Chicago clients are concerned about utility bills and how a bankruptcy filing affects their services. They are happy to know that they can get service to continue to or have it turned back on if it was disconnected. The video below talks about ComEd in particular, but it applies to gas service and telephone service as well.
Jesse Barrientes: So what happens then if I owe Com Ed a chunk of cash and so now with automatic stay, they are prohibited from collecting the past due amount. Are they going to unplug me? Are they going to turn off my services?
David Siegel: They’re not going to turn off your services but what they are going to do is they are going to wipe out the debt from the date of filing going backwards and then moving forward, they’re either going to continue your service as normal or more typically, they are going to ask for a security deposit. A security deposit of anywhere from 1 ½ to 2 times what a normal bill would have been and that’s to provide adequate assurance that you are going to pay going forward. So the bankruptcy code provides for that level of protection for the utility service but you do eliminate the debt.
