GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

1989 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 110

SENATE BILL 496

 

AN ACT TO CLARIFY THAT HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATION-OWNED WATER AND SEWER UTILITIES ARE EXEMPT FROM REGULATION BY THE UTILITIES COMMISSION.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 62-3(23)d reads as rewritten:

"d.        The term 'public utility,' except as otherwise expressly provided in this Chapter, shall not include a municipality, an authority organized under the North Carolina Water and Sewer Authorities Act, electric or telephone membership corporation or nonprofit water membership or consumer-owned corporations financed by the Farmers Home Administration, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, or any similar or successor federal financing agency, provided, that (i) any such financing administration, department or agency exercise substantial control over and regulation of any such corporation's rates and terms and conditions of service, and (ii) the members or consumer-owners of any such corporation, pursuant to the corporation's articles of incorporation and bylaws, shall elect the governing board of the corporation; or any person not otherwise a public utility who furnishes such service or commodity only to himself, his employees or tenants when such service or commodity is not resold to or used by others; provided, however, that any person other than a nonprofit organization serving only its members, who distributes or provides utility service to his employees or tenants by individual meters or by other coin-operated devices with a charge for metered or coin-operated utility service shall be a public utility within the definition and meaning of this Chapter with respect to the regulation of rates and provisions of service rendered through such meter or coin-operated device imposing such separate metered utility charge. If any person conducting a public utility shall also conduct any enterprise not a public utility, such enterprise is not subject to the provisions of this Chapter.  A water or sewer system owned by a homeowners' association that provides water or sewer service only to members or leaseholds of members is not subject to the provisions of this Chapter."

Sec. 2.  This act is effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 17th day of May, 1989.