§ 37 — Deferred payment agreements

§ 37. Deferred payment agreements. 1. No utility corporation or\nmunicipality shall terminate or refuse to take all actions within such\ncorporation or municipality's control and, where applicable, consistent\nwith the provisions of the agreement for commodity service, if any,\nbetween the corporation and the customer, provided such provisions are\nconsistent with this article, to restore service to a residential\ncustomer, because of arrears owed the utility corporation or\nmunicipality, unless the utility or municipality offers such customer a\ndeferred payment agreement for such arrears; provided, however, that a\ndeferred payment agreement under this article shall not be available to\nany customer who the commission determines has the resources available\nto pay his bill, and provided further, however, that any such agreement\nmay provide for the customer to make a downpayment of the arrears,\nprovided that no such downpayment shall exceed one-half of the amount of\narrears or three months average billing, whichever is less. In addition,\nthe commission shall provide by regulation that (a) all deferred payment\nagreements authorized by this article be fair and equitable, considering\nthe customer's financial circumstances; (b) that such agreements\nobligate customers to make timely payment of current charges for service\ntogether with payment of arrears during the pendency of the agreements;\nthat such agreements may be renegotiated and amended where the customer\ncan demonstrate that there have been significant changes in his or her\nfinancial circumstances which have arisen due to conditions beyond the\ncustomer's control, and that, if the customer receives a utility service\nby the receipt of portions of such service from each of two or more\nutility corporations and is billed for such service through a single\nbill, the payments pursuant to the deferred payment agreement for\ncurrent charges shall be allocated to each such utility corporation\nbased on the current charges owing to each and the payments for arrears\nshall be allocated equitably on a pro-rata basis between such utility\ncorporations based on the amount of arrears owing to each.\n 2. Upon offering any deferred payment agreement, and prior to the\nsigning thereof, a utility corporation or municipality shall give a\ncustomer a copy of the agreement, in a form established or affirmatively\napproved by the commission, which shall contain a conspicuous, bold type\nnotice that the customer may request the assistance of the commission in\nreaching an agreement. Any such agreement shall be signed in duplicate\nby the utility or municipality and the customer and each shall receive a\nsigned copy thereof.\n