Prohibits utility corporations and municipalities from increasing a bill previously rendered to a small non-residential customer after twelve months from the…

• Democratic3
• Republican2

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Michelle Hinchey says this is needed

Back billing is the practice of utility companies retroactively billing consumers for services rendered but not billed in an appropriately time- ly manner. For example, a company may fail to bill a consumer for months, then hit that consumer with a massive one-time charge. Chapters 763 of 2023 and 62 of 2024 prohibited utility companies from back billing residential and small non-residential customers beyond three months past the date of the service rendered. This put a reason- able limit on utility collection practices that demand excessive payments from consumers. These chapters were clear to include these protections for both residential and non-residential customers. However, this legislation did not address an alternative to back billing that utilities often use: retroactive bill adjustments. This practice allows utilities to increase the charges on previous bills, demanding additional payments above and beyond those already sent out to custom- ers. For residential customers, this practice is already limited by law to 12 months after a bill was rendered, meaning a utility cannot retroactively change a bill more than a year after the initial bill was sent. But for small non-residential customers, such as a church, there is currently no limitation under the law. This means that a customer could pay their bills on time every month and yet, even years after an initially rendered bill, receive a massive "adjustment" that could jeop- ardize their finances. This legislation fixes this disparity by providing small non-residential customers with the same protection as residential customers: after 12 months from the date of service, utilities are not allowed to retroac- tively adjust a customer's bill. Providing this protection will give small non-residential customers the assurance that they won't get retro- active bills for years' worth of service, and it incentivizes utilities to correct any billing issues in a timely manner.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.