All meters shall be furnished and maintained, as far as ordinary wear is concerned, by the utility, and remain the property of the utility and be accessible to and subject to its control. A gate valve shall be placed on the service line on the street side of and near the meter (§
295-22), and a suitable check valve and a relief valve shall be inserted in the line between the utility's meter and any heating unit directly connected to the service line (§
295-23); all to be placed by and remain the property of the customer.
The customer shall be responsible to the utility at all times
for proper protection of the meter from injury or loss of the meter
arising out of or caused by customer's negligence or carelessness
or that of his servants, agents, employees or any person upon his
premises under or by authority of his consent or sufferance. The customer
shall permit no one who is not an agent of the utility or otherwise
lawfully authorized to do so to remove, inspect or tamper with the
utility's meter or other property of the utility on his premises.
The customer is also responsible for all equipment that is used to
monitor water consumption. If the meter is lost, broken, lighting
damaged, frozen and breaks, or any part of the assembly (meter, wire,
and outside pad) is damaged by the customer, the customer shall be
responsible for the cost to replace the meter and/or damaged assembly
parts.
If a range boiler or heating boiler is directly connected to
the pipelines, the utility shall install an approved type of positive
action relief valve on the outlet side of the meter to protect the
meter from hot water, at the expense of the customer.
All meters shall be tested periodically by the utility without cost to the customer, and the customer may have the meter tested at any other time by making a written application to the Bureau of Water and providing a deposit, as indicated in §
295-34, to defray the cost of the special test.
In case of a disputed account involving the accuracy of a meter,
such meter shall be tested upon the request of the applicant, in conformity
with the provisions of the rules and regulations pertaining to water
service utilities of the Public Utility Commission.
If a meter is found to be in error at any test by more than
4%, an allowance or charge shall be made to the customer by the utility,
equal to the excess or deficiency in quantity charged the customer,
figured back from the date of test through the entire period of the
current bill, unless it can be shown that the error is due to an accident
or other cause, the exact date of which can be determined, in which
case it shall be figured back to such date.
When a meter has been found to be in error more than 4%, it
will be repaired or replaced with a meter accurate within 4% by the
utility without charge to the customer.
If a meter, by reason of any defect, has not registered for
one month or any part of a quarter year, then the bill for that period
shall be estimated on the basis of the average consumption during
the three preceding periods. The customer shall at once notify the
utility of any cessation of the registration of the meter. Every meter
is installed subject to a minimum monthly or quarterly charge in accordance
with the schedule of rates and such minimum charge shall be nonabatable
or nonuse of water and noncumulative against subsequent consumption.