                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

COMMISSION TO PROMULGATE REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS (§ 56-245.3)

A. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the Commission shall promulgate
regulations and standards under which any owner, operator, or manager of an
apartment house, office building, shopping center, or campground, which is not
individually metered for electricity or gas for each dwelling unit,
nonresidential rental unit, or campsite may install submetering equipment or
energy allocation equipment for the purpose of fairly allocating (a) the cost of
electrical or gas consumption for each dwelling unit, nonresidential rental
unit, or campsite and (b) electrical or gas demand and customer charges made by
the utility. In addition to other appropriate safeguards for the tenant, the
regulations shall require (i) that an apartment house, office building, shopping
center, or campground owner shall not impose on the tenant any charges, over and
above the cost per kilowatt hour, cubic foot or therm, plus demand and customer
charges, where applicable, which are charged by the utility company to the
owner, including any sales, local utility, or other taxes, if any, except that
additional service charges permitted by &#xA7; 55.1-1212 or 55.1-1404, as
applicable, may be collected to cover administrative costs and billing, and (ii)
that the apartment house, office building, shopping center, or campground owner
shall maintain adequate records regarding submetering and energy allocation
equipment and shall make such records available for inspection by the Commission
during reasonable business hours. The provisions of this section shall not
restrict the right of the owner, operator or manager to recover in periodic
lease payments the tenant&#8217;s fair share of electricity or gas costs
attributable to owner-paid areas and costs incurred by the owner, operator or
manager in establishing and maintaining the submetering or energy allocation
equipment.

B. Only for purposes of Commission enforcement of the regulations adopted under
this section, the owners, operators, or managers of apartment houses, office
buildings, shopping centers, or campgrounds included within the purview of this
article shall be treated as public service corporations under &#xA7;&#xA7; 56-5,
56-6 and 56-7. All submetering equipment shall be subject to the same
regulations and standards established by the Commission for accuracy, testing,
and record keeping of meters installed by electric or gas utilities and shall be
subject to the meter requirements of &#xA7; 56-245.1. All energy allocation
equipment shall be subject to regulations and standards established by the
Commission to ensure that such systems result in a reasonable determination of
energy use and the resulting costs for each dwelling unit, nonresidential rental
unit, or campsite. Violations of Commission regulations and orders issued under
this section shall be subject to the penalty set forth in &#xA7; 12.1-33.

C. In implementing this section, no apartment house, office building, shopping
center, or campground shall be considered a public utility or public service
corporation engaged in the business of distributing or reselling electricity or
gas except as provided in subsection B. The apartment house, office building,
shopping center, or campground may use submetering or energy allocation
equipment solely to allocate the costs of electric or gas service fairly among
the tenants using the apartment house, office building, shopping center, or
campground.

D. For the purposes of rules promulgated pursuant to this section, billing
requirements and all other rules related to submetering or energy allocation
equipment use by tenants of an apartment house, office building, shopping
center, or campground shall apply to residential and nonresidential unit owners.

HISTORY: 1978, c. 392; 1979, c. 313; 1980, c. 741; 1986, c. 11; 1988, c. 231;
1989, c. 188; 1991, c. 573; 1992, c. 766; 2003, c. 355; 2012, c. 338; 2024, c.
557.