PETITION OF:

SECTION 1. Section 335 of Chapter 164 of the Acts of 1997 is hereby amended by striking, in line 2, the following words “installed prior to July 1, 1997,”.

SECTION 2. Said section 335 is hereby further amended by inserting at the end thereof the following new paragraphs:-

A dwelling unit shall become eligible for the imposition on the tenant of a charge for the cost of heat or air conditioning only upon the commencement of a new tenancy in such dwelling unit and only if: (1) the dwelling unit is being occupied for the first time; or (2) the previous tenant vacated the dwelling unit voluntarily, or was evicted from the dwelling unit for nonpayment of rent or for breach of lease or noncompliance with a rental agreement for the dwelling unit; provided, however, that once a tenant of a dwelling unit has been charged for the use of heat or air conditioning in accordance with this section, such dwelling unit shall remain eligible for the imposition of a charge for the use of heat or air conditioning in all subsequent tenancies.

An owner may not charge the tenant of a dwelling unit separately for heat or air conditioning measured by an energy monitoring system, unless the system measures only heat or air conditioning that is supplied for the exclusive use of the particular dwelling unit and only to an area within the exclusive possession and control of the tenant of such dwelling unit and does not measure any heat or air conditioning usage for any portion of the common areas or by any other party or dwelling unit.

An owner may not charge the tenant separately, nor allow tenant to be charged separately, for allocated heat or air conditioning usage unless the tenant has signed a written rental agreement that clearly and conspicuously provides for such separate charge and that fully discloses in plain language the details of the energy monitoring system and billing arrangement between the owner and the tenant. Each bill for separately allocated heat or air conditioning usage shall clearly set forth all charges and all other relevant information, including, but not limited to, the current and immediately preceding monitoring system readings and the date of each such reading, the amount of heat or air conditioning consumed since the last reading, the charge per unit of heat or air conditioning, the total charge and the payment due date.

An owner shall allocate the cost of heat to each individual dwelling unity by measuring run time and temperature in each unit to determine the quantity of heat delivered as relative to BTU. The amount charged to each unit for heat usage shall than be calculated by applying the local utility’s rate structure to the quantity of the commodity that is consumed.

An owner may not shut off or refuse to provide heat to a tenant on the basis that the tenant has not paid a separately allocated heat charge.

The owner shall retain an affirmative obligation to maintain in good working order the heating system to each dwelling unit and any component thereof, including any energy monitoring system installed pursuant to this section, and to respond in a timely manner to any request by the tenant for the repair of any defect or malfunctioning in such heating system. In the event of any overcharge by the landlord or any violation of the state sanitary code, the tenant shall have all rights and remedies provided under law for such overcharges or such violations including, but not limited to, the rights and remedies provided under chapters 111, 186 and 239.

The department of telecommunications, utilities, and energy and the department of public health shall promulgate such additional regulations as it determines to be necessary to implement this section.