If utility bills are still coming to you after you move, contact each provider directly and ask it to close or transfer the account effective on the correct date. Give a forwarding address, submit a final meter reading if the provider accepts one, and keep written confirmation. Moving out alone may not stop billing: the account can remain your responsibility until the provider receives notice or another customer opens service.
What to do first
- List every utility account. Check electricity, gas, water and sewer, waste, and any other service billed separately. Contact each provider; one company generally cannot close accounts held with another.
- Request a closure or transfer. Give the provider the old service address and the date your responsibility should end. Ask whether it can transfer your account to your new address or whether you must close it and open a new one. Procedures and notice lead times vary by provider and location. The Maryland Public Service Commission says many utilities require advance notice, while Portland publishes its own start, stop, or transfer process; do not assume either process applies to your account.
- Provide a forwarding address and contact details. Ask when and how the final bill will arrive and how any deposit will be handled. Maryland’s commission requires a final-bill mailing address when requesting discontinuation, and Portland asks for the address where it should send the final bill.
- Record the final meter reading, if applicable. On your last service day, take a dated photo or write down the reading and submit it as the provider directs. The Utility Regulator for Northern Ireland recommends taking a final reading on move-out day. Not every utility has a customer-readable meter or accepts customer readings.
- Get confirmation and save your records. Keep the request date, confirmation or reference number, agreed end date, meter reading, and any written response. Ask the provider to confirm that its records show the correct date.
Why a move-out date may not stop the bills
The Maryland Public Service Commission says customers must notify the utility when service in their name should stop. Billing may continue until the customer gives notice or a new customer applies. So do not rely on the move-out itself—or on an assumption that the landlord or next occupant has taken over—to close the account.
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If bills continue after you requested closure
Ask the provider to review the account
Contact the provider promptly. Give it your closure request date, confirmation number, requested end date, and any submitted meter reading. Ask it to review the account, explain the charges, and itemize any amount it says you owe. Keep copies of the bill and the provider’s response.
Check the lease and local rules if responsibility is disputed
Responsibility can depend on the account holder, lease, provider procedure, and local rules. Alberta’s Move-Out Utility Guide for Tenants says the account holder is responsible for closing the account and recommends coordinating the final service date; it also notes retailer notice requirements may differ. By contrast, New Zealand Tenancy Services says landlords pay costs that remain payable when a tenant is not living at the property and bills shared between tenancies. These are jurisdiction-specific examples, not universal rules. If you are in Alberta, the guide identifies the Utilities Consumer Advocate and Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service as possible support routes. Elsewhere, look for a locally appropriate tenant-advice or utility-consumer service.
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Ask the utility what keeping the account active means for the person listed as the customer. Get any requested arrangement, including its end date and who is responsible for charges, in writing. Check that it is consistent with your lease and local tenancy rules. A landlord’s promise to pay does not, by itself, show that the utility has changed the customer of record.
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