Utilities in Lynn rentals: who pays, and what a shutoff costs

Who pays for what in a Lynn rental is not a matter of lease-drafting freedom. The State Sanitary Code sets the default — the owner provides the electricity, gas, oil, and water — and permits shifting a utility to the tenant only when a meter serves that unit alone and a written agreement says so. Water is stricter still: billable only through a submetering regime with licensed-plumber installation, mandatory low-flow fixtures, and a certificate filed under the penalties of perjury. And c.186 §14 makes the utilities themselves protected — a willful shutoff, or a bill transferred into your name without your consent, carries a criminal fine and a civil floor of three months' rent. This page lays the rules out at today's Lynn rents.

What this page is: who must pay for each utility in a Lynn rental, when a bill can lawfully be shifted to the tenant, and what shutoffs and billing games cost — each rule linked to its official source and priced at today's actual Lynn rents. It is not legal advice — when it matters, read the linked source or use the free legal help on our tenant rights page.

The default: the owner provides it, and a lease can only shift what's separately metered

105 CMR 410.200(A) is the electricity-and-gas rule: "The owner shall provide the electricity or gas used in each dwelling unit unless: (1) Such electricity or gas is metered through a meter which serves only the dwelling unit or other area under the exclusive use of an occupant of that dwelling unit... and (2) A written rental agreement provides for payment by the occupant." Both conditions must hold — a lease clause alone shifts nothing if the meter also serves the hallway or a neighbor, and a separate meter shifts nothing without the written clause. If the owner is the one who must pay, the code lets the building stay master-metered; if the tenant pays, the meter must be exclusively theirs. Heating oil runs on the same two-part structure (410.210: a separate tank serving only that unit, plus a written agreement), and the heating system itself — the 68°F/64°F temperatures it must deliver in season — is covered on our repairs page. Source: 105 CMR 410.200/410.210 (State Sanitary Code)

Water is the strict one: the c.186 §22 submetering regime or the landlord pays

A Lynn landlord may bill a tenant for water and sewer only through the full machinery of c.186 §22, and 105 CMR 410.130(C) makes sanitary-code compliance turn on it: a licensed plumber installs a submeter that measures "only water that is supplied for the exclusive use of the particular dwelling unit"; every fixture first gets certified water-conservation hardware — the statute sets the numbers itself: showerheads at no more than 2½ gallons per minute, faucets 2.2, toilets 1.6 gallons per flush; a written rental agreement describes the billing; and the owner files a certificate with the board of health signed under the penalties of perjury. Even then, a unit becomes eligible only at the commencement of a new tenancy — water billing cannot be imposed on a sitting tenant, and a tenant who relocated involuntarily from another unit in the same building doesn't count as new. Two guardrails survive all the paperwork: the owner "may not shut off or refuse water service to an occupant on the basis that the occupant has not paid a separately assessed water/sewer usage charge" (410.130(D)), and the occupant gets access to the submeter to verify it works (410.130(E)). Source: M.G.L. c.186 §22 · 105 CMR 410.130

The §14 surprise: moving the bill into your name without consent is the same offense as a shutoff

General Laws c.186 §14 is best known for shutoffs — a landlord obligated to furnish utilities "who willfully or intentionally fails to furnish such water, hot water, heat, light, power, gas, elevator service, telephone service, janitor service or refrigeration service." But the same sentence reaches a quieter move: any landlord "who transfers the responsibility for payment for any utility services to the occupant without his knowledge or consent" — read live and quoted verbatim today. Discovering the electricity account has been moved into your name, or a new "utility fee" on the ledger you never agreed to, is not a billing mix-up: it sits in the same quasi-criminal statute as cutting the power — a fine of $25 to $300 (or up to six months' imprisonment), plus civil liability for actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater, plus costs and attorney's fees — all of which the statute says may be applied in setoff against rent owed. §18's anti-retaliation protections attach to anyone who reports or proceeds against a violation. Source: M.G.L. c.186 §14

Landlord shutoffs, including the indirect kind

§14 does not require the landlord to touch a breaker: it also reaches one "who directly or indirectly interferes with the furnishing by another of such utilities or services" — letting a master account lapse until the company disconnects is interference with the furnishing, not an accident of paperwork. The statute writes its own narrow exceptions: restrictions imposed by government, and interruptions "during the time required to perform necessary repairs." If the service that failed is heat, the exact temperatures and the inspection-first sequence are on the repairs page — including the board of health's duty to inspect on any request, oral or written, with anonymity if you ask (410.600). Source: M.G.L. c.186 §14 · Attorney General's guide to landlord and tenant rights

The triple-decker classic: the hallway light on your meter

The code carves out exactly one lawful version of the oldest Lynn utility complaint. In residences of two or three dwelling units, light fixtures for a common hallway, passageway, foyer, or stairway may be wired to a unit's meter — but only if a written rental agreement states that the occupant pays for the common-area lights, and the arrangement may begin only at the commencement of a new tenancy (410.300(F)). Outside that carve-out, common-area or other-unit usage flowing through a meter you pay is a sanitary-code violation — 410.200(A)'s tenant-paid meter must serve only your unit. The lever is the same as any code violation: a board of health inspection on request, and the repair machinery if the landlord doesn't fix the wiring or take back the bill. Source: 105 CMR 410.300(F)

When it's the utility company, not the landlord, threatening shutoff

Company-side shutoffs run on different machinery than §14. A gas or electric company may not shut off — or refuse to restore — service "during such time as there is a serious illness therein," when a physician or the board of health certifies the illness in writing and the customer can't pay because of financial hardship (c.164 §124A, read live today). The Attorney General's guide collects the related household protections — including the winter moratorium period for hardship households heating with the service. These protections ride the account with the company. If the account is in trouble because it is the landlord's account, the §14 machinery above is the tenant-side lever — and help paying an overdue utility bill runs through many of the same doors as help paying rent, on our rental-assistance page. Source: M.G.L. c.164 §124A · Attorney General's guide to landlord and tenant rights

What a landlord shutoff is worth at today's Lynn rents, by ZIP

The average Lynn rent is $2,300/month as of June 2026 (how we compute this). Running the §14 floor — actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater — at each ZIP's current average:

Read the last column as a floor, not a promise: it is what the remedy provision guarantees a winning claim is worth at that rent — plus attorney's fees — not a prediction about any particular case. Documentation decides cases: the shutoff dates, the bills, the notices (photograph them), and every message about who was supposed to pay.

Honest caveat: these are smoothed market averages (Zillow's ZORI index — methodology), not your lease. The remedies run on your actual rent, whatever it is — the table shows the scale at typical Lynn rents.

If the utility fight is part of a bigger one

Utility disputes rarely travel alone: when the service failed because something broke rather than because a bill lapsed, the repairs page has the deadlines and temperatures; a shutoff aimed at making you leave is the illegal-eviction playbook — how eviction lawfully works here, including the lockout ban; the utility clauses worth reading before you sign are on the move-in cost page; help with an overdue bill runs through many of the same programs as help paying rent; and if the building's economics are the real problem, each ZIP's current average (01905, 01902, 01904, 01901) says what leaving costs.