A. “Billing entity” means the landlord or third party billing agent, as the case may be, responsible for billing residential multi-unit building tenants for master metered or other unmetered utility service.

B. “Disclosure” means providing tenants with complete and accurate written information in a clear, concise, and understandable manner in all notices required under this chapter and on each bill presented from the billing entity to tenants.

C. “Landlord” means a “landlord” as defined in and within the scope of RCW 59.18.030 and 59.18.040 of the Residential Landlord Tenant Act of 1973 (“RLTA”) in effect at the time the rental agreement is executed, and shall also mean the owner of a mobile home park. At the time of passage of the ordinance codified in this chapter, RLTA defined “landlord” as “the owner, lessor, or sublessor of the dwelling unit or the property of which it is a part,” and includes “any person designated as representative of the landlord,” including the operator of the residential facility and/or mobile home park, representing, working for and on behalf of the owner/landlord as defined herein.

D. “Master metered utility service” means a utility service supplied to more than one unit in a multi-unit building and measured through a single inclusive metering system.

E. “Methodology” refers to any method, technique, or criterion used to apportion to tenants’ charges billed to the landlord by the utility for master metered utility service or unmetered utility service, including but not limited to ratio utility billing systems, installation of submetering, and hot water metering.

F. “Multi-unit building” refers to a residential building or group of buildings (which may include a mobile home park) with three or more tenant units with a master metered utility service or unmetered utility service, such as solid waste collection, that is provided to the building or group of buildings as a whole.

G. “Personally identifiable information” means specific information about a tenant, including but not limited to the tenant’s Social Security number, birth date, mother’s maiden name, banking data or information, or any other personal or private information.

H. “Ratio utility billing system” or “RUBS” refers to any methodology by which the cost of master metered or other unmetered utility service provided to tenants and common areas of a multi-unit building is apportioned to tenants through the use of a formula that estimates the utility usage of each rental unit in the building based on the number of occupants in a unit, number of bedrooms in a unit, square footage of a unit, or any similar criterion.

I. “Rental agreement” means a “rental agreement” as defined in and within the scope of RCW 59.18.030 and 59.18.040 of the Residential Landlord Tenant Act (RLTA) in effect at the time the rental agreement is executed, and is deemed to include any month-to-month tenancy arrangement, whether written or oral. At the time of the passage of the ordinance codified in this chapter, the RLTA defined “rental agreement” as “all agreements which establish or modify the terms, conditions, rules, regulations, or any other provisions concerning the use and occupancy of a dwelling unit.”

J. “Service charge” refers to any charge or fee imposed by the billing entity to cover the costs of providing or administering the billing practices, regardless of the label applied to such charge or fee.

K. “Tenant” means a “tenant” as defined in and within the scope of RCW 59.18.030 and 59.18.040 of the RLTA in effect at the time the rental agreement is executed, and shall also mean a tenant of a mobile home park. At the time of passage of the ordinance codified in this chapter, the RLTA defined “tenant” as “any person who is entitled to occupy a dwelling unit primarily for living or dwelling purposes under a rental agreement.”

L. “Billing practices” refers to the practices of a landlord or third party billing agent, as defined herein, that bills residential multi-unit building tenants for the purpose of apportioning master metered or other unmetered utility services provided to the building(s) as a whole, either by directly submetering tenants’ usage or by otherwise apportioning such utility services among tenants, and also refers to any practices related thereto, including but not limited to collecting, using or disclosing tenants’ personally identifiable information (other than name and address), attempting to collect unpaid amounts from tenants, verifying tenants’ credit, and reporting unpaid balances to credit reporting agencies.

M. “Third party billing agent” refers to any entity retained or authorized by a landlord to bill tenants for master metered or other unmetered utility service on behalf of and as the agent of a landlord.

N. “Utilities” or “utility service(s)” refers to water, sewer, storm water, and solid waste services. (Ord. 6084 § 1, 2007.)