Pennsylvania § 1527 - Right of tenants to continued service.

§ 1527. Right of tenants to continued service.

(a) Application for continued service.--At any time before or after service is terminated by a public utility on account of nonpayment of charges by the landlord ratepayer, the affected tenants may apply to the utility to have service continued or resumed.

(b) Payment of charges by tenants.--A public utility shall not terminate service or shall promptly resume service previously terminated if it receives from the tenants an amount equal to the bill for the affected account of the landlord ratepayer for the billing month preceding the notice to the tenants. Thereafter, the utility shall notify each tenant of the total amount of the bill for the second and each succeeding billing month and, if the tenants fail to make payment of any bill within 30 days of the delivery of the notice to the tenants, the utility may commence termination of service, except that no termination may occur until 30 days after each tenant has been furnished notice of the proposed termination as prescribed in section 1528 (relating to delivery and contents of subsequent termination notice to tenants). The tenant or tenants shall make payment to the utility on account of nonpayment of charges by the landlord ratepayer by check or money order drawn by the tenant to the order of the utility or by cash. In all cases, the tenant shall provide, upon request, reasonable identification to the utility. For the purposes of this section, "reasonable identification" shall include, but not be limited to, a driver's license, photo identification, medical assistance or food stamp identification or any similar document issued by any public agency which contains the name and address of the tenant.

(c) Disposition of payment by utility.--Upon receiving any payment, the utility shall notify the landlord ratepayer who is liable for the utility service of the amount or amounts paid by any tenant and the amount or amounts credited to the landlord's bill for each tenant pursuant to this section. Tenants requesting continued utility service under this section, except those individually subscribing for service under subsection (d), shall not be considered utility customers but shall be considered to be acting on behalf of the landlord ratepayer, who shall remain liable to the utility for service provided after notice to tenants. In the event that the tenants fail to satisfy the requirements of subsection (b) with regard to the first billing month period preceding notice to the tenant, the utility shall refund any moneys received from a tenant to that tenant. Any payments made by the tenants shall be applied first against the bill for the billing month preceding notice to the tenants and then against bills for service rendered subsequent to the bill. Upon termination of service to the tenants for failure to pay the utility bill for service in full for any subsequent month or upon voluntary discontinuance of service at the request of the tenants, the utility shall immediately refund to the tenants any amounts paid to the utility for the billing period for which payment in full was not remitted.

(d) Agreement for individual service.--Any tenant of a residential building or mobile home park who has been notified of a proposed discontinuance of utility service pursuant to section 1523 (relating to notices before service to landlord discontinued) shall have the right to agree to subscribe for future service individually if this can be accomplished without a major revision of distribution facilities or additional right-of-way acquisitions.

(July 2, 1993, P.L.379, No.54, eff. 60 days)

1993 Amendment. Act 54 amended subsecs. (a), (b) and (c).

Cross References. Section 1527 is referred to in sections 1523, 1525, 1528, 1531 of this title.