The tenant (the business occupying the space) who signs a commercial lease agreement is generally expected to be a more savvy, sophisticated, and informed tenant (also known as a lessee) than a tenant in a residential lease, and the law usually does not provide a commercial tenant with the same protections as residential tenant receives.

Because the law does not provide a commercial tenant with many protections, it is up to the commercial tenant to read, understand, and negotiate protections in a proposed lease agreement before signing it, as most every paragraph in a commercial lease agreement can have a significant impact on a business’s operations and financial stability.

Laws vary from state to state, but a commercial landlord’s ability to shut off a tenant’s utilities is usually determined by the terms of the lease agreement and the state’s contract law—to determine, for example, if any breach of the lease agreement by the tenant was a material breach that might justify an extreme measure such as shutting off the utilities.

Contract law in most states recognizes an implied duty of good faith and fair dealing between parties to a contract, and a commercial landlord who shuts off a tenant’s utilities because the tenant is a few days late paying the rent may be in breach of the landlord’s implied duty of good faith and fair dealing.

In Wyoming, commercial tenants are indeed considered more sophisticated than residential tenants and are expected to negotiate the terms of their lease agreements. The protections afforded to commercial tenants are not as extensive as those for residential tenants, which means that commercial tenants must be diligent in understanding and negotiating their lease terms. The lease agreement typically governs the relationship between the commercial landlord and tenant, including the landlord's ability to shut off utilities. While specific statutes may not address this directly, general contract law in Wyoming, as in other states, includes an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in contractual relationships. This implies that a commercial landlord's decision to shut off a tenant's utilities for minor lease violations, such as being a few days late on rent, could potentially breach this implied duty. However, the actual outcome would depend on the specific terms of the lease agreement and the circumstances of the breach.