BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 7 (Wolk) - Housing: water meters: multiunit structures
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Version: December 1, 2014 |Policy Vote: T. & H. 11 - 0 |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Hearing Date: April 27, 2015 |Consultant: Mark McKenzie |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 7 would authorize the Department of Housing and
Community Development (HCD) to develop a building standard
requiring the installation of water submeters in multiunit
residential buildings for adoption by the Building Standards
Commission (BSC), as specified.
Fiscal
Impact:
HCD administrative costs of $244,000 over two years ($127,000
in the first year, $114,000 in the second year) for 1 limited
term PY of staff to develop the proposed building standards
(Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund).
SB 7 (Wolk) Page 1 of
?
Minor and absorbable costs for the BSC to adopt the proposed
building standard in the next or subsequent triennial code
adoption cycle.
Background: Existing law, the California Building Standards Law,
authorizes the BSC to approve and adopt building standards
through a triennial rulemaking process to revise and update the
California Building Standards Code. There are approximately
twenty state agencies that develop building standards for
submittal to the BSC for review, approval, and adoption. HCD is
responsible for proposing building standards for residential
buildings including, hotels, motels, lodging houses, apartment
houses, dwellings, buildings and structures. Building standards
take effect 180 days after they are published, unless a
different date is specified. The most recent update to the
Building Standards Code has been in effect since January 1,
2014. The 2015 triennial code adoption cycle for the
development of the 2016 California Building Standards Code is
currently underway. The subsequent triennial cycle will
commence in 2018.
Existing law requires all new water service connections to be
metered, and requires water purveyors to charge water users
based on the actual volume of deliveries as measured by those
meters. In addition, all existing unmetered water connections
must be retrofitted with a meter by 2025. Generally, individual
units in multiunit residential buildings are not metered or
submetered, and residents typically pay for water and sewage
based on the average water use of all units, rather than actual
usage attributable to individual units.
Proposed Law:
SB 7 would authorize HCD to develop building standards
requiring the installation of water submeters in multiunit
residential buildings. Specifically, this bill would:
Authorize HCD to develop those building standards during the
next triennial code cycle that commences after January 1,
2016, or during a subsequent code adoption cycle, and to
propose those standards for adoption by the BSC.
SB 7 (Wolk) Page 2 of
?
Require HCD to determine whether there are circumstances in
which the installation of water submeters are infeasible and
to provide for any appropriate exemptions in the proposed
building standards.
Authorize HCD to consider whether there are issues specific to
high-rise multifamily buildings that warrant an exemption to
the standards.
Authorize HCD's administrative costs to develop the building
standards to be paid from the Building Standards
Administration Special Revolving Fund, upon appropriation by
the Legislature.
Related
Legislation: There have been numerous bills in past legislative
sessions addressing issues related to metering and submetering
water service in multiunit structures, none of which has been
approved by the Legislature. The following are among the most
recent bills pertaining to this topic:
SB 750 (Wolk), which failed passage in the Assembly Water,
Parks, and Wildlife Committee in 2014, would have required the
installation of water submeters in multiunit structures, with
specified exceptions. The bill also imposed certain
requirements on landlords pertaining to billing for water usage
and contained tenant protections.
SB 411 (Wolk) was amended on the Assembly Floor on August 22,
2014 to delete the previous contents and insert the provisions
of SB 750; the bill was subsequently referred to the Assembly
Rules Committee. In addition to the previous contents of SB
750, SB 411 included all of the provisions contained in this
bill that authorize HCD to adopt a building standard requiring
the installation of water submeters in multiunit structures.
AB 19 (Fong), which failed passage in the Assembly Housing and
SB 7 (Wolk) Page 3 of
?
Community Development Committee in 2011, would have required the
installation of water submeters in multiunit structures, with
specified exceptions. The bill also prescribed various duties
and responsibilities on landlords and tenants regarding billing,
among other things.
Staff
Comments: This bill is intended to encourage increased water
conservation. To the extent water submeters are installed on
multiunit residential buildings, and billing is based upon
actual water usage, residents would be more aware of consumption
and there would be an incentive to use less.
SB 7 provides permissive authority for HCD to develop building
standards that would require the installation of water submeters
in multiunit residential buildings during a future triennial
code adoption cycle. HCD would incur administrative costs of
approximately $244,000 over two years, to the extent the
department develops the building standards.
The author has convened a stakeholder group in an attempt to
reach consensus on a number of issues related to the
installation of water submeters in multiunit residential
buildings. Ultimately, this bill could serve as the vehicle to
address billing matters, consumer protections for both tenants
and landlords, installation and calibration issues, feasibility
concerns, potential exemptions from submetering requirements,
and other matters.
Staff notes that the bill adds identical definitions of the term
"submeter" in both the Civil Code and the Water Code, and the
current provisions pertaining to the adoption of building
standards only refer to the new definition in the Water Code.
Similar to SB 411 (Wolk, 2014), the author intends for any
future amendments to the bill related to billing and consumer
protections for water usage measured by a submeter to be placed
in the Civil Code.
SB 7 (Wolk) Page 4 of
?
-- END --