The owners or lessees of apartments in Chisinau can get different information about the consumption of heat in dwellings from different consumption calculation companies. Some of the heat bills include information about the total consumption in the apartment building, while others only about the consumption in the apartment for which the bill is issued. The specialists contacted by IPN said this is not a violation of consumer rights and each dweller can ask for the information they need from the apartment building manager.
The case was reported by an apartment owner who received a new model of heat bill. The person said the bill that he received until now from the billing company “Infocom” included data about the total consumption in the block and about the area of the building and of the own apartment. He thus could check if the consumption was calculated correctly. The new model of bill issued by the Calculation Center of the public utility SA “Termoelectrica” shows only individual consumption.
Natalia Ilashchuk, inspector at the National Consumer Protection Agency, said the consumers can ask for other data than those included in the bill from the apartment building manager by an application. Not indicating the information about general consumption per block in the bill is not a violation. Everyone can obtain this information from the manager of the building.
In a response to IPN’s inquiry, the Chisinau heat supplier SA “Termoelectrica” says the modification of the bill model is not a novelty in the municipality. The new model was asked by a particular apartment building manager who decided not to use the services provided by “Infocom” and signed a contract for the provision of intermediary services with SA “Termoelectrica”. The Calculation Center does the calculations, issues bills and collects payments in the name of the apartment building manager so that this building’s debts to the supplier are cleared.
As regards the data about general block consumption, the building manager possesses such information and this can be obtained by any dweller, at request. “Termoelectrica” says the data about the volume of heat determined monthly for the whole apartment building and other related data (e.g. total heating area) are not included in the payment documents for dwellers as the legislation does not specify the form and content of such documents and these were issued based on the provisions of the service provision contract. The data specified in the documents refer to a particular apartment.
Ex-director of the National Energy Regulation Agency Victor Parlicov, expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul”, has told IPN that not the individual apartment, but the housing stock manager is the consumer. “Termoelectrica” does calculations depending on the data provided by the manager and there should be no problem. The readings of the block meter are not secret and the dwellers can decide that this information should be published by the manager as this administers in the name of dwellers. Also, the areas in the block do not change from month to month.
Victor Parlicov also said that if a problem appears, it should be solved with the manager. In the future, in order to eliminate any doubt, the dwellers can decide to switch over from “block” contracts (heat supply on the vertical) to individual contracts, with meter for each apartment (based on horizontal heat supply). Such a pilot project is implemented in Botanica district and most of the dwellers are satisfied as they regulate consumption according to needs and pay for how much they consume, depending on individual meters.
Currently, “Termoelectrica” supplies heat to over 200,000 apartments in Chisinau. Of these, 77,000 benefit from the billing services of the company’s Calculation Center. Over 110,000 apartments use the services of “Infocom”, while the rest do calculations themselves.
