No Heat, Water or Power, and a Lockout
Ala. Code § 35-9A-407 — shutting off service or locking a tenant out brings up to three months' rent
A landlord does not take back a rental by any action, including willfully interrupting heat, running water, hot water, electric, gas or another essential service, except after abandonment, a surrender, or as the landlord and tenant law allows.
Who handles this in Alabama: Alabama Public Service Commission, Consumer Services; and legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Alabama directory.
When a landlord unlawfully removes or locks out the tenant, or willfully cuts an essential service, the tenant may recover possession or end the lease, and recover up to three months' periodic rent or the actual damages, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney's fees.
If the lease ends this way, the landlord returns the recoverable deposit and all unearned prepaid rent.
When the landlord just does not restore it. When, after the tenant's notice, a landlord willfully or negligently fails to promptly make available heat, running water, hot water, electricity, gas or another essential service the lease or the law requires, the tenant may end the lease by written notice of a date at least 14 days after receipt and moving out, or recover damages for the lost rental value. The landlord does not pay utilities unless the lease says so.
Sources for this section (3)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-407 — Tenant’s Remedies for Landlord’s Unlawful Ouster, Exclusion, or Diminution of Service
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-427 — Recovery of Possession Limited
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-404 — Wrongful Failure to Make Available Heat, Water, Hot Water, or Essential Services
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Alabama attorney.