Virginia Law

Certain words as used in this chapter shall be understood to have the following meaning:

"Apartment house" means a building or buildings with the primary purpose of residential occupancy containing more than two dwelling units all of which are rented primarily for nontransient use, with rental paid at intervals of one week or longer. Apartment house includes residential condominiums and cooperatives whether rented or owner-occupied.

"Building" means all of the individual units served through the same utility-owned meter within an apartment house, office building, or shopping center as defined in this section.

"Campground" means and includes but is not limited to a travel trailer camp, recreation camp, family campground, camping resort, camping community, or any other area, place, parcel, or tract of land, by whatever name called, on which three or more campsites are occupied or intended for occupancy, or facilities are established or maintained, wholly or in part, for the accommodation of camping units for periods of overnight or longer, whether the use of the campsites and facilities is granted gratuitously, or by rental fee, lease, or conditional sale, or by covenants, restrictions, and easements. "Campground" does not include a summer camp, migrant labor camp, or park for mobile homes as defined in §§ 32.1-203 and 35.1-1 of the Code of Virginia, or a construction camp, storage area for unoccupied camping units, or property upon which the individual owner may choose to camp and not be prohibited or encumbered by covenants, restrictions, and conditions from providing sanitary facilities within the individual owner's property lines.

"Campsite" means and includes any plot of ground within a campground used or intended for occupation by the camping unit.

"Commission" means the State Corporation Commission of Virginia.

"Dwelling" means a room or rooms suitable for occupancy as a residence containing kitchen and bathroom facilities.

"Energy allocation equipment" means any device, other than submetering equipment, used to determine approximate electric or natural gas usage for any dwelling unit, nonresidential rental unit, or campsite within an apartment house, office building, shopping center, or campground.

"Energy unit" means the billing units for energy delivered to the master-metered customer. For electricity, the units are generally kilowatt hours (Kwh). For natural gas, the units are generally therms, but may be dekatherms (Dth), cubic feet (cf), hundreds of cubic feet (Ccf), or thousands of cubic feet (Mcf).

"Master meter" means a meter used to measure for billing purposes, all electric or natural gas usage of an apartment house, office building, shopping center, or campground, including common areas, common facilities, and dwelling or rental units therein.

"Month" or "monthly" means the period between two consecutive meter readings, either actual or estimated, at approximately 30-day intervals.

"Nonresidential rental unit" means a room or rooms in which retail or commercial services, clerical work, or professional duties are carried out.

"Office building" means a building or buildings containing more than two rental units which are rented primarily for retail, commercial, or professional use, with rental paid at intervals of one month or longer.

"Owner" means any owner, operator, or manager of an apartment house, office building, shopping center, or campground engaged in electrical or natural gas submetering or the use of energy allocation equipment.

"Owner-paid areas" means those areas for which the owner bears financial responsibility for energy costs which include but are not limited to areas outside individual residential or nonresidential units or in owner-occupied or - shared areas such as maintenance shops, vacant units, meeting units, meeting rooms, offices, swimming pools, laundry rooms, or model apartments.

"Shopping center" means a building or buildings containing more than two stores which are rented primarily for commercial, retail, or professional use.

"Submeter" means electric energy or natural gas measurement device used in submetering.

"Submetering" means dwelling or rental unit electrical or natural gas direct remetering performed by the owner to measure the tenant's electrical or natural gas usage and to render a bill for such usage.

"Submetering equipment" means equipment used to measure actual electricity or natural gas usage in any dwelling unit, nonresidential rental unit, or campsite when such equipment is not owned or controlled by the electric or natural gas utility serving the apartment house, office building, shopping center, or campground in which the dwelling unit, nonresidential rental unit, or campsite is located.

"Tenant" means the occupant or occupants of a submetered dwelling, rental unit, or campsite.

"Utility" means the supplier of electric service or natural gas service to a master meter.