Amended in Senate April 2, 2013

Senate Bill No. 196

Introduced by Senator Cannella

February 7, 2013

An act to amend Section 798.40 of the Civil Code begin insert and to amend Section 739.5 of the Public Utilities Code end insert , relating to begin delete mobilehomes. end delete begin insert utility rates. end insert

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 196, as amended, Cannella. begin delete Mobilehomes. end delete begin insert Utility rates: mobilehomes and apartment buildings. end insert

begin delete Existing law, the Mobilehome Residency Law, governs residency in mobilehome parks. Existing law requires the management of a mobilehome park, when the management provides master-meter and submeter service of utilities to a homeowner, to separately state the cost of the charges for the period along with the opening and closing readings of the meter. end delete Existing law begin delete further end delete requires begin delete the management of a mobilehome park end delete begin insert a master-meter customer in a mobilehome park or apartment building end insert begin insert , among other duties, end insert to post in a conspicuous place, the prevailing residential utilities rate schedule as published by the serving utility.

This bill would authorize begin delete the management of end delete begin insert a master-meter customer in end insert a mobilehome park begin insert , apartment building, or similar residential complex, as specified, end insert to begin delete instead end delete begin insert also end insert post the Internet Web site address where that utilities rate information is posted.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 798.40 of the Civil Code is amended to
read:

798.40.  

(a) Where the management provides both master-meter
and submeter service of utilities to a homeowner, for each billing
period the cost of the charges for the period shall be separately
stated along with the opening and closing readings for his or her
meter. The management shall post in a conspicuous place, the
prevailing residential utilities rate schedule as published by the
serving utility or the Internet Web site address where the
information is posted.

(b) If a third-party billing agent or company prepares utility
billing for the park, the management shall disclose on each
resident’s billing, the name, address, and telephone number of the
billing agent or company.

begin insert

begin insert SEC. 2. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 739.5 of the end insert begin insert Public Utilities Code end insert begin insert is amended
to read: end insert

739.5.  

(a) The commission shall require that, whenever gas
or electric service, or both, is provided by a master-meter customer
to users who are tenants of a mobilehome park, apartment building,
or similar residential complex, the master-meter customer shall
charge each user of the service at the same rate that would be
applicable if the user were receiving gas or electricity, or both,
directly from the gas or electrical corporation. The commission
shall require the corporation furnishing service to the master-meter
customer to establish uniform rates for master-meter service at a
level that will provide a sufficient differential to cover the
reasonable average costs to master-meter customers of providing
submeter service, except that these costs shall not exceed the
average cost that the corporation would have incurred in providing
comparable services directly to the users of the service.

(b) Every master-meter customer of a gas or electrical
corporation subject to subdivision (a) who, on or after January 1,
1978, receives any rebate from the corporation shall distribute to,
or credit to the account of, each current user served by the
master-meter customer that portion of the rebate which the amount
of gas or electricity, or both, consumed by the user during the last
billing period bears to the total amount furnished by the corporation
to the master-meter customer during that period.

(c) An electrical or gas corporation furnishing service to a
master-meter customer shall furnish to each user of the service
within a submetered system every public safety customer service
which it provides beyond the meter to its other residential
customers. The corporation shall furnish a list of those services to
the master-meter customer who shall post the list in a conspicuous
place accessible to all users. Every corporation shall provide these
public safety customer services to each user of electrical or gas
service under a submetered system without additional charge unless
the corporation has included the average cost of these services in
the rate differential provided to the master-meter customer on
January 1, 1984, in which case the commission shall deduct the
average cost of providing these public safety customer services
when approving rate differentials for master-meter customers.

(d) Every master-meter customer is responsible for maintenance
and repair of its submeter facilities beyond the master-meter, and
nothing in this section requires an electrical or gas corporation to
make repairs to or perform maintenance on the submeter system.

(e) Every master-meter customer shall provide an itemized
billing of charges for electricity or gas, or both, to each individual
user generally in accordance with the form and content of bills of
the corporation to its residential customers, including, but not
limited to, the opening and closing readings for the meter, and the
identification of all rates and quantities attributable to each block
in the applicable rate structure. The master-meter customer shall
also post, in a conspicuous place, the applicable prevailing
residential gas or electrical rate schedule, as published by the
corporation begin insert , or the Internet Web site address where the corporation
posts that information end insert .

(f) The commission shall require that every electrical and gas
corporation shall notify each master-meter customer of its
responsibilities to its users under this section.

(g) The commission shall accept and respond to complaints
concerning the requirements of this section through the consumer
affairs branch, in addition to any other staff that the commission
deems necessary to assist the complainant. In responding to the
complaint, the commission shall consider the role that the office
of the county sealer in the complainant’s county of residence may
have in helping to resolve the complaint and, where appropriate,
coordinate with that office.

(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or decision of
the commission, the commission shall not deny eligibility for the
California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) program, created
pursuant to Section 739.1, for a residential user of gas or electric
service who is a submetered resident or tenant served by a
master-meter customer on the basis that some residential units in
the master-meter customer’s mobilehome park, apartment building,
or similar residential complex do not receive gas or electric service
through a submetered system.

(i) For purposes of this section, “rebate” does not include the
award of a monetary incentive under the California Solar Initiative
adopted by the Public Utilities Commission in Decision 05-12-044
and Decision 06-01-024, as modified by Article 1 (commencing
with Section 2851) of Chapter 9 of Part 2, for a solar energy system
that provides electrical generation to a mobilehome park.