Section 15-4407. BILLING

 

4407.1Bills shall be rendered for the same billing period as that of the utility, generally monthly, unless the rental agreement or lease expressly provides otherwise.  Bills shall be calculated and rendered as promptly as possible following receipt by the owner of the bill from the utility, but no later than fourteen (14) days after receipt of the utility’s bill.  The submetering or energy allocation equipment shall be read within five (5) business days of the scheduled reading date of the utility’s master meter.

 

4407.2For submetering, the unit of measurement shall be the energy unit as defined in section 4499 (Definitions).  For energy allocation equipment, the units of measurement shall be those characteristics monitored by the allocation equipment.

 

4407.3The energy billed to any tenant shall constitute only the energy consumed within that nonresidential rental unit and so measured or monitored by the equipment.  The cost of energy used in owner-paid areas may be recovered by the owner only as provided in subsection 4407.12, and may not be billed to any tenant as part of the billings rendered pursuant to this chapter and may not be measured through the nonresidential rental unit submetering or energy allocation equipment.  Where permitted by tenant lease agreements, energy costs for usage consumed within the nonresidential rental unit, which are not allocated by energy allocation equipment, may be allocated by the owner among the various tenants in the same proportions as the leased space square footage.  These costs shall be listed separately from energy billings based on energy allocation equipment, and appropriately marked on the monthly tenant bills.

 

4407.4The owner shall render bills to the tenant in the same energy unit(s) as that billed to the owner by the utility.

 

4407.5The tenant’s bills shall be calculated in the following manner:

 

After the owner receives the electric or natural gas bill from the utility, the owner shall divide the “total current charges” by the total number of energy units billed by the utility to determine the average cost in cents per energy unit.  The average energy unit cost shall be multiplied by each tenant’s energy unit consumption to obtain the tenant’s monthly charges.

 

4407.6For the purposes of computing the average cost per energy unit, the “total current charges” shall include or exclude the following, as applicable:

 

(a) Include:

 

(1) Customer, demand, commodity, energy, transmission, and distribution charges;

 

(2) Procurement cost adjustment;

 

(3) Purchased gas adjustment;

 

(4) Local taxes;

 

(5) Surcharges; and

 

(6) Credits;

 

(b)Exclude:

 

(1) Miscellaneous charges, such as charges by the utility for late payments.

 

4407.7The owner may impose a reasonable monthly service charge per nonresidential rental unit to offset the administrative cost of billing, reflecting the actual costs of materials and labor for preparing tenants’ bills, in accordance with D.C. Official Code §§ 34-1552(b)(1) and 34-1553(d) (2010 Repl.).

 

4407.8 The tenant’s bill shall show all of the following information:

 

(a) The date the bill was prepared;

 

(b) The dates and readings of the submetering or energy allocation equipment at the beginning and at the end of the period for which the bill is rendered and the billing date;

 

(c) The number of energy units consumed during the current billing period;

 

(d) The average cost in cents per energy unit used in computing the bill;

 

(e) The amount due for electricity or natural gas consumed within the nonresidential rental unit, the administrative service charge, if any, the balance forward, and the total amount due;

(f) The name or address, or both, of the tenant for whom the bill is applicable;

 

(g) The name of the firm rendering the tenant’s bill and the name or title, address, and telephone number of the person(s) where payment can be made and, the name of the contact person in the case of any questions or disputes concerning the bill; and

 

(h) A precise statement that the bill is not from the utility providing the service to the nonresidential rental unit.

 

4407.9Bills shall be mailed or delivered to the tenant’s premises within five (5) business days after the billing date.

 

4407.10Estimated bills shall not be rendered unless the meter or energy allocation equipment has been tampered with, or is out of order, or where access cannot be attained, or where the property owner receives an estimated bill from the utility company and, in any such case, the bill shall be distinctly marked “estimated.” Such estimates shall be based upon one (1) of the following:

 

(a) Consumption over a similar billing period where the information of previous consumption is available;

 

(b) The preceding billing period for a tenant that has resided on the premises for less than one (1) year and the consumption for a similar billing period is not available; or

 

(c) The average of the preceding two (2) billing periods, if available.

 

4407.11 Adjustment to a tenant’s bill shall be made under any of the following  

 conditions:

 

(a) Any billing errors due to incorrect readings or improper billing calculations discovered by the owner on his or her own initiative or discovered as a result of an investigation because of a question or a dispute by a tenant;

 

(b) If it is determined that a cross-metering situation exists.  The tenants involved will be rendered corrected bills to cover such period of time as the statute of limitations allows.  If a tenant has been underbilled, the tenant shall be allowed to make payment of the amount underbilled in equal monthly installments for as many months as the corrected bill covers, but for not more than ten (10) months, the entire amount underbilled being due upon termination of tenancy.  If a tenant has been overbilled and is due a credit, the tenant may request a cash refund, otherwise such credit shall be posted to the tenant’s account;

 

(c) If the utility adjusts the owner’s bill; or

 

(d) As detailed in section 4402 (Submetering).

 

4407.12Nothing contained in these rules shall prohibit the owner from recovery, in periodic lease payments, of the tenant’s fair share of electricity or natural gas costs attributable to owner-paid areas and costs incurred in establishing and maintaining the submetering system or energy allocation equipment.

 

4407.13Initial and final bills shall be rendered for the number of energy units actually consumed in the initial and final billing periods.

 

4407.14On the date possession is taken by a tenant of a nonresidential rental unit, an initial reading will be taken from the submetering or energy allocation equipment serving such nonresidential rental unit to commence service to that tenant.  The initial reading will be subtracted from the next reading of the equipment (taken on the regularly scheduled monthly reading dates on which other submetering or energy allocation equipment in the building is read) to determine the consumption during the initial billing period.  The energy units consumed as determined in the above manner will be multiplied by the average energy unit cost which is determined for the computation of bills for all other tenants for the period ending with the regularly scheduled reading date of that month.

 

4407.15On the date a tenant surrenders a nonresidential rental unit, a final reading will be taken from the submeter equipment serving such unit to terminate service to that tenant.  The reading of the equipment taken on the last previous regularly scheduled monthly reading dates on which other submetering or energy allocation equipment in the building was last read will be subtracted from the final reading to determine the consumption during the final billing period.  The energy units consumed or determined in the above manner will be multiplied by the average energy unit cost which is determined for the computation of bills for all other tenants for the regularly scheduled monthly reading date after the final reading.  If the owner and tenant so agree in writing, the owner may use the average energy unit cost from the previous month when determining the amount due for the last month of tenancy.

 

4407.16A late payment charge shall not be imposed on all amounts, including deferred payment installments, paid by the due date or on amounts in dispute before the Commission.  Amounts paid after the due date shall bear a late payment charge of one percent (1%) and an additional late payment charge at the rate of one and one-half percent (1.5%) on the remaining unpaid balance per billing month thereafter.

 

authority

The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (Commission) hereby gives notice, pursuant to section 34-802 of the District of Columbia Official Code and in accordance with section 2-505 of the District of Columbia Official Code and the “Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008.”

source

Notice of Final Rulemaking published at 58 DCR 9521, 9529 (November 11, 2011).