Mississippi law makes mishandling tenant utility payments a crime
Gov. Tate Reeves signed a law Wednesday that makes it a crime for landlords who collect utility payments from tenants and fail to submit the money to utility providers, the bill’s text shows. The law took effect immediately.
Under the law, a person who collects and then fails to remit more than $25,000 in tenant utility payments can face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of as much as $50,000. Those who misappropriate at least $5,000 but less than $25,000 face up to 10 years behind bars and fines up to $10,000. The law also provides smaller penalties for lesser amounts and requires restitution to anyone who suffered a financial loss. It excludes delays caused by a tenant’s late payments or errors by the utility.
Rep. Shanda Yates, an independent from Jackson who authored House Bill 1404, said the measure was prompted by landlords charging tenants for utilities, collecting the funds and failing to remit them. “These tenants are then being faced with having their utilities turned off despite the fact they have paid for their utilities as part of their rent,” Yates said during a House discussion. She noted Louisiana enacted a similar law last year.
The law follows episodes in Jackson last July when JXN Water, the city’s third-party water and sewer operator, shut off water to Blossom Apartments after the landlord accrued more than $400,000 in unpaid bills. The Mississippi Home Corporation later labeled the property unfit to live in and tenants were forced to move, the agency said. JXN Water also shut off water to the Chapel Ridge complex and estimated last year that multifamily complexes in the city were collectively behind more than $7.5 million on their water bills.
The owner of Blossom Apartments, Tony Little, and JXN Water later sued each other and those lawsuits are ongoing. A bank that financed the complex recently asked a Hinds County judge to appoint a receiver to run the property, WLBT reported. The Senate amended an earlier version of the bill to say misuse of utility payments must be done “knowingly, willingly and unlawfully,” and the measure passed the House 100-14 after passing the Senate without opposition.
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