“Termocom” to start soon evacuating debtors

“Termocom” JSC, the Capital’s heat and hot water supplier, will start in short time evacuating consumers with debts from their apartments. The enterprise already purchased a studio apartment where a family with the biggest debt for thermal energy - evaluated at MDL 30 thousand, will be evacuated. According to a press release of the thermal energy supplier, the forced evacuation of debtors will follow the laws in force according to the Dwellings Code, the Regulations on offering and paying dwelling, communal and non-communal services for the living fund, Law on property, Civil code and the Code on executing court decisions. Under the conditions when “the debts of the population grow and the payment rate is low the issue on sequestering apartments belonging to debtors and then selling them becomes very actual”, the quoted source told. The enterprise states that before evacuation, the debtor will be warned orally, in writing, through reclamations, through court and finally its property will be sequestered and the debtor will be evacuated. The apartment will be sold through an agency specialized in real estate transactions. The thermal energy supplier will take the sum equivalent to the sum of the flat, plus the debt and the expenses for the lawsuit and the rest of money will be given back to the former owner of the apartment. The debtors living in studio flats will be evacuated in hostel rooms. The quoted source says that with the accumulated money JSC “Termocom” will buy new studio flats for the next candidates for evacuation. Solicited by Info-Prim Neo to comment the intentions of JSC “Termocom”, the head of the Consumers Protection League, the lawyer Roman Mihaies said that these sorts of humiliating methods are not a novelty for Moldova, because the legislation allows applying such measures to debtors. The lawyer states, though, that taking into consideration the social-economic situation of Moldova the evacuation must be an extreme method of fighting with debtors. The quoted source considers that a part of the responsibility must be assumed by the government, which promised at the elections in 2001 that it will cancel the historical debts of all consumers. Roman Mihaies says that a big part of consumers accumulated debts in the years when “Termocom” was offering unqualitative services, but a small part of them will be able to prove in court this fact because they have no document signed by the communal services and by the thermal energy suppliers. According to JSC “Termocom”, at present, 43 thousand consumers have debts of minimum 1 thousand Lei debts and 8 thousand have debts of 7 thousand Lei each.