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.