Public utilities: residential utility services.

(1) Existing law prohibits a municipally owned or operated public utility (publicly owned utility) furnishing light, water, power, or heat, or an electrical, gas, heat, or water corporation, (corporation) from terminating residential service for nonpayment of a delinquent account in specified situations, including on the certification of a licensed physician and surgeon that to do so will be life threatening to the customer and the customer is financially unable to pay for service within the normal payment period and willing to enter into an amortization agreement with the publicly owned utility or corporation with respect to all charges that the customer is unable to pay prior to delinquency. Existing law permits a customer meeting these requirements to amortize the unpaid balance of a bill over a period not exceeding 12 months. This bill would increase the maximum amortization period to 18 months. (2) Existing law prohibits an electrical, gas, heat, telephone, or water corporation from terminating residential service for nonpayment of any delinquent account or other indebtedness owned by the customer or subscriber to any other person or corporation or when the obligation represented by the delinquent account or other indebtedness was incurred with a person or corporation other than the corporation demanding payment for it. The act exempts from this prohibition a utility that collects sanitation or sewerage charges for a public agency, as specified. This bill would delete that exemption. (3) Existing law requires a decision of an electrical, gas, heat, telephone, or water corporation to require a new residential applicant to deposit a sum of money with that corporation prior to furnishing service to be based solely upon the creditworthiness of the applicant, as determined by the corporation. This bill would prohibit those corporations from seeking to recover charges or penalties, in connection with furnishing services to a tenant of the owner of the residential property to which services were provided, from any subsequent tenant or the property owner. The bill also would prohibit those corporations from demanding or receiving a security deposit in an amount that is more than 2 times the estimated average periodic bill or 3 times the estimated average monthly bill for the provision of services and would prohibit those corporations from imposing a reconnection charge for terminated service if the customer provides that security deposit. (4) Existing law requires the decision of a publicly owned utility to require a new residential applicant to deposit a sum of money with the publicly owned utility prior to furnishing service to be based solely upon the creditworthiness of the applicant, as determined by the public utility. Existing law limits the amount of money that a publicly owned utility may demand or receive from a customer as security for the provision of services. This bill would prohibit a publicly owned utility from demanding or receiving a charge for reconnecting service terminated for nonpayment if the customer posts that security. By imposing new duties on publicly owned utilities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Under existing law, a violation of any provision of the Public Utilities Act or of any rules or orders issued under the act, is a crime. By imposing new requirements under the act, the violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.