GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2013
H 1
HOUSE BILL 522*
Short Title: Master Meters/Landlord-Tenant Agreement. |
(Public) |
|
Sponsors: |
Representatives Avila, Pittman, Jeter, and Speciale (Primary Sponsors). For a complete list of Sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly Web Site. |
|
Referred to: |
Public Utilities and Energy, if favorable, Judiciary Subcommittee B. |
|
April 4, 2013
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT providing for the use of a master meter for electric and natural gas service when the tenant and landlord have agreed in the lease that the cost of the services shall be included in the rental payments and the service shall be in the landlord's name.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 143-151.42 reads as rewritten:
"§ 143-151.42. Prohibition of master meters for electric and natural gas service.
(a) From and after
September 1, 1977, in order that each occupant of an apartment or other
individual dwelling unit may be responsible for his own conservation of
electricity and gas, it shall be unlawful for any new residential building, as
hereinafter defined, to be served by a master meter for electric service or
natural gas service. Each individual dwelling unit shall have individual electric
service with a separate electric meter and, if it has natural gas, individual
natural gas service with a separate natural gas meter, which service and meters
shall be in the name of the tenant or other occupant of said apartment or other
dwelling unit. No electric supplier or natural gas supplier, whether regulated
public utility or municipal corporation or electric membership corporation
supplying said utility service, shall connect any residential building for
electric service or natural gas service through a master meter, and said
electric or natural gas supplier shall serve each said apartment or dwelling
unit by separate service and separate meter and shall bill and charge each
individual occupant of said separate apartment or dwelling unit for said
electric or natural gas service. A new residential building is hereby defined
for the purposes of this section as any building for which a building permit is
issued on or after September 1, 1977, which includes two or more apartments or
other family dwelling units. Provided, however, that any owner or builder of a
multi-unit residential building who desires to provide central heat or air
conditioning or central hot water from a central furnace, air conditioner or
hot water heater which incorporates solar assistance or other designs which
accomplish greater energy conservation than separate heat, hot water, or air
conditioning for each dwelling unit, may apply to the North Carolina Utilities
Commission for approval of said central heat, air conditioning or hot water
system, which may include a central meter for electricity or gas used in said
central system, and the Utilities Commission shall promptly consider said
application and approve it for such central meters if energy is conserved by
said design. This section shall apply to any dwelling unit normally rented or
leased for a minimum period of one month or longer, including apartments,
condominiums and townhouses, but shall not apply to hotels, motels, hotels or
motels that have been converted into condominiums, dormitories, rooming houses
or nursing homes, or homes for the elderly.elderly, or
situations where the tenant and landlord have agreed in the lease that the cost
of the electric service or natural gas service, or both, shall be included in
the rental payments and the service shall be in the name of the landlord.
…."
SECTION 2. This act is effective when it becomes law.