Service to tenants: Prohibited conduct by landlord; notice and cost of installation; compensation for access; construction, installation, repair and purchase of facilities; discounts prohibited.
1. A landlord shall not:
(a) Interfere with the receipt of service by a tenant from a community antenna television company or discriminate against a tenant for receiving such a company’s service.
(b) Except as otherwise provided in subsection 3, demand or accept payment of any fee, charge or valuable consideration from a community antenna television company or a tenant in exchange for granting access to the community antenna television company to provide its services to the tenant.
2. A community antenna television company which desires to provide such services to a tenant shall give 30 days written notice of that desire to the landlord before the company takes any action to provide that service. Before authorizing the receipt of such service a landlord may:
(a) Take such reasonable steps as are necessary to ensure that the safety, function and appearance of the premises and the convenience and safety of persons on the property are not adversely affected by the installation, construction, operation or maintenance of the facilities necessary to provide the service, and is entitled to be reimbursed by the community antenna television company for the reasonable expenses incurred;
(b) Require that the cost of the installation, construction, operation, maintenance or removal of the necessary facilities be borne by the community antenna television company; and
(c) Require the community antenna television company to provide evidence that the company will indemnify the landlord for any damage caused by the installation, construction, operation, maintenance or removal of the facilities.
3. A landlord is entitled to receive reasonable compensation for any direct adverse economic effect resulting from granting access to a community antenna television company. There is a rebuttable presumption that the direct adverse economic effect resulting from granting access to the real property of the landlord is $1,000 or $1 for each dwelling unit thereon, whichever sum is greater. If a landlord intends to require the payment of such compensation in an amount exceeding that sum, the landlord shall notify the community antenna television company in writing of that intention. If the company does not receive such a notice within 20 days after the landlord is notified by the company that a tenant has requested the company to provide its services to the tenant on the landlord’s premises, the landlord may not require compensation for access to that tenant’s dwelling unit in an amount exceeding $1,000. If within 30 days after receiving a landlord’s request for compensation in an amount exceeding $1,000, the company has not agreed to pay the requested amount or an amount mutually acceptable to the company and the landlord, the landlord may petition a court of competent jurisdiction to set a reasonable amount of compensation for the damage of or taking of his real property. Such an action must be filed within 6 months after the date the company completes construction.
4. In establishing the amount which will constitute reasonable compensation for any damage or taking by a landlord in excess of the sum established by rebuttable presumption pursuant to subsection 3, the court shall consider:
(a) The extent to which the community antenna television company’s facilities physically occupy the premises;
(b) The actual long-term damage which the company’s facilities may cause to the premises;
(c) The extent to which the company’s facilities would interfere with the normal use and enjoyment of the premises; and
(d) The diminution or enhancement in value of the premises resulting from the availability of the service.
Ę The court may also award to the prevailing party reasonable attorney’s fees.
5. The company’s right to construct, install or repair its facilities and maintain its services within and upon the landlord’s premises is not affected or impaired because the landlord requests compensation in an amount exceeding the sum established by rebuttable presumption pursuant to subsection 3, or files an action to assert a specific claim against the company.
6. A community antenna television company shall not offer a special discount or other benefit to a particular group of tenants as an incentive to request the company’s services, unless the same discount or benefit is offered generally in the county.
7. The community antenna television company and the landlord shall negotiate in good faith for the purchase of the landlord’s existing cable facilities rather than for the construction of new facilities on the premises.
8. As used in this section, “landlord” means an owner of real property, or his authorized representative, who provides a dwelling unit on the real property for occupancy by another for valuable consideration. The term includes, without limitation, the lessor of a mobile home lot and the lessor or operator of a mobile home park.
Last modified: February 26, 2006