Renters get new rights regarding shared-meter utility billing

Protections will be provided for renters who receive utility billing through a landlord or third-party rebilling company and renters will have a recourse for disputes.

Largely effective Jan. 1, 2025, a new law will apply the cold weather rule to shared-meter utility billing, protecting residential utility customers from having electric or natural gas service shut off between Oct. 1 and April 30. It also provides for resolution by the Public Utilities Commission when tenants and landlords cannot reach an agreement in a dispute.

The law provides remedies for tenants when the submetering system is inaccurate and prevents charging the tenant when the device for measuring has to be replaced, or from billing them if they were undercharged by a defective meter. It also specifies information that must be provided to the tenant when a submetering device is used to measure the use of a utility.

It prohibits apportioning electricity to a tenant who is billed separately for electric service, and provides that a landlord who submeters must only charge the tenant for electricity used in the tenant’s unit. It also includes details on administrative billing charges, natural gas billing, late payments, payment plans, and collecting payment when the tenant was undercharged for utilities.

The public utilities commissioner is authorized to resolve disputes between a landlord in a shared-utility building and a tenant, and to levy fines as allowed under statute.

The law provides that the landlord must be the named customer for utility billing in a building that has shared-meter utility billing for multiple tenants. It allows the attorney general’s office to investigate any violations of the law as it:

• requires specific measurements to bill for natural gas and water and sewer use from a tenant in a shared-meter building;

• requires pro rata shares of fees, charges and taxes to be applied to tenants;

• provides specific requirements related to the application of rent paid and what remedies a landlord has when a tenant does not pay their utilities, which includes preventing an eviction for unpaid utilities, and preventing an eviction for unpaid utilities when the cold weather rule is in place, as well as when there is a heat emergency, or the tenant or their family has a medical emergency;

• requires a disconnect notice against the landlord be posted in the building and the tenants be notified that the utilities may be disconnected, with advice for tenants on how to get legal assistance; and

• allows tenants to pay when the landlord is not paying and for that payment for the utilities owed by the landlord to be deemed rent payments by the tenants.

Further, the law requires that by Sept. 30 of each year a landlord of a shared-metered residential building who bills for gas, electric utility charges or both, separate from rent, must inform tenants in writing of the possible availability of energy assistance from the low-income home energy assistance program.

It also provides that the court must make certain specific considerations in a case where a landlord tries to terminate a tenancy because the tenant is not paying for utilities in a shared-meter building.

Rep. Athena Hollins (DFL-St. Paul) and Sen. D. Scott Dibble (DFL-Mpls) sponsor the law.

HF4558/SF4579*/CH107

SF4579* / HF4558 / CH107