Have you ever received a bill for utilities at the end of the month, but you strongly disagree with the amounts indicated in them? Probably yes. In this case, you have two options: to pay everything as is and to hope that in the next months the paid amount will come out by overpayment. But in most cases, no one will look for an error, so if you yourself do not take care of yourself, you will have to forget about the money spent. Each tenant should know that recalculation of utility bills is not only possible, it must be done, unless, of course, there are reasons for this.
If the services were not provided in full
A 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 only maintained in a slightly warm state. In this case, invoices with the full amount of payment for heat come. Why should a tenant additionally turn on the heater, and then pay for the 100% service provided? In this case, it is possible to recalculate utility bills.
Evidence base
Of course, first you need to prove that the service was really provided not in the volume in which they should have. In this case, it is necessary to find documents, contracts concluded, in which the regulatory parameters are indicated. Now we place thermometers in the apartment and invite a specialist from the management company. He should not just sympathize, but draw up a protocol. Take a photo and attach them to the application. Now you can safely go to the "Energy Center". They must recalculate utility bills within a month, that is, the next receipt will come with the correct amount.
Underheating 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 that indicates the temperature of the water, compliance / non-compliance with the norm, as well as the probable cause of this phenomenon. Recalculation of utility bills will be done on the basis of this protocol and your statement, so it is very important to correctly collect the evidence base. Try to remember exactly when you noticed that the services are not supplied in full. The company will have to provide an official response in which it will write down the reason, and also undertakes to transfer the overpayment to the current or next month.
The number of registered residents
Tariff rates for electricity and water are often based on these data. If tenants have been discharged from your apartment for a long time (children have left their parents), and the bills continue to come at the same rates, collect documents and go to the company office. The manager will help draw up an application for the recalculation of utility bills, attach documents from the address table to it, and next month will receive data on the review of payments for the entire specified period. Very often people do not know about this and do not inform the utilities about the registration / discharge of family members.
Legislation
Changes are possible both in the direction of decreasing and increasing cost. The Law on the Recalculation of Utility Payments clearly describes all cases in which you can return an excessively paid amount or, conversely, pay your debt:
- If no one lives in the apartment for a while. 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 exceed 6% of this amount.
- If the services were produced out of time or were of inadequate quality. In addition to the temperature of air and water, here you can include garbage that was not taken out on time. In principle, any service that you are unhappy with is a reason to contact the one who provides them. This is normal practice.
Recalculation of utility bills 2017 is carried out according to the following articles: garbage removal and water supply, sewerage and gas supply, water heating. Any basis must be supported by documents, otherwise no one will take the statement into account.
Norms and Standards
For each type of service there are indicators:
- For example, the norm is adopted if hot water has a temperature of at least 60 degrees in the afternoon. From midnight to 05:00, this figure drops to 30 degrees. This is the norm, if the consumer has no complaints about color, smell, stiffness.
- Power supply is considered to be of good quality if the supplier complies with the established standards. If an electrical device that requires 220 watts works at half the power, then you need to check it for serviceability, as well as 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 should be at least + 18-20 degrees, and in the bathroom - up to +25 degrees.
Do not forget about your rights. Even the smallest deviation from the norm requires reconciliation.
Service interruption
Accidents and preventive repairs occur from time to time, during which time the lights or water are turned off. Of course, most often this is a necessary measure, but tenants are not obliged to pay for services that they did not receive, there were even good reasons for that. If the public utilities in this case state the opposite, then you can make a claim on the recalculation of utility bills. But you need to understand what to consider as a break:
- Lack of gas for more than 4 hours.
- Lack of electricity for more than 2 hours.
- Lack of heating in case the temperature in the apartment drops to +8.
- Stop cold or hot water for more than 8 hours per month or more than 4 hours once.
Recalculation of utility bills in the absence of tenants
A 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 a consumer has been absent for more than five days, then he has the right to recalculation, with the exception of heating and gas supply services. Moreover, to prove this is not at all difficult, just provide a document confirming the time 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 the travel certificate. Returning from vacation, provide a hotel bill or passport with border crossing notes. The fact of residence 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 travel anywhere, even without a final destination. To confirm your absence at home in this case, you will need to provide travel tickets and a certificate from a security organization that the housing was empty and was under surveillance.
We collect documents
You can take a sample application for recalculation of utility bills at the office of the company you are contacting. But a little lower we consider the main points that should be noted. So, you must collect references, protocols and expert opinions, signatures of neighbors, and provide all this to confirm your right to recalculate payments. All papers can be submitted in the form of certified copies. Moreover, the utility worker himself can assure them if he is shown the original.
Employees tend to take a long time to consider the application for recalculation of utility bills. In fact, both consideration and withdrawal of the final amount takes no more than five business days. In this case, the amount is simply adjusted in the next payment receipt and you do not have to go several times. If this did not happen, then the person has the right to demand written justification.
I would like to note once again that the recalculation of utility bills in the absence of tenants is provided for any services other than 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 the apartment has individual meters, then you can not worry much. Anyway, you pay exactly as much as you spent. If you firmly decided to apply for recalculation of utility bills for a temporary absence in the apartment, then notify the management company in advance. Ideally, the employee of the management company will come on the day of departure, block the water and gas, so that later there are no unnecessary questions.
Unfortunately, no one does this. Therefore, upon arrival, you can request a recalculation of utilities, 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, then this does not change his rights and obligations under the contract. A person’s stay in prison is the same temporary absence. The tenant is still obligated to pay for the maintenance and maintenance of the premises, which does not apply to public services. 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 he will be made only for a period of six months. At the same time, heating bills and ONE will remain the same, since the fact of being in prison does not eliminate the need to maintain the premises.
How to fill out your request: sample
An application for the recalculation of utility bills is made in free form. By default, the cap indicates the recipient, 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 you begin to state the essence of your problem:
- “I ask you to recalculate payments for utilities, hot water supply, cold water supply, sewage, heating for ......., in connection with ... ..”. The application is on ... sheets.
Within 10 days, you must give an answer in writing.
Allocation claim
Utility payments must be reviewed, but in some cases, service providers do not want to spend time on recounts 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, there should be copies of all documents handed over to communal services on hand. In addition, you will need to write a statement.
Provide information about yourself, F. I. O., ownership of the apartment and on the basis of what it came about. Then, in any form, describe the situation: how many received the receipt, why the amount was not arranged, how they contacted the communal service and did not receive an answer. You can refer to the law, with paragraph 1 of Article 157 of the LC RF, according to which the amount of payment is established according to the indicators of the devices, as well as to one hundred. 32, which refers to consumer protection. Please indicate your request below to oblige the defendant to recalculate for the use of utilities, excluding the illegally accrued amount of payment for utilities.
Instead of a conclusion
Quite often in our lives we encounter such a problem as the incorrect charging of utility bills. This may be a one-time mistake or regular calculation of the erroneous amount, due to the wrong choice of tariff or for other 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 communal servicemen made a mistake in the calculations. Today, the main cases in which such a procedure can be performed have been considered.
If you are sure that the receipts each time come with an erroneously charged amount, and the utilities do not want to pay attention to this, then collect the necessary papers, including the letters that you wrote with a request to reconsider the payment, and contact the court. Today this is 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 does not take much time. You only need to write a statement, and on the appointed day to attend the meeting or send your representative.