in a way that makes the unit uninhabitable. Pennsylvania landlords must provide a habitable dwelling with working heat, water, and electricity, and cutting essential services is both a habitability violation and a form of illegal self-help. Even where the tenant owes rent, the remedy is the eviction process, not the utility connection.

This rule matters most in winter, when a heat failure in a Pennsylvania rental is an emergency under the implied warranty of habitability. A landlord who ignores a broken heater until the tenant pays is asking for legal trouble, including rent abatement, damages, and possibly a license complaint.

If the tenant fails to pay a utility bill that is in their own name, that is between the tenant and the utility company, not a lever for you to pull. Your recourse for unpaid rent remains the same lawful process used for any other breach.

Put the full utility picture in the lease: the list of utilities, who pays each, how any shared bills are calculated, and what happens at move-out. State whether utilities are included in the rent or billed separately, and if billed separately, how and when the tenant receives the bill. Spell out seasonal expectations, such as who handles snow and utility access, and note the heating system's fuel so the tenant knows what they are supporting.

Require the tenant to transfer utility accounts into their name before move-in when they are paying direct, and confirm the transfer before handing over keys. At move-out, have them confirm the accounts are closed or transferred out by the end date, so you are not left paying for a departed tenant's usage.

Finally, keep the utility clause consistent with the rest of the lease. A clause that says the tenant pays all utilities while the house rules promise a certain water allowance is a dispute waiting to happen. One clear, consistent allocation beats a list of exceptions.