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Amend CSHB 2388 on pages 1 and 2 by striking SECTION 1 of the
bill and substituting the following:
SECTION 1. Section 13.503, Water Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a) and (b) and adding Subsection (e) to read
as follows:
(a) The commission shall encourage submetering of
individual rental or dwelling units by master meter operators or
building owners to enhance the conservation of water resources.
(b) Notwithstanding any other law, the commission shall
adopt rules and standards under which an owner, operator, or
manager of an apartment house, manufactured home rental community,
or multiple use facility that is not individually metered for water
for each rental or dwelling unit may install submetering equipment
for each individual rental or dwelling unit for the purpose of
fairly allocating the cost of each individual rental or dwelling
unit's water consumption, including wastewater charges based on
water consumption. In addition to other appropriate safeguards for
the tenant, the rules shall require that, except as provided by this
section, an apartment house owner, manufactured home rental
community owner, multiple use facility owner, or condominium
manager may not impose on the tenant any extra charges, over and
above the cost per gallon and any other applicable taxes and
surcharges that are charged by the retail public utility to the
owner or manager, and that the rental unit or apartment house owner
or manager shall maintain adequate records regarding submetering
and make the records available for inspection by the tenant during
reasonable business hours. The rules shall allow an owner or
manager to charge a tenant a fee for late payment of a submetered
water bill if the amount of the fee does not exceed five percent of
the bill paid late. All submetering equipment is subject to the
rules and standards established by the commission for accuracy,
testing, and record keeping of meters installed by utilities and to
the meter-testing requirements of Section 13.140 of this code.
(e) The commission may authorize a building owner to use
submetering equipment that relies on integrated radio based meter
reading systems and remote registration in a building plumbing
system using submeters that comply with nationally recognized
plumbing standards and are as accurate as utility water meters in
single application conditions.