February 25, 2009 | NEWS ARTICLES
They'll Have To Keep The Lights On For You Now
By John Coté | SFGate.com | Link to article
So the apartment building you live in was foreclosed on, and then PG&E shut off the power because the landlord didn't pay that bill either?
Well, that's now unlawful in San Francisco.
City officials today issued an order preventing private utilities from shutting off service to apartment and other multiunit residential buildings with master meters if the landlord fails to pay the bill.
Department of Building Inspection Director Vivian Day and City Attorney Dennis Herrera invoked a section of state law that allows the city to compel private utilities like Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to continue service when a building officer certifies it is necessary to protect public health or safety.
The declaration Day and Herrera signed says such shutoffs pose a "significant threat" to public wellbeing, in part because they prompt people to use dangerous means to heat their homes.
Herrera said the law was designed for "circumstances exactly such as these." The order is to remain in effect through Dec. 31, 2010.
The move comes after foreclosures spiked in 2008, increasing by as much as 450 percent in some city neighborhoods, according to Herrera's office. Foreclosures are primarily clustered in the city's southeast in neighborhoods like Bayview-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley, officials say.
The Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, a nonprofit tenant advocacy group, reports seeing an average of one case per day where tenants' utilities were shut off through no fault of their own.
A PG&E spokesman said the company tries to work with tenants, including putting notices in the common areas of buildings that list tenants' rights and the company's foreclosure hotline: 800-850-9587 (staffed during business hours).
"We don't want to shut anyone off," spokesman Joe Molica said. "(Tenants) can take over service in their name and not have any past due amounts."
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which operates the city's publicly-owned water and wastewater utilities, has a policy against shutting off services to tenants because of landlord non-payment, so toilet flushing was not a worry.
