Public Comments for: HB1376 - Submetering or energy allocation equipment; billing requirements, unit owners.
The purpose for this amendment is to correct an omission in the current legislation that is preventing property owners from receiving rights to accurate disclosure of utility usage, utility rates charged and proper billing for electric and natural gas utilities that are distributed and controlled by building owners and/or property management companies. The current codes affords usage and billing protections ONLY to "TENANTS" in tenant/landlord situations. NO PROTECTIONS FOR OWNERS OF “OWNER OCCUPIED COMMERCIAL OFFICE UNITS/PROPERTIES” exist in the current Virginia code. Please pass this important legislation to enable equal protections under the law for unit owners and tenants. See the attached PDF file for the rights that this amendment will extend to unit owners.
Currently the Virginia Administrative Code Title 20, Chapter 305 (20VAC5-305.90), that covers utility distribution and billing for apartment houses, office building and shopping centers, INCLUDES NO PROTECTIONS FOR UNIT OWNERS when electric and natural gas utilities are provided to unit owners by a property management company. The current codes affords usage and billing protections ONLY to "tenants" in tenant/landlord situations. See the attached attached PDF file. This deficiency has created a situation in which unit owners are unable to attain any insight into their actual utility usage, the rates charged for their electric and/or natural gas utilities and proper billing for utilities from property management companies. The purpose for this amendment is to eliminate a loophole in the legislation that is preventing unit owners from the right to receive accurate disclosure of utility usage, utility rates charged and proper billing for utilities that are facilitated and controlled by property management companies.
The purpose for this bill is to amend the Virginia Administrative Code 20VAC5-305-90 for sub-metering and billing to afford the same sub-meter reading and billing protections for office building unit owners that are afforded to tenants in office building tenant/landlord situations. Under the current legislation, requirements for proper metering and billing by property management companies are not inforceable. As such, unit owners have no rescourse for attaining accurate utility usage and billing data for electric and gas utilities that are distributed via sub-meters.
I'm not sure which bill I'm commenting on entirely. All I know for sure is I'm a type 1 diabetic of 30 years. And our government seems to care very little about my health or the insane costs of the medication that I absolutely have to have to live. Or getting the care I need. Which has been expensive, and has kept me struggling to survive pay rent or see the many doctors I need to see. I am ready to share my story. About my lows where I wake up in the hospital then wind up with an $8000 hospital bill as well as a $4000 bill for a 10 minute ambulance ride. Or about my highs, or just about the struggle of being a Diabetic who was uninsured who struggles to survive in a government that seems to care more about pharmaceutical companies profits than it's citizens health. I have quite a bit to say on the subject and my struggles as a diabetic.