§ 12. Gas and electricity must be supplied on application. Except in the case of an application for residential utility service pursuant to Article 2 of the public service law, upon written application of the owner or occupant of any building within one hundred feet of any main of a gas corporation or gas and electric corporation, or a line of an electric corporation or gas and electric corporation, appropriate to the service requested, and payment by him of all money due from him to the corporation, it shall supply gas or electricity as may be required for lighting such building, notwithstanding there be rent or compensation in arrears for gas or electricity supplied, or for meter, wire, pipe or fittings furnished, to a former occupant thereof, unless such owner or occupant shall have undertaken or agreed with the former occupant to pay or to exonerate him from the payment of such arrears, and shall refuse or neglect to pay the same; and if for the space of ten days after such application, and the deposit of a reasonable sum as provided in the next section, if required, the corporation shall refuse or neglect to supply gas or electric light as required, such corporation shall forfeit and pay to the applicant the sum of ten dollars, and the further sum of five dollars for every day thereafter during which such refusal or neglect shall continue; provided that no such corporation shall be required to lay service pipes or wires for the purpose of supplying gas or electric light to any applicant where the ground in which such pipe or wire is required to be laid shall be frozen, or shall otherwise present serious obstacles to laying the same; nor unless the applicant, if required, shall deposit in advance with the corporation a sum of money sufficient to pay the cost of his proportion of the pipe, conduit, duct or wire required to be installed, and the expense of the installation of such portion.