Waukegan Bankruptcy Lawyer Describes The Effect Of Filing On Utility...

A common question that I often hear is “will filing bankruptcy effect my power, phone, and other utilities?”  The mere fact of filing a bankruptcy will not cause a disruption in service, if you have current service with ComEd, Nicor or AT&T phone.  At times a utility service will be affected if you are subject to a shut off or if you were shut off.  For example, if you were subject to a shut off, the bankruptcy filing will stop the shut off, however, the utility company has the right to ask for a security deposit to assure future payments.  That security deposit is typically one and half times the normal month, and it has to be reasonable.  

Sometimes people will do things inappropriate with the utilities, such as reinstating service illegally.  In those cases filing a bankruptcy will not restore your utility services.  You will have to pay for the amount that was fraudulently taken.  For example, some people who work for the utility company have a way of turning on and off ComEd for example.  ComEd knows that the box was tampered with, and because the debt was incurred by fraud they do not have to reinstate service until the debt was paid.  

But for the overwhelming majority of people utility services continue just as they did prior to filing.  If there’s a debt owed on the utility service the utility company will reduce the debt down to whatever the amount is on the date of filing moving forward.  It is only in the case of fraud that utility service will not be reinstituted.  However, the utility service does have the right to ask for a small security deposit, typically one and half times a normal month.