By: Barrientos S.B. No. 375
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to metering for water usage in newly constructed
1-2 apartments, condominium projects, mobile home parks, and multiple
1-3 use facilities.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 13.502, Water Code, is amended to read as
1-6 follows:
1-7 Sec. 13.502. WATER SUBMETERING. (a) An apartment house
1-8 owner, mobile home park owner, multiple use facility owner, <or>
1-9 condominium manager, or property owners association may provide for
1-10 submetering of each dwelling unit or rental unit for the
1-11 measurement of the quantity of water, if any, consumed by the
1-12 occupants of that unit.
1-13 (b) The initial construction of an apartment house, mobile
1-14 home park, multiple use facility, or condominium project shall
1-15 provide for individual water metering, submetering, or plumbing
1-16 designed for future submetering by the owner of each unit for the
1-17 measurement of the quantity of water consumed by the occupants
1-18 within that unit.
1-19 (c) Subsection (b) of this section does not apply to
1-20 construction by a nonprofit organization of a new apartment house
1-21 for occupancy by low-income elderly tenants when the nonprofit
1-22 organization establishes, by submission of engineering and cost
1-23 data and a sworn statement, that all cost savings will be passed on
1-24 to the low-income elderly tenants.
2-1 SECTION 2. Section 13.504, Water Code, is amended to read as
2-2 follows:
2-3 Sec. 13.504. IMPROPER RENTAL RATE INCREASE. If, during the
2-4 90-day period preceding the installation of individual meters or
2-5 submeters, an owner, operator, or manager of an apartment house,
2-6 mobile home park, condominium project, or other multiple use
2-7 facility has increased rental rates and the increase is
2-8 attributable to increased costs of utilities, the owner, operator,
2-9 or manager shall immediately reduce the rental rate by the amount
2-10 of the increase and refund all of the increase that has previously
2-11 been collected within the 90-day period.
2-12 SECTION 3. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
2-13 section, this Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
2-14 (b) Subsection (b), Section 13.502, Water Code, as added by
2-15 this Act, applies only to initial construction for which the date
2-16 of electrical service is on or after January 1, 1994.
2-17 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-18 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-19 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-20 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-21 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.