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



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to late fees for late payment of a submetered or allocated 
residential water bill.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Amend Sections 13.503 and 13.5031 of the 
Property Code to read as follows:
	Sec. 13.503.  SUBMETERING RULES.  (a)  The commission shall 
encourage submetering of individual rental or dwelling units by 
master meter operators 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 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 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 owner may, for late 
payment of a submetered water bill, charge a tenant a late fee not 
in excess of five percent of the bill.  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.
	(c)  In addition to the charges permitted under Subsection 
(b), the rules shall authorize a manufactured home rental community 
owner or manager to impose a service charge of not more than nine 
percent of the costs related to submetering allocated to each 
submetered rental or dwelling unit.
	(d)  For purposes of Subsection (c), "costs related to 
submetering" means water costs as well as any other applicable 
taxes and surcharges that are charged by the retail public utility 
to the manufactured home rental community owner or manager.
	Sec. 13.5031.  NONSUBMETERING RULES.  Notwithstanding any 
other law, the commission shall adopt rules and standards governing 
billing systems or methods used by manufactured 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 rental community, apartment or multiple 
use facility unit monthly bill for all units for any allocation of 
those utilities for the previous calendar year.
		(3)  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 may, for late payment of an allocated 
water bill, charge a tenant a late fee not in excess of five percent 
of the tenant's water bill.
	SECTION 2.  This bill takes effect September 1, 2003.