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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 27, 2014 02:28 PM |
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| From: | Senator Lawrence M. Farnese, Jr. |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Residential Property Owner Municipal Recovery Package |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce two pieces of legislation that are aimed at helping homeowners who sustain property damages caused by municipally-owned utilities. A 2012 water main break in my district caused extensive residential property damage, with claims from residential owners reaching over $1 million. Claims were also filed by PECO and Verizon in an amount of over $1 million combined. To date, nearly $2.8 million in claims have been filed from just this one break. Since then, at least two major water main breaks have occurred in the City of Philadelphia, one as recent as January 11, 2014. Many millions more in claims are expected to be filed from these more recent incidents. In almost all cases, the damages sustained by residents are not covered under homeowners’ policies. Since the Philadelphia Water Department is a municipal entity, there is a $500,000 cap on what the city is required to reimburse for damages per incident. Under current law, most of the residents are likely to not be made whole for their lost and damaged property. In addition, homeowners are entangled in complicated court proceedings to sort out how the $500,000 will be allocated among dozens of claimants. Most expect that the majority of the compensation will go to the underground utilities based on the size of their claims. Last year, I introduced legislation (SB 1065) that would raise the cap for property damages recoverable from a municipality under the Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act. These proposals go a step further in providing protection for residential property owners who have sustained damage through no fault of their own. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Sally Keaveney at 7-5662 or skeaveney@pasenate.com. |
Document #1
| Description: | My first piece of legislation would prioritize the recovery of damages and losses in these types of events to individuals with owner-occupied real property who meet the filing timelines, to be followed by all other claimants thereafter. This language would amend Title 42, Section 8553 (limitation on damages). |
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Document #2
| Description: | My second piece of legislation would amend Title 66 by requiring utilities to obtain insurance in the amount of at least $1 million for property damage subject to Section 8553(c)(6) under Title 42. Since Title 42, Section 8553 precludes recovery against a municipality to the extent a claimant is entitled to insurance proceeds, this would lead to a similar result of making more funds available for residential homeowners. |
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Memo Updated: January 27, 2014 02:29 PM