BILL ANALYSIS 1
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SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN
SB 1163 - Dunn Hearing Date:
April 13, 2004 S
As Amended: March 26, 2004 FISCAL B
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DESCRIPTION
Current law requires master-meter customers to separately state
the opening and closing readings for sub-metered mobilehome park
customers when rendering a bill, and to post the prevailing
residential utilities rate schedule of the serving utility.
This bill requires that when the master-meter customer renders
such a bill, it shall be generally in the form and with the
content of the bills the utility serving the master-meter
customer renders to its residential customers.
This bill requires mobilehome parks to disclose the name,
address and telephone number of the billing agent or company on
each resident's billing if a third-party billing agent or
company prepares utility bills for the park.
Current law establishes requirements about the rates charged by
a master-meter customer to its sub-metered tenants, specifies
the general form and content of the bills rendered by the
master-meter customer, and makes it a duty of master-meter
customers to maintain and repair the facilities between the
master-meter and the sub-metered tenant.
This bill requires the California Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC), through its consumer affairs branch, to accept and
respond to complaints concerning these requirements.
BACKGROUND
Typically, a master-meter customer is a multi-unit dwelling,
such as a mobilehome park or an apartment complex, where the
park or complex is the customer of the utility and pays the
utility bill. The park or complex is responsible for the
electric, gas, or water system within the park or complex, and
separately meters and bills the tenants for their individual
utility usage.
The Senate Select Committee on Mobile and Manufactured Homes has
received a number of complaints from mobilehome park residents
about master-meter relationships with park owners. In 2001, the
committee held a hearing on this issue and heard complaints
regarding metering inaccuracies, billing mistakes, an inability
to contact the billing company, failure to pass through utility
rebates, and the imposition of meter-reading fees.
COMMENTS
1.Do Your Job . The first part of this measure requires the CPUC
to accept and respond to complaints concerning master-meter
customers. While this appears unnecessary because the CPUC is
the enforcement authority for the Public Utilities Code, the
author notes the CPUC has been unwilling or unable to perform
this function. This part of the bill eliminates any ambiguity
by making it clear the CPUC is responsible for handling
complaints filed by sub-metered customers.
However, what isn't clear is whether the CPUC has the
authority to accept and respond to complaints if the
master-meter customer is being served by a utility not
regulated by the CPUC (e.g. a municipal utility). The author
and committee may wish to consider adding an amendment to
ensure sub-metered customers of master-meter customers served
by a non-CPUC regulated entity can file service complaints
with the CPUC.
2.Making The Bill Look Like A Bill . The second part of the bill
creates two new requirements for how sub-metered customers are
billed by the owner of the master-meter.
The first requirement is that if a third-party billing agent
is used, the master-meter customer has to include the contact
information for that third-party billing agent on the bill
sent to the sub-metered customer.
The second requirement is for mobilehome park sub-metered
utility bills to be rendered generally in accordance with the
form and content of the bills the utility serving the
master-metered customer provides to its residential customers.
In other words, a mobilehome park in PG&E's service area
would have to provide its tenants with an electric bill that
looks like PG&E's electric bill.
This requirement would be added to the Mobilehome Residency
Law (MRL), a comprehensive set of rules governing the
mobilehome park/tenant relationship. At the discretion of the
court, a violation of any provision of the MRL - including the
new provision this bill proposes to add to the MRL - is
subject to an award of up to $2,000, in addition to damages
for each willful violation.
Requirements regarding the accuracy of the bill are not in the
MRL, they're in the Public Utilities Code. Therefore, the
courts are not involved and the $2,000 in potential damages is
inapplicable in cases where there is a billing or
meter-reading error. Complaints about a bill's accuracy or
timeliness would have to be raised at the CPUC, as is the case
today.
PRIOR VOTES
Senate Housing and Community Development Committee
(6-2)
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
Author
Support:
California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association
Golden State Mobilehome Owners League, Inc.
Oppose:
California Mobilehome Parkowners Alliance
Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association
Randy Chinn
SB 1163 Analysis
Hearing Date: April 13, 2004