Constitutionality of collecting “indirect heating”
Although the Constitutional Court declared the Unlawful Ordinance on the Provision of Heating Services of the JKP Standard from Vrbas illegal, the Rulebook was adopted that allows for the collection of “indirect heating”, ie heating through installations, adjacent rooms or even the neighbor wall, in cases when citizens were unsubscribed from the system district heating.
The Supervisory Board of the Public Utility Company Standard from Vrbas, although the Constitutional Court of Serbia ruled that it was not competent to adopt the Ordinance on the provision of heating services, adopted a new-old Rulebook allowing the payment of “heating over the neighborhood wall”.
Consumers who decided not to heat up the district heating system were forced to continue to pay a certain percentage of the full price of district heating on a monthly basis, not only in Vrbas but in other Vojvodina municipalities.
It is explained that this is “indirect heating”, ie heating through installations, adjacent rooms or even a neighbor wall, in cases when citizens have logged off from the district heating system, but their heating plants still charge a certain percentage of the total heating price.
On July 7, 2016, the Constitutional Court declared the Ordinance on the provision of heating services in Vrbas unlawful as a whole, and the initiative for the assessment of constitutionality and legality was filed by one citizen.
The Constitutional Court stated that PUC Standard did not have the power to regulate the manner and conditions for the provision of heating services by its act, and therefore it was judged that the Regulation as a whole was not in compliance with the law.
However, on 6 October 2016, JKP Standard brought a new one – and in fact the same – the Regulations on the provision of heating services, despite the decision of the Constitutional Court, and now it is necessary to submit again the initiative to the Constitutional Court.
Lawyer Veljko Milic said that those who paid the “indirect heating” service can also ask for a refund.
In the Consumer Rights Association Prosperity, the issue was concerned with many citizens in Vojvodina and Serbia who are victims of “a kind of chaos” in an area that, contrary to the laws, is regulated by local decisions and acts.
“Although Article 90 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia (” Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia “No. 98/2006) clearly states that the state protects consumers, and the Consumer Protection Act (” Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia “, No. 62/2014 and 6 / 2016), grants every citizen the right to terminate a contract for the provision of services of general economic interest, if it is not in agreement with the change in price, tariff or quality of services provided, in many municipalities in Vojvodina and Serbia, citizens pay heating over neighborhood walls, ceilings or floor, although they clearly defined themselves for another type of heating, “Radomir Ćirilović from the Consumer Rights Association” Prosperitet “told SETimes.
In Vrbas, Ruma and Bečej indirect heating is paid 30% of the full price of heating, and in Sremska Mitrovica and Senta 20%.
Source: Vebsajt RTV, 08.11.2016.
