Yes, utilities can be included in bankruptcy. Past-due electric, gas, water, and landline telephone bills are treated as general unsecured debts in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, and the moment you file, a federal court order stops your provider from shutting off service or chasing you for the old balance. There is a catch worth knowing before you file: you have 20 days to put down a security deposit for ongoing service, and every bill you run up after the filing date is yours to pay in full and on time.
How the Automatic Stay Stops a Shutoff
Filing a bankruptcy petition triggers the automatic stay, a federal injunction that bars creditors from collection activity. Utility companies fall under it. Your provider cannot disconnect electricity, gas, water, or landline service to pressure you into paying a pre-filing balance, and it cannot send letters or make calls about that balance while the stay is in effect.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 362 – Automatic Stay
If service was recently cut off for nonpayment, filing can force the provider to turn it back on. Most courts treat a refusal to reconnect over a pre-petition balance as itself a collection act barred by the stay. You will generally need to give the utility your case number so it can verify the filing. Reconnection does not erase the old debt; it just takes the shutoff off the table while your case runs.
The 20-Day Deposit Rule
The stay does not entitle you to free service going forward. Section 366 of the Bankruptcy Code lets a utility demand a security deposit, called “adequate assurance of payment,” to cover service used after the filing date. You have 20 days from the filing date to provide it. Miss the deadline and the provider can disconnect you regardless of the automatic stay.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 366 – Utility Service
The clock runs from the day you file, not from the day the utility contacts you. Waiting for a demand letter is how people lose service.
What Counts as Adequate Assurance
The statute accepts several forms of security: a cash deposit, a letter of credit from a bank, a certificate of deposit held as collateral, a surety bond, prepayment for a set amount of future service, or any other arrangement you and the utility both agree to. Cash is the most common. The Code does not fix a dollar amount, and courts have approved cash deposits ranging from two weeks to two months of the average bill depending on the circumstances.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 366 – Utility Service
If the Deposit Demand Is Too High
Utilities sometimes ask for far more than the situation warrants. Either side can file a motion asking the bankruptcy court to set a reasonable amount, and the judge will decide based on the facts of your case.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 366 – Utility Service
What Happens to the Old Balance
Whether the pre-filing arrears get wiped out at once or paid off over time depends on which chapter you file.
Chapter 7
In Chapter 7, past-due utility bills sit in the same bucket as credit card and medical debt: general unsecured. When the court enters your discharge, the balance is eliminated. The provider cannot pursue you for it.3United States Courts. Chapter 7 – Bankruptcy Basics A typical case runs three to four months.
Chapter 13
Chapter 13 folds the arrears into a court-supervised repayment plan. You make one monthly payment to a trustee, who distributes the money to your creditors. The plan runs three years if your household income is below the state median, and generally five years if it is above. No plan can last longer than five years. Whatever qualifying unsecured balance remains at the end, including unpaid utility arrears, is discharged.4United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics
You Still Pay for Service Used After You File
Bankruptcy only addresses debt that existed on the filing date. Every kilowatt-hour and every gallon used after that generates a new obligation outside the case. Fall behind on these post-petition charges and the utility can disconnect you, automatic stay or not.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 366 – Utility Service Build current utility payments into your budget from the filing date forward.
Cable, Internet, and Cell Phone Service
Section 366 does not define “utility.” Legislative history points to providers that hold a local monopoly, meaning services with no easy alternative. Electricity, natural gas, water, and landline telephone clearly qualify. Cable television, internet, and cell service are murkier because those markets usually have competitors, and some courts have treated them differently. The pre-filing debt on those accounts can still be discharged, but the provider may not be required to keep serving you under Section 366. A cell carrier, for example, might end the contract or require new terms to keep your line active. If a specific service matters to you, list the contract on your schedules and talk to the provider directly about continuing to pay.
Repeat Filers Lose Part of the Protection
If a prior bankruptcy case of yours was dismissed within the last year and you file again, the automatic stay in the new case expires after 30 days unless you persuade the court to extend it. If two or more of your cases were dismissed in the previous year, the stay does not take effect at all in the new filing, though you can ask the court to impose it.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 362 – Automatic Stay Without a working stay, the utility has no obligation to hold off on disconnection. A motion to extend or impose the stay needs to be filed promptly.
If the Utility Shuts You Off Anyway
A provider that disconnects service or keeps collecting on a pre-filing balance after being notified of your case has violated a federal court order. Under Section 362(k), a willful violation entitles you to recover your actual damages, including attorney’s fees to enforce the stay, and in egregious cases the court can add punitive damages.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 362 – Automatic Stay “Willful” does not require malice; it means the utility knew about your filing and cut service anyway.
Actual damages in this context can include spoiled food from a power shutoff, the cost of temporary housing when heat is lost in winter, and other expenses tied to the interruption. Tell your bankruptcy attorney right away, because documenting those losses gets harder the longer the shutoff lasts.