---
type: "Bill"
title: "Municipally owned utilities."
description: "Specifies that the statute concerning the payment for utility services (other than sewer services) provided by a municipally owned utility to rental property does not allow a municipal legislative body to impose a requirement that the owner of the property must: (1) ensure the creditworthiness of the person occupying the property; or (2) accept responsibility for charges incurred by the person occupying the property; by cosigning an agreement or by any other method."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "HB 1165"
citation: "Indiana HB 1165 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["CITIES AND TOWNS", "UTILITIES", "LANDLORDS AND TENANTS"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Eric Koch", "Jack Sandlin", "Woody Burton"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 24
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2020-01-08"
last_action: "2020-03-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/622b5a14-0399-430b-9ba4-7a17a032fbe2"
source_url: "http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2020/bills/house/1165"
source_hash: "2ea908a9c81769b88ae3fca3c3ea98bb289f3f079dfd2b43bbc116dc9966377f"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-in"]
---

# Indiana HB 1165 (2020) — Municipally owned utilities.

Specifies that the statute concerning the payment for utility services (other than sewer services) provided by a municipally owned utility to rental property does not allow a municipal legislative body to impose a requirement that the owner of the property must: (1) ensure the creditworthiness of the person occupying the property; or (2) accept responsibility for charges incurred by the person occupying the property; by cosigning an agreement or by any other method.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Engrossed House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1165/versions/HB1165.04.ENGS)
2. **Enrolled House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1165/versions/HB1165.05.ENRS)
3. **House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1165/versions/HB1165.03.COMS)
4. **House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1165/versions/HB1165.02.COMH)
5. **Introduced House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1165/versions/HB1165.01.INTR)

## Votes

- HB 1165 - Sandlin - 3rd Reading — **28–18** (pass) · upper
- HB 1165 - Burton - 3rd Reading — **64–31** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Eric Koch — primary (person)
- Jack Sandlin — primary (person)
- Woody Burton — primary (person)
- Ben Smaltz — coauthor (person)
- Edmond Soliday — coauthor (person)
- Jim Pressel — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-01-08** Authored by Representative Burton
- **2020-01-08** First reading: referred to Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2020-01-23** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2020-01-27** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-01-28** Representatives Pressel, Smaltz, Soliday added as coauthors
- **2020-01-29** Senate sponsor: Senator Sandlin
- **2020-01-29** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 129: yeas 64, nays 31 `reading-3, passage`
- **2020-01-30** Referred to the Senate
- **2020-02-05** First reading: referred to Committee on Utilities `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2020-02-20** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-25** Amendment #1 (Ford J.D.) failed; Roll Call 234: yeas 10, nays 36 `amendment-failure`
- **2020-02-25** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-02-25** Senator Koch added as second sponsor
- **2020-02-27** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 254: yeas 28, nays 18 `reading-3, passage`
- **2020-02-28** Returned to the House with amendments `amendment-failure`
- **2020-03-03** Motion to concur filed
- **2020-03-04** Concurrence defeated; Roll Call 307: yeas 33, nays 59
- **2020-03-05** Motion to concur filed
- **2020-03-10** House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 352: yeas 61, nays 34 `amendment-failure`
- **2020-03-11** Signed by the Speaker
- **2020-03-12** Signed by the President Pro Tempore
- **2020-03-18** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2020-03-21** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`
- **2020-03-30** Public Law 161

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/622b5a14-0399-430b-9ba4-7a17a032fbe2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).