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CHAPTER 25. SUBSTANTIVE RULES APPLICABLE TO ELECTRIC SERVICE PROVIDERS. Subchapter G. SUBMETERING. §25.142. Submetering for Apartments, Condominiums, and Mobile Home Parks. (a) Purpose. This section implements Texas Utilities Code § 184.052. (b) Definitions. The following words and terms, when used in this section, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. (1) Apartment house -- One or more buildings containing more than five dwelling units, each of which is rented primarily for non - transient use with rent paid at intervals of one week or longer. The term includes a rented or owner- occupied residential condominium. (2) Dwelling unit -- One or more rooms suitable for occupancy as a residence and that contain kitchen and bathroom facilities, or a mobile home in a mobile home park. (3) Master meter -- A meter used to measure, for billing purposes, all electric usage of an apartment house or mobile home park, including common areas, common facilities, and dwelling units. (4) Month or monthly -- The period between any two consecutive meter readings by the utility, either actual or estimated, at approximately 30 -day intervals. (5) Owner -- Any owner, operator, or manager of any apartment house or mobile home park engaged in electric submetering. (6) Electric submetering -- Individual dwelling unit metering of electric service performed by the owner. (c) Records and reports. (1) The owner shall maintain and make available for inspection by the tenant the following records: (A) the billing from the utility or retail electric provider to the apartment owner for the current month and the 12 preceding months; (B) the calculation of the average cost per billing unit, i.e., kilowatt-hour for the current month and the 12 preceding months; (C) all submeter readings and tenant billings for the current month and the 12 preceding months; (D) all submeter test results for the current month and the 12 preceding months. (2) Records shall be made available at the resident manager's office during reasonable business hours or, if there is no resident manager, at the dwelling unit of the tenant at the convenience of both the apartment owner and tenant. (3) All records shall be made available to the commission upon request. (d) Billing. All rental agreements between the owner and the tenants shall clearly state that the dwelling unit is submetered, that the bills will be issued thereon, that electrical consumption charges for all common areas and common facilities will be the responsibility of the owner and not of the tenant, and that any disputes relating to the computation of the tenant's bill and the accuracy of the submetering device will be between the tenant and the owner. Each owner shall provide a tenant, at the time the lease is signed, a copy of this section or a narrative summary as approved by the commission to assure that the tenant is informed of his rights and the owner's responsibilities under this section. (1) Rendering and form of bill. (A) Bills shall be rendered for the same billing period as that of the electric utility, generally monthly, unless service is rendered for less than that period. Bills shall be rendered as promptly as possible following the reading of the submeters. The submeters shall be read within three days of the scheduled reading date of the electric utility's master meter. §25.142 - -1 effective 1/6/11 (P 37684)