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.