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Suffolk Fails to Over-Ride Veto of Oil Contract Bill Article Posted: 2/6/2009
By Briar-Rose Herrera-Ludewig
William Lindsay, presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, was disappointed on Tuesday, Feb. 4, when the body failed to over-ride County Executive Steve Levy’s veto of a bill intended to prevent deceptive practices in the local home heating oil industry. The decision came after lobbyists for home heating oil companies pressured lawmakers, Lindsay says.
The bill was proposed after some homeowner complained that they agreed to lock-in price contracts without ever seeing a written contract while oil prices were at their peak last year. When oil prices later fell, homeowners faced fees up to $600 to break their existing oral contracts in order to take advantage of the declining price of home heating oil instead of continuing to pay $4 or more per gallon. Many customers failed to realize that this unusual market condition would subject them to such a steep fee when they agreed to the contract over the phone, Lindsay says. The bill would have required that contracts would only be valid if they were in writing.
“I urge all home heating oil buyers to choose an oil supplier who is willing to let you read the terms of your contract before locking you in,” Lindsay said after his unsuccessful attempt to the veto. Lindsay was referred to the findings of his office’s unscientific study of 40 home heating oil suppliers in Suffolk County, where they observed that the overwhelming majority read a price over the phone, enter that price on the contract, mail the full contract to the customer with a deadline for signature and return to get the price quoted over the phone. The bill was aimed at those companies that do not do this.
Lindsay believes that before homeowners are bound by a contract, they should read it. He says he tried to work with industry representatives to insure that all customers would see the terms of the contract in writing, but they refused.
Levy plans on drafting an alternative resolution that would allow customers the choice to immediately lock in, or to wait for a written contract. Levy said he would also add a provision that an agreement over the phone would have to be recorded by the company, or documented via e-mail for Internet transactions.
“If prices are rising quickly, locking in verbally on the day you make the agreement could save a consumer twenty to forty cents per gallon,” Levy said. “Whereas, if a consumer would like to wait for a formal contract, and prices fell between the time the contract was written and the time it was received, the consumer would be in the position to renegotiate for lower prices.”
Levy did not announce when he plans to introduce his bill.
Suffolk’s drive to amend home heating oil contract regulations has run out of fuel.
