By:  Cook of Colorado                                             H.B. No. 2388



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the late payment of certain submetered or allocated 
water bills and the use of certain submetering equipment.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	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.
	SECTION 2.  Section 13.5031, Water Code, is amended to read 
as follows:      
	Sec. 13.5031.  NONSUBMETERING RULES.  Notwithstanding any 
other law, the commission shall adopt rules and standards governing 
billing systems or methods used by manufactured home rental 
community owners, apartment house owners, condominium managers, or 
owners of other multiple use facilities for prorating or allocating 
among tenants nonsubmetered master metered utility service costs.  
In addition to other appropriate safeguards for the tenant, those 
rules shall require that:
		(1)  the rental agreement contain a clear written 
description of the method of calculation of the allocation of 
nonsubmetered master metered utilities for the manufactured home 
rental community, apartment house, or multiple use facility;
		(2)  the rental agreement contain a statement of the 
average manufactured home, apartment, or multiple use facility unit 
monthly bill for all units for any allocation of those utilities for 
the previous calendar year;
		(3)  except as provided by this section, an owner or 
condominium manager may not impose additional charges on a tenant 
in excess of the actual charges imposed on the owner or condominium 
manager for utility consumption by the manufactured home rental 
community, apartment house, or multiple use facility;
		(4)  the owner or condominium manager shall maintain 
adequate records regarding the utility consumption of the 
manufactured home rental community, apartment house, or multiple 
use facility, the charges assessed by the retail public utility, 
and the allocation of the utility costs to the tenants;  [and]
		(5)  the owner or condominium manager shall maintain 
all necessary records concerning utility allocations, including 
the retail public utility's bills, and shall make the records 
available for inspection by the tenants during normal business 
hours; and
		(6)  the owner or condominium manager may charge a 
tenant a fee for late payment of an allocated water bill if the 
amount of the fee does not exceed five percent of the bill paid 
late.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.