HBA-BSM H.B. 2404 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2404 By: Lewis, Ron Natural Resources 3/15/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, apartments can include water charges in the rent, allocate their water bills by dividing it among tenants by number of occupants, and, or square footage. Submetering water service in multifamily housing reduces water consumption approximately between 10 and 30 percent. If the apartment management is responsible for paying the water bills they have an incentive to replace old wasteful fixtures with high efficiency fixtures. However, tenants often do not have the finances to upgrade these fixtures or the incentive as they do not own the property. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission has revised rules governing submetering, but did not have the legislative authority to enforce its proposals. House Bill 2404 encourages apartments that pass along their water charges to their residents to do it through submetering, rather than allocation and would require the multifamily management to have high efficiency fixtures installed. H.B. 2404 would promote water conservation in multi-family housing and ensure equitable billing methods for tenants of multi-family housing. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission in SECTIONS 1 and 2 (Section 13.502, 13.506, Water Code) of this bill. ANALYSIS House Bill 2404 amends the Water Code to require the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) by rule to require an owner of an apartment house on which construction begins on or after January 1, 2003, a manufactured home rental community owner, and a multiple use facility owner to submeter each dwelling unit or rental unit for the measurement of the quantity of water. An owner of an apartment house on which construction began before January 1, 2003, and a condominium manager are authorized to provide for submetering of each dwelling unit or rental unit for the measurement of the quantity of water, if any, consumed by the occupants of that unit. The bill requires the TNRCC by rule to require an apartment house owner, manufactured home rental community owner, multiple use facility owner, or condominium manager to install plumbing fixtures that meet existing standards in the dwelling units and rental units that are not individually metered. The TNRCC are required to enact rules to implement changes made, not later than January 1, 2002. EFFECTIVE DATE Submetering provisions take effect on September 1, 2001. Plumbing fixtures provisions take effect January 1, 2003.