New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 14 - PUBLIC UTILITIES
Chapter 3 - ALL UTILITIES
Subchapter 3A - DISCONTINUANCE AND RESTORATION OF SERVICE
Section 14:3-3A.6 - Discontinuance of service to tenants

(a) Electric, gas, water and wastewater public utilities shall make every reasonable attempt to determine when a landlord-tenant relationship exists at premises being serviced. If such a relationship is known to exist, and if the tenants are not the customers of record but are end-users, as these terms are defined at N.J.A.C. 14:3-1.1, discontinuance of service is prohibited unless the utility has, notwithstanding the time periods in N.J.A.C. 14:3-3A.5, given a 15-day written notice to the owner of the premises or to the customer of record to whom the last preceding bill was rendered. Further, the utilities shall use their best efforts to determine the names and addresses of each tenant, in order to provide such notice, for example, through mailings to landlords requesting a list of tenants. The utility shall use its best efforts to provide copies of the discontinuance notice to all tenants. In addition, the utility shall provide the tenant(s) with a 15-day written notice, which shall be hand-delivered, mailed, or posted in a conspicuous area of the premises and in the common areas of multiple family premises.

(b) If a utility uses posting as the method of notice, each utility shall use its best efforts to also place a copy of the notice on each tenant's car windshield or under the door of each tenant's dwelling. In the case of tenants of single and two-family dwellings, each tenant shall also be provided with a 15-day individual notice. Each utility shall offer the tenant(s) continued service to be billed to the tenant(s) unless the utility demonstrates that such billing is not feasible. The continuation of service to a tenant shall not be conditioned upon payment by the tenant of any outstanding bills due upon the account of any other person. The utility shall not be held to the requirements of this provision if the existence of a landlord-tenant relationship could not be reasonably ascertained.

(c) When a landlord-tenant relationship is known to exist, an electric, gas, water, and wastewater public utility, at the landlord's request, shall send written notice to the landlord that a tenant's service is being voluntarily or involuntarily discontinued.

(d) When a landlord-tenant relationship is known to exist, an electric, gas, water, and wastewater public utility, at the landlord's request, shall place the service in the landlord's name if the tenant's service is being voluntarily or involuntarily discontinued.

(e) To participate in this program, the landlord shall complete a form provided by the utility, indicating a choice as specified at (c) or (d) above.