MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1998 Regular Session

To: Judiciary A

By: Representatives Barnett (116th), Dedeaux, Fredericks, Janus, Johnson, Read, Rotenberry, Saucier, Smith (39th)

House Bill 1445

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT RESIDENTIAL LANDLORDS FROM PREVENTING TENANTS FROM PROCURING CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE; TO AMEND SECTION 89-9-13, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT CONDOMINIUM OWNERS SHALL HAVE THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO PROCURE CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. A landlord may not prohibit or prevent any tenant of a dwelling unit from procuring cable television service from a cable television system operating pursuant to a written franchise agreement with a municipality or county.

SECTION 2. Section 89-9-13, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

89-9-13. Unless otherwise expressly provided in the deeds, declaration of restrictions or plan, incidents of a condominium grant are as follows:

(1) The boundaries of the unit granted are the interior surfaces of the perimeter walls, floors, ceilings, windows and doors thereof, and the unit includes both the portions of the building so described and the airspace so encompassed. The following are not part of the unit: bearing walls, columns, floors, roofs, foundations, elevator equipment and shafts, central heating, central refrigeration and central air-conditioning equipment, reservoirs, tanks, pumps and other central services, pipes, ducts, flues, chutes, conduits, wires and other utility installations, wherever located, except the outlets thereof when located within the unit. In interpreting deeds and plans the existing physical boundaries of the unit or of a unit reconstructed in substantial accordance with the original plans thereof shall be conclusively presumed to be its boundaries rather than the metes and bounds expressed in the deed or plan, regardless of settling or lateral movement of the building and regardless of minor variance between boundaries shown on the plan or in the deed and those of the building.

(2) The common areas are owned by the owners of the units as tenants in common, in equal shares, one for each unit.

(3) A nonexclusive easement for ingress, egress and support through the common areas is appurtenant to each unit, and the common areas are subject to such easement.

(4) Each condominium owner shall have the exclusive right to paint, repaint, tile, wax, paper, or otherwise refinish and decorate the inner surfaces of the walls, ceilings, floors, windows and doors bounding his own unit.

(5) Each condominium owner shall have the exclusive right to procure cable television service from a cable television system operating pursuant to a written franchise agreement with a municipality or county, and the management body of the project may not prohibit or prevent any condominium owner from procuring such service for his own unit.

SECTION 3. Section 1 of this act shall be codified as a separate section in Chapter 8, Title 89, Mississippi Code of 1972.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1998.