By:  Barrientos                                        S.B. No. 375
       73R4118 JJT-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to metering for water usage in newly constructed
    1-3  apartments, condominium projects, mobile home parks, and multiple
    1-4  use facilities.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 13.502, Water Code, is amended to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        Sec. 13.502.  WATER SUBMETERING.  (a)  An apartment house
    1-9  owner, mobile home park owner, multiple use facility owner, <or>
   1-10  condominium manager, or property owners association may provide for
   1-11  submetering of each dwelling unit or rental unit for the
   1-12  measurement of the quantity of water, if any, consumed by the
   1-13  occupants of that unit.
   1-14        (b)  The initial construction of an apartment house, mobile
   1-15  home park, multiple use facility, or condominium project shall
   1-16  provide for individual water metering, submetering, or plumbing
   1-17  designed for future submetering by the owner of each unit for the
   1-18  measurement of the quantity of water consumed by the occupants
   1-19  within that unit.
   1-20        (c)  Subsection (b) of this section does not apply to
   1-21  construction by a nonprofit organization of a new apartment house
   1-22  for occupancy by low-income elderly tenants when the nonprofit
   1-23  organization establishes, by submission of engineering and cost
   1-24  data and a sworn statement, that all cost savings will be passed on
    2-1  to the low-income elderly tenants.
    2-2        SECTION 2.  Section 13.504, Water Code, is amended to read as
    2-3  follows:
    2-4        Sec. 13.504.  IMPROPER RENTAL RATE INCREASE.  If, during the
    2-5  90-day period preceding the installation of individual meters or
    2-6  submeters, an owner, operator, or manager of an apartment house,
    2-7  mobile home park, condominium project, or other multiple use
    2-8  facility has increased rental rates and the increase is
    2-9  attributable to increased costs of utilities, the owner, operator,
   2-10  or manager shall immediately reduce the rental rate by the amount
   2-11  of the increase and refund all of the increase that has previously
   2-12  been collected within the 90-day period.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
   2-14  section, this Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-15        (b)  Section 13.502(b), Water Code, as added by this Act,
   2-16  applies only to initial construction for which the date of
   2-17  electrical service is on or after January 1, 1994.
   2-18        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.