Bills shall be rendered for the same billing period as that of the utility, generally monthly, unless service is rendered for more or less than that period. Bills shall be calculated and rendered as promptly as possible following receipt by the owner of the bill from the utility, but no later than 15 days after receipt of the utility's bill. The submetering or energy allocation equipment shall be read within three business days of the scheduled reading date of the utility's master meter.
For submetering, the unit of measurement shall be the energy unit as defined in 20VAC5-305-10. For energy allocation equipment, the units of measurement shall be those characteristics monitored by the allocation equipment.
The energy billed to any tenant shall be only the energy consumed within that dwelling or nonresidential rental unit and so measured or monitored by the equipment. The cost of energy used in owner-paid areas may only be recovered by the owner as provided in the last paragraph of this section, and may not be billed to any tenant as part of the billings rendered pursuant to this chapter and may not be measured through the dwelling or nonresidential rental unit submetering or energy allocation equipment. Where tenant lease agreements have made such provision, energy costs for usage consumed within the dwelling unit or nonresidential rental unit, that are not allocated by energy allocation equipment, may be allocated by the owner among the various tenants in the same proportions as the leased space square footage. These costs shall be listed separately from energy billings based on energy allocation equipment, and appropriately marked on the monthly tenant bills.
The owner shall render bills to the tenant in the same energy unit or units as billed the owner by the utility.
The tenant's bills shall be calculated in the following manner:
After receipt of the electric or natural gas bill from the utility, by the owner, said owner shall divide the "total current charges" by the total number of energy units billed by the utility to determine the average cost in cents per energy unit. The average energy unit cost shall be multiplied by each tenant's energy unit consumption to obtain the tenant's monthly charges.
For the purposes of computing the average cost per energy unit, the "total current charges" shall include/exclude the following, as applicable:
Include:
Exclude:
The owner may impose a service charge in accordance with § 56-245.3 of the Code of Virginia per dwelling or nonresidential rental unit per month to offset the administrative cost of billing.
The tenant's bill shall show all of the following information:
Bills will be mailed or delivered to the tenant's premises within three business days after the billing date.
Estimated bills shall not be rendered unless the meter or energy allocation equipment has been tampered with, is out of order, or access cannot be attained, and in such case, the bill shall be distinctly marked "estimated." Such estimates shall be based upon one of the following:
Adjustment to the tenant's bills shall be made under any of the following conditions:
Nothing contained in this chapter shall prohibit the owner from recovery in periodic lease payments the tenant's fair share of electricity or natural gas cost attributable to owner-paid areas and costs incurred in establishing and maintaining the submetering system or energy allocation equipment.
20 Va. Admin. Code § 5-305-90
Statutory Authority
§§ 12.1-13 and 56-245.3 of the Code of Virginia.