Recently, heat energy consumers have addressed the issue of legality of making payments to the state unitary enterprise “Toshissikkuvvati” for used hot water according to the number of people registered (living) in an apartment in the event of late state verification of an individual hot water meter.
The press service of the SUE “Toshissikkuvvati” stated that the order of installation and operation of individual hot water meters is regulated by Chapter IV of the resolution No. 194 “Rules for provision of heat supply services in apartment buildings”, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of July 15, 2014.
In accordance with paragraph 42 of the provisions, testing interval for individual’s hot water meters is once in every 4 years. In this case, in accordance with paragraph 43, when the calibration of hot water meters is not timely, accrual by the supplier of thermal energy takes place before the check on residential premises – according to the number of registered (residents) people before the calibration from the last fixation of the readings of the corrected metering device.
Also, before expiration of the established lifetime of the individual metering devices, the supplier in advance (no less than 10 calendar days) sends the consumer a notification of expiration of the lifetime of the individual metering device specified in the contract in the prescribed manner.
In turn, the consumer, within three days from the date of receipt of the notification, agrees in writing or orally (by phone) the application, the day and time of the representatives of the supplier’s withdrawal of the individual metering device for calibration and subsequent drawing up of a bilateral act indicating the withdrawal date, indication of the individual metering device and verification timing, as well as installation of a certified individual metering device.
Time for checking and repairing an individual metering device from the date of its removal and prior to its installation and sealing should not be more than 30 working days. During this period, calculation for hot water supply should be made according to the average daily reading of individual metering devices for the three preceding months.
“Currently, the SUE “Toshissikkuvvati” has accrued to consumers with expired state calibration of hot water meters by the number of registered (residents) people. In addition, reasonable complaints have been received from consumers that they did not receive notifications from the SUE “Toshissikkuvvati” about expiration of the operating time of individual hot water meters and the need for state calibration,” the press service said.
The SUE “Toshissikkuvvati” declared that all charges will be checked.
“Every consumer who has been additionally charged due to untimely mandatory verification of an individual metering device for hot water and no notification has been sent about this will be recalculated in March of this year,” the organization noted.
Disciplinary measures will be applied to the guilty officials of the SUE “Toshissikkuvvati” in accordance with the labor legislation.