A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT requiring public utilities to grant customers at least thirty‑six months to pay any charges for services that resulted from faulty equipment.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  Article 7 of Chapter 62 of the General Statutes is amended by adding the following new section to read as follows:
"§ 62‑159.1.  Customer charges due to faulty equipment.
Whenever a public utility makes a determination that one of its customers has been undercharged for services provided by the public utility on account of faulty equipment, the public utility shall as soon as practicable notify the customer of the existence of the faulty equipment that resulted in the undercharge and the amount that would have been charged if the equipment had been working properly during the time period involved. The customer shall have at least 36 months from the date notice of the undercharge is given to pay the difference between the amount paid during the time the equipment was faulty and the amount that should have been paid if the equipment had been working properly. For purposes of this section, the term "faulty equipment" means equipment that was improperly working or operating through no fault of the customer."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective on October 1, 2009, and applies to all charges incurred on or after that date.