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Massachusetts's winter rule runs Nov 15 to Mar 15

Can They Shut Off Your Heat in Winter in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts stops a gas or electric shut off between November 15 and March 15 for a heating account whose household certifies financial hardship, the protection reaches municipal light and gas departments as well as the investor owned companies, and the same income test that defines hardship is the 60 percent of state median income test for HEAP.

Calendar window
What the rule runs on
every residential account the rule covers, for as long as the window is open
Nov 15 to Mar 15
The winter window
November 15 through March 15
Co-ops too
Who the rule reaches
Municipal systems and co-ops too
Act first
The household must
the protection is not automatic
The answer

What Massachusetts requires of a utility in winter

Calendar window

November 15 to March 15

Between November 15 and March 15 a gas or electric company may not shut off heat related residential service to a customer who certifies financial hardship, so long as the service was not already shut off for nonpayment before November 15.

What switches it on
Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities's rule runs from November 15 to March 15 and applies inside those dates on its own, without the household filing anything.
Utilities named
gas and electric
Who it reaches
Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities's rule reaches municipal systems and cooperatives as well as the utilities it regulates.
What the household must do
The household tells the company it has a financial hardship and that the service heats the home, then fills out and returns the financial hardship form the company sends, within seven days of receiving it.

That is Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities speaking through its own rule, and the sentence below is the one the summary above was built from. The citation is Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, M.G.L. c. 164, s. 124F; 220 CMR 25.03(1).

No gas or electric company shall between November fifteenth and March fifteenth shut off gas or electric service to any residential customer who cannot pay an overdue charge because of financial hardship, when such gas or electric service is used to provide heat or to operate the heating system of the customer's unit or building.
Section 124F: Shutting off service during financial hardship, Massachusetts General Laws, The 194th General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
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Do this first

The step that switches the protection on in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is one of the states where the rule does not arrive on its own. Households who assume the season protects them find out otherwise in the middle of it, and the difference between the two outcomes is the paragraph below.

The household tells the company it has a financial hardship and that the service heats the home, then fills out and returns the financial hardship form the company sends, within seven days of receiving it.

Do it before the disconnection date on the notice rather than after. Several states word the protection so that it stops a shutoff that has not happened yet and says nothing about restoring service that has.

Already off, or a notice has come

Who to call in Massachusetts today

The same rule that stops a shut off also stops a company refusing to restore service, and the DPU Consumer Division takes the call directly when service is already off or a shut off notice has arrived.

Who takes the complaint
Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, Consumer Division
By phone
(877) 886-5066

Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, Consumer Division, how to file

If your service has been shut off, or is about to be shut off, call the DPU Consumer Division directly at (617) 737-2836 or toll-free at (877) 886-5066.
Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, Consumer Division, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A commission’s consumer division is not a courtesy line. In most states a company must hold a disconnection while a formal complaint about that account is open, which is a different and stronger thing than asking the company to reconsider. Ring the utility first, then the commission if the answer is no.

The corner of a shingled house showing the mast and weatherhead where overhead lines land on the roof, and the round electric meter mounted on the wall below
The mast on the roof and the meter under it, on an ordinary house in Washington State. This is where an electric disconnection physically happens, and it is also why the rules are written by a public utility commission rather than a legislature in a good many states: the commission regulates the company that owns this wire. “Residence service drop”, Chetvorno, CC0
Who it covers

Does the Massachusetts rule cover your utility

Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities's rule reaches municipal systems and cooperatives as well as the utilities it regulates.

Because Massachusetts writes the rule wider than the companies its commission regulates, a rural electric cooperative and a municipal light department are inside it too. Check the name on the bill anyway: the rule names classes of company rather than every company.

The rule names gas and electric service.

Help with the bill

Massachusetts pays part of the heating bill through Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)

A shutoff rule and a heating grant are separate things, and in several states an approved grant application is itself what satisfies the filing the shutoff rule asks for. Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities runs it, opening October 1 and closing April 30. The income test is household income at or below 60 percent of the Massachusetts estimated state median income.

HEAP helps low-income individuals and families with the cost of heating their homes during the winter season. The online application opens annually on October 1 for the upcoming heating season.
Learn about Home Energy Assistance - HEAP, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The full Massachusetts page, with the season, the income test and how to apply, is at heating assistance in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts winter shutoff questions

A residential natural gas meter with its regulator and shutoff valve, mounted against pale house siding
A gas meter, which is the other half of the question and frequently the other half of the answer. A state rule can reach a regulated gas company and not reach the electric cooperative next door, or the reverse, so the protection you have often depends on which company sends which bill. “Gas meter”, RadRafe, Public domain
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Winter shutoff rules in other states

Massachusetts heating assistanceMassachusetts's energy assistance program, its season and its income test.Heating assistance by stateWhen each state opens applications, the income test, and where to apply.Heating oil and propane pricesWhat the fuel costs this week in the states that report it.Frozen pipe riskThe forecast that puts pipes at risk, by ZIP.Winter shutoff rules in every stateHow the fifty states differ on whether a window, a forecast or a filing decides it.

Massachusetts read September 23, 2026 from Section 124F: Shutting off service during financial hardship, Massachusetts General Laws, The 194th General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, linked above. A commission can order a company to do something its published rule does not require, and rules change between seasons, so the agency page is the one that governs. Every state is on the winter shutoff hub.