On November 9, The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law “On Housing and Communal Services” that distinguishes the duties and rights of providers and consumers of the aforementioned services. According to the Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko, this Law enactment serves as the first step that will enable residents of apartment blocks to influence the quality and price of the communal services provision.
The Law regulates relations between providers and consumers of housing and communal services in regard to apartment blocks administration, heat and hot water supply, waste utilization as well as gas and electricity distribution. The Law regulates the process of contract negotiation that enables provision of housing and communal services to consumers. At the same time, the Law obliges providers of housing and communal services to be legally liable for inadequate performance of their duties and responsibilities under the contract terms.
The Law binds suppliers of housing and communal services to inform consumers on their intentions of changing prices or tariffs. Moreover, the former are obliged to explain the reasons of the pending changes.
In case the housing and communal services are not provided, partially provided or if they fail to correspond to the quality standards, the payment rate for the apartment blocks residents will be decreased. According to the Law, if the consumer of housing and communal does not reside in the building for more than 30 days, he/ she has the legal right not to pay for the services (apart from heat and hot water supply).
Hennadii Zubko claims that the next stage of reforms lies in the acquisition of additional regulatory instruments that will control suppliers of the housing and communal services more strictly.
The law “On Housing and Communal Services” is one of the key normative legal acts necessary for the adoption of the Energy Efficiency Reform. In June 2017, the Laws “On the Energy Efficiency of Buildings”, “On Commercial Accounting of Thermal Energy and Water Supply”, and “On the Energy Efficiency Fund” were enacted.
Source: Government portal