Establishes certain water and wastewater utility shutoff protections for tenants.
Assembly Bill 5171 establishes new shutoff protections for tenants who receive water or wastewater service but are not the customer of record. The bill applies both to certain local/public water utilities and to public utilities regulated by the Board of Public Utilities. It requires a 30-day written notice before service can be discontinued and bars shutoff when the tenant notifies the utility that they are not the account holder, or when the tenant lives in a multi-unit building served through a single service connection.
The bill also shifts responsibility for unpaid charges to the customer of record, generally the property owner or landlord, rather than the tenant. If a tenant is protected under the bill, the utility must seek payment from the customer of record and the customer of record may not pass those costs on to the tenant. In addition, the Department of Community Affairs and the Board of Public Utilities must notify utilities and customers about these protections and adopt implementing rules, with the BPU also updating its Utility Customer Bill of Rights.
The bill would add a new layer of tenant protections to New Jersey utility law by limiting when water and wastewater service can be shut off in rental housing. It would affect municipal public utilities, sewerage authorities, municipal utilities authorities, water commissions, water districts, certain public water systems, and BPU-regulated water public utilities. The measure would also require administrative coordination between the Department of Community Affairs and the Board of Public Utilities, including rulemaking, public notice, and consumer-rights updates.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes, the measure appears to be framed as a consumer-protection and housing-stability bill. Its purpose is to prevent tenants from losing essential water service because of disputes or unpaid balances tied to a landlord or other customer of record. There is no documented opposition in the provided materials, but the structure of the bill suggests support for tenant rights and utility accountability.
The main policy tension is between tenant protection and utility/customer-of-record liability. The bill protects tenants who are not legally responsible for the account, but it also places the burden of unpaid charges on the customer of record, typically the landlord or property owner. Another likely point of concern is the treatment of multi-unit dwellings with a single service connection, since those buildings can create practical billing and enforcement issues. No specific objections or supporters are identified in the provided legislative history.