(A) Gas supplies will be charged for from the time of turn on until the company discontinues the supply. Failure on the part of the customer to properly notify the company when their responsibility for the payment for gas at a premises ceases, shall not relieve the customer from the obligation of paying all bills accruing up to the time proper notification is received by the company. The customer shall pay for all gas passing through the meter, whether the same be used or wasted through leaks in pipes, apparatus, or otherwise and shall be bound by the true reading of the meter, provided it is in good repair and working order.
(B) Bills rendered for service for less than the standard monthly billing period shall be calculated as follows:
(1) Where meter reading indicates no consumption and the period involved is less than 15 days, no charge will be made. If the period involved is 15 days or more, applicable monthly minimum will be charged.
(2) Where meter reading indicates any consumption, regular rate schedules will apply, regardless of period involved. Meter will be read to the nearest hundred cubic feet and bills computed on this basis.
(3) Where consumer changes location within the same distribution plant, the consumption at both locations will be combined for the monthly billing.
(C) All customers of company which are either 60 years of age or older and depend upon a pension or Social Security check as their primary source of income, or are dependent solely upon a disability income, regardless of age, are eligible to participate in the company’s FLEX-DATE Payment Plan. This Plan will extend the due date for payment to the earlier of: 25 days after the current month’s bill date, or three work days before the next month’s bill date. Only the extended due date provided by FLEX-DATE will appear on eligible customers’ bills. In addition, the company will waive any otherwise applicable late penalty. Customers shall become Plan participants either upon telephone or form notification to company, and their participation will be effective for each month of each calendar year thereafter.
(D) Monthly statements will be delivered to the location at which gas is supplied, by an employee of the company, or posted in the United States mail, unless the customer has directed the company in writing to send statements to another address. The terms DELIVERED or RENDERED shall not be construed as an obligation on the part of the company to deliver or render statements to the customer in person, or to other occupants of the premises. Duplicate copy of statements will be furnished upon request, and failure to receive statements for any reason whatsoever, will not entitle customer to further time to pay account, or to a continuation of gas supply if account is overdue.
(E) Customers whose facilities are located on pipeline taps which are not centrally odorized will receive monthly statements based on the customer’s reading of the meter. If the meter is not read by the customer, bills will be estimated. The company will read these meters at least every six months and the difference between the customer readings or the estimated consumption will be billed or credited to the customer’s account.
(F) A RESIDENTIAL APARTMENT shall be defined as a room or group of rooms which contain a sink and/or cooking facilities and shall be considered a separate apartment for metering and billing purposes. House trailers shall also be considered separate apartments for metering and billing purposes.
(G) Individual residential customer premises shall be metered and billed separately even if under common ownership, and combined metering or billing shall not be permitted. Commercial and industrial premises shall be considered separate when not on the same tract or contiguous tracts of land, or when each is a complete unit not physically integrated with, or essentially a part of, the other or others, and each renders a complete service or produces a finished product. Tracts of land separated by public streets, roads, or alleys shall be considered noncontiguous tracts.
(H) The commercial rate schedule of the company will be applied to the gas used in two or more individual flats or apartments in a dwelling which was originally constructed as, or which has been converted into, a multiple-family building and where the owner has not elected to separately meter the gas used in each individual flat or apartment. Rooming houses without cooking facilities, tourist homes for transients and hotels will be metered and billed as single unit on the commercial rate.
(I) The company may make a charge as provided by a fee schedule maintained by the City Secretary, adopted by the City Council from time to time, for any special meter reading which it is called upon to make other than on the regular reading date. Where interim meter readings are furnished the owner of premises the company accepts no responsibility as to the distribution of the monthly bill as between tenants.
(J) Claims for error in statements rendered should be made by the customer as soon as discovered; if the claim is found to be meritorious, the company will make proper adjustment on the customer’s subsequent bills, or make refund to the customer within a reasonable time.
(K) The company shall make a test of the accuracy of registration of a meter upon request of a customer. If such test shows the meter to be slow or within the tolerance limit as to accuracy of registration, the customer may be required to pay a charge as provided by a fee schedule maintained by the City Secretary, adopted by the City Council from time to time, for each test so made. If the test shows the meter to be fast and in excess of the tolerance limit of accuracy, the test shall be made at the expense of the company and an adjustment shall be made with the customer. If no such test has been performed within the previous four years for the same customer at the same location, the test is to be performed without charge.
(L) In case a meter ceases to register, the quantity consumed will be estimated from the amount consumed during the corresponding period for the previous year, giving due consideration to weather and other pertinent factors, or by such other method that will be equitable.
(Ord. 2-95, passed 5-8-1995)