Recalculation of utility bills: law, statement

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Have you ever received a utility bill at the end of the month, but strongly disagreed with the amounts indicated on them? Probably yes. In this case, you have two options: pay everything as is and hope that in the following months the amount paid will come out as an overpayment. But in most cases, no one will look for a mistake, so if you don’t take care of yourself, you will have to forget about the money spent. Each tenant should know that the recalculation of utility bills is not only possible, it must be done, unless, of course, there are grounds for this.

If services were not provided in full

Familiar situation: with the onset of cold weather, the management company is in no hurry to turn on the heating, and then for a long time the pipes are maintained only in a slightly warm state. At the same time, invoices come with the full amount of payment for heat. Why does the tenant have to additionally turn on the heater, and then pay for the 100% released service? In this caseit is possible to recalculate utility bills.

Evidence base

Of course, first you need to prove that the service was really not provided to the extent that it should have been. In this case, it is necessary to find documents, concluded agreements, in which the regulatory parameters are indicated. Now we are placing thermometers around the apartment and inviting a specialist from the management company. He should not just sympathize, but draw up a protocol. Take a photo and attach it to the application. Now you can safely go to the "Energocenter". They must recalculate utility bills within a month, that is, the next receipt will come with the correct amount.

Unheated water

In principle, the procedure here is similar. First of all, you need to call a locksmith from the management company. He will conduct an inspection and draw up a protocol in which he will indicate the temperature of the water, compliance / non-compliance with the norm, as well as the probable cause of this phenomenon. The recalculation of utility bills will be done on the basis of this protocol and your application, so it is very important to collect the evidence base correctly. Try to remember exactly since when you noticed that services were not being delivered in full. The company will have to provide an official response, in which it will describe the reason, and also undertakes to transfer the overpayment to the current or next month.

Number of registered tenants

Tariff rates for electricity and water are often based on these data. If from yourThe tenants have long been discharged from the apartment (the children have left their parents), and the bills continue to come with the same tariffs, collect the documents and go to the company's office. The manager will help to draw up an application for the recalculation of utility bills, attach documents to it from the address desk, and next month data on the revision of payments for the entire specified period will come. Very often, people do not know about this and do not inform the municipal services about the registration/discharge of family members.

Legislation

Changes are possible both in the direction of decreasing and increasing the cost. The law on the recalculation of utility bills clearly describes all cases in which you can return the overpaid amount or, conversely, pay off your debt:

• If no one lives in the apartment for some time. In this case, it is important that the absence is documented.
• If the family income is less than the subsistence level. In this case, the payment cannot be more than 6% of this amount.
• If the services were not delivered on time or were of inadequate quality. In addition to the temperature of air and water, this includes garbage not removed on time. In principle, any service that you are dissatisfied with is a reason to contact the one who provides them. This is normal practice.

Recalculation of utility bills for 2017 is carried out according to the following items: garbage disposal and water supply, sewerage and gas supply, water heating. Any reason must be documented,otherwise no one will take the application into account.

Norms and standards

There are indicators for each type of service:

• For example, the norm is accepted if hot water during the day has a temperature of at least 60 degrees. From midnight to 05:00 this figure drops to 30 degrees. This is the norm if the consumer has no complaints about the color, smell, hardness.
• Power supply is considered to be of high quality if the supplier complies with the established standards. If an electrical appliance that requires 220 W works at half power, then you need to check it for serviceability, and also measure the voltage in the network.
• Gas supply is estimated based on the chemical composition of the mixture.
• Heating is estimated by the air temperature in the apartment. In living rooms it should be at least +18-20 degrees, and in the bathroom - up to +25 degrees.

Don't forget your rights. Even the slightest deviation from the norms allows you to require reconciliation.

Service interruption

From time to time there are accidents and preventive repairs, during which the electricity or water is turned off. Of course, most often this is a necessary measure, but tenants are not required to pay for services that they did not receive, even though there were good reasons for that. If the public utilities in this case claim the opposite, then you can draw up a claim for the recalculation of utility bills. But you need to understand what counts as a break:

• No gas for more than 4 hours.
• Power outage for more than 2 hours.
• Lack of heating if the temperature in the apartment dropped to +8.
• Cold or hot water shutdown for more than 8 hours per month or more than 4 hours once.

Recalculation of utility bills in the absence of tenants

Very popular topic. If you have been away for a long time, then, of course, you want to save on utility bills. According to the current legislation, if the consumer was absent for more than five days, then he has the right to recalculate, with the exception of heating and gas supply services. Moreover, it is not at all difficult to prove this, it is enough just to provide a document confirming the period of absence and the reason. Utilities will accept any paper that can confirm your absence.

