Senate Bill No. 723

(By Senators McCabe, Bailey, Love, Barnes, Caruth,

Lanham, Sprouse and Facemyer)

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[Introduced February 20, 2006; referred to the Committee

on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §24-3-10, relating to the termination of water services for delinquent sewer bills.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §24-3-10, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES OF PUBLIC UTILITIES SUBJECT TO REGULATIONS OF COMMISSION.

§24-3-10. Termination of water services for delinquent sewer bills.

In the event that any publicly or privately owned utility, city, incorporated town, municipal corporation or public services district owns and operates separately either water facility or sewer facilities, and a homeowners association owns and operates the other kind of facilities, either water or sewer, as the case may be, then the homeowners association and the publicly or privately owned utility, city, incorporated town, municipal corporation or public services district shall covenant and contract with each other to shut off and discontinue the supplying of water service for the nonpayment of sewer service fees and charges.
Any contracts entered into by a homeowners association pursuant to this section shall be submitted to the Public Service Commission for approval. Any homeowners association providing water and sewer service to its customers has a right to terminate water service for delinquency in payment of either water or sewer bills. Where a homeowners association is providing sewer service and another utility is providing water service, and the homeowners association experiences a delinquency in payment, the utility providing water service, upon the request of the homeowners association, shall terminate its water service to the customer having the delinquent sewer account. Any termination of water service must comply with all rules and orders of the Public Service Commission.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to add a new section allowing for the termination of water service for delinquent sewer bills where the sewer service is provided by a homeowners association.

§24-3-10 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.