Amendment #256 to H3400

Installation of Submeters

Mr. Puppolo of Springfield moves to amend the bill by inserting after section 75 the following new section:

"SECTION X.  (A)Subsection (a) of section 22 of Chapter 186 of the General Laws is hereby

amended by striking the definition, ‘water company’, and replacing it with the following new

definition:-

‘water company’, a company, as defined in section 1 of chapter 165 or a municipal utility

or any other waterworks system owned, leased, maintained, operated, managed or

controlled by any unit of local government under any general or special law, which

company, utility or system supplies water to a landlord through metered measurement.

Water company shall also include companies that lease, operate, maintain, treat,

monitor and/or test private septic systems or private water wells. Any landlord

imposing charges on tenants or otherwise engaging in any activity permitted under

this section shall not be deemed thereby to be functioning as a water company as

defined herein or to be subject to any laws or regulations regulating any such

company.

(B)Subsection (c) of said section 22 of Chapter 186 is hereby amended by

inserting at the end thereof the following:-

If a landlord who is not the original owner when submetering began cannot locate the original

certificate after a good faith effort he may verify such certification by filing a new form prior to

January 1, 2017 and such certification shall apply as though it was obtained prior to the

installation of the submeters.  Any landlord that purchases a building shall have one year after

the date of purchase to obtain verification of such certification (which, if an original certificate

cannot be located after a good faith effort, may be done by filing a new form) and such

certification shall apply as though it was obtained prior to the installation of the submeters.

(C)Subsection (g) of said section 22 of Chapter 186 is hereby amended by striking said

section and replacing it with the following:-

(g)A landlord shall determine a calculated cost per unit of water consumption by

dividing the total amount of any bill or invoice provided to the landlord from the

water company for water usage, the customer service charge and taxes, but not

including any interest for the late payment, penalty fees or other discretionary

assessments or charges, for all water provided to the premises through the water

company meter in that billing period, by the total amount of water consumption for

the entire premises. The total amount charged separately to each submetered dwelling

unit for water usage for any billing period shall not exceed such calculated cost per

unit of water multiplied by the number of units of water delivered exclusively to the

particular dwelling unit for the same billing period, provided that the landlord has

verified that the total costs of water usage billed to all dwelling units does not exceed

the total costs of water usage charged by the water company to the landlord for the

same period.  In the event that a submeter read is not available, the landlord may

estimate the dwelling unit consumption for no more than three consecutive months

and at a consumption level no higher than 70% of the lesser of (1) the current

resident’s average historical consumption; or (2) the average historical consumption

of all dwelling units during the prior twelve months."