If you are going on a business trip, you will need to copy your travel certificate. When returning from vacation, provide an invoice from the hotel or a passport with border crossing marks. The fact of living in the country can be confirmed by a certificate from the administration of the garden partnership. The fact of treatment or study - the relevant documents from the institution. In general, a person is free to go anywhere, even without a final destination. To confirm your absence from home in this case, you will need to provide travel tickets and a certificate from the security organization that the accommodation was empty and was under surveillance.

Collecting documents

You can take a sample application for the recalculation of utility bills at the company's office,to which you are applying. But below we consider the main points that need to be noted. So, you must collect certificates, protocols and expert opinions, signatures of neighbors, and provide all this to confirm your right to recalculate payments. All papers can be submitted as certified copies. Moreover, a public utility worker himself can assure them if he is shown the original.

Employees tend to take a long time to consider an application for the recalculation of utility bills. In fact, both consideration and withdrawal of the final amount takes no more than five working days. In this case, the amount will simply be adjusted in the next payment receipt and you will not have to go several times. If this did not happen, then the person has the right to demand a written justification.

I would like to note once again that the recalculation of utility bills in the temporary absence of residents is provided for any services, except for heating. If you have water and electricity meters, then there will be no consumption for them, and only gas is subject to recalculation. Housing payments, such as cleaning the entrance, will also remain unchanged.

Features of the procedure

If individual meters are installed in the apartment, then you don’t have to worry much. Anyway, you will pay exactly as much as you spent. If you have firmly decided to apply for the recalculation of utility bills in the event of a temporary absence from the apartment, then notify the management company in advance. Ideally, an employee will come on the day of departurethe management company, will shut off the water and gas, so that later there will be no unnecessary questions.

Unfortunately, no one does. Therefore, upon arrival, you can request a recalculation of utility services, for which you have a whole month. Applications and related documents are submitted directly to the management company, after which they will be considered, and the tenant will be notified of the decision.

Recalculation for the time of serving the sentence

If the tenant is temporarily absent, this does not change his rights and obligations under the contract. The stay of a person in places of deprivation of liberty is the same temporary absence. The tenant is still obliged to pay for the maintenance and current repairs of the dwelling, which does not apply to utilities. If he does not make payment for more than 6 months, then the company can recover it in court. If a person has not returned within six months, then he can apply for recalculation later, but it will be made only for a period of six months. At the same time, heating bills and ODN will remain the same, since the fact of being in prison does not eliminate the need to maintain the premises.

How to make your request: sample

Application for the recalculation of utility bills is drawn up in a free form. By default, the recipient is indicated in the cap, that is, the head of the institution. In addition, here you need to enter your data and contact phone number. Below is the heading "Statement", and after that you begin to state the essence of your problem:

“I ask you to recalculate the payment for utilities, hot water supply, cold water supply,sewerage, heating for……, in connection with…..” Application on… sheets

You must respond in writing within 10 days.

Claim for recalculation

Utility payments should be reviewed, but in some cases, service providers do not want to spend time on recalculations and refuse to consider applications. In this case, you have every right to sue. There is nothing wrong with this, you just need to collect evidence. That is, on hand should be copies of all documents handed over to public utilities. In addition, you will need to write a statement.

State the data about yourself, full name, ownership of this apartment and on the basis of what it came. Then, in any form, describe the situation: what date you received the receipt, why the amount did not suit you, how you contacted the utility service and did not receive a response. You can refer to the law, from paragraph 1 of Article 157 of the RF LC, according to which the amount of payment is set according to the indicators of the instruments, as well as by one hundred. 32, which deals with consumer protection. Below indicate your request to oblige the defendant to recalculate the use of utilities, excluding the illegally accrued amount of payment for utility bills.

Instead of a conclusion

Quite often in our lives we are faced with such a problem as the incorrect calculation of utility bills. This may be a one-time mistake or a regular calculation of an erroneous amount, due to the wrong choice of tariff or for other reasons.reasons. But the law of the Russian Federation provides for the possibility of recalculating payments if the owner of the apartment has good reason to believe that the utilities made a mistake in the calculations. Today, the main cases in which such a procedure can be performed were considered.

If you are sure that receipts each time come with an erroneously calculated amount, and utilities do not want to pay attention to this, then collect the necessary papers, including the letters that you wrote asking you to review the payment, and contact to court. Today, this is a normal world practice: if the problem cannot be resolved in another way, then a citizen has the right to seek protection in court. Despite the apparent complexity, this procedure will not take much time. You only need to write a statement, and on the appointed day, attend the meeting or send your representative.