DTEK is suing a homeowner over a debt of 76,432 hryvnias. What was the outcome of the case?

A man approached DTEK with a written request regarding the conclusion of a contract for electricity supply. Company specialists visited his home and drew up a report on a violation due to the unsealed electric meter. He is being asked to pay for the unaccounted electricity in the amount of 76,432 hryvnias, but he refuses. This is stated in the decision of the Desnyansky District Court of Kyiv, published on September 16, 2021.

The construction company "Darnytsia" built a "turnkey" residential house for the man. However, at the time of the house's commissioning, this company was declared bankrupt. Therefore, he had to carry out the commissioning process independently. Although his house was commissioned, it was uninhabitable due to the lack of repairs and the absence of a heating system, sewage system, and water supply. The construction company "Darnytsia" left deficiencies regarding the electricity supply, specifically the electric meter was not sealed. As a result, the citizen repeatedly contacted the management of the Western RES with a request regarding the sealing of the electric meter. The inspector from the Western RES informed him that before the engineer could come to seal the electric meter, he needed to pay off the debts left by the construction company "Darnytsia" and provided him with a subscriber book for electricity payments, where another person was indicated as the consumer.

The man fully paid the electricity debts several times according to the electric meter readings. He paid the bills for electricity consumption based on the meter: February 2007 – 73 hryvnias; February 2008 – 253 hryvnias; December 2008 – 1,036 hryvnias; August 2010 – 121 hryvnias. Since another consumer was listed at the address, he crossed out the name on the receipt and wrote his own because his house was built on a plot that had no existing buildings. Based on the above, it is clear that factual legal relations arose between him and DTEK. In early June 2014, he submitted a written request to the company regarding the conclusion of a contract for electricity supply. On June 10, 2014, DTEK representatives visited his home and drew up a report on the violation, namely the unsealed electric meter. They then explained that this violation would be considered at a commission meeting regarding the report from June 10, 2014, and disconnected his house from the electricity supply. On July 7, 2014, the citizen was invited to the aforementioned commission meeting and was informed that the energy supply organization would terminate the electricity supply and that he needed to pay 55,000 hryvnias for the unaccounted electricity. At the commission meeting, he explained that he had repeatedly contacted regarding the sealing of the meter and the conclusion of the contract. Therefore, the commission postponed the consideration of the case to find the materials related to his requests. After some time, he was invited to a commission meeting held on September 9, 2014. At the meeting, a protocol dated September 9, 2014, was presented, stating that he had to pay for the unaccounted electricity in the amount of 76,432 hryvnias.

Case Review

At the time of resolving the dispute, the man was not the owner of the property and was not a consumer of electricity; therefore, the court did not see a violation of his rights by the energy supplier, which consisted of disconnecting his house from the electricity supply. It is noted in the case materials that on June 10, 2014, the Western RES department of the "Kyiv Electric Networks" prepared a violation report in his presence, indicating that the consumer had committed a violation at the address while using electricity – an unauthorized connection of electrical installations, current receivers, and wiring to the electrical network. According to the protocol of the aforementioned commission dated September 9, 2014, a decision was made to charge the consumer for the unaccounted electricity due to the violation for the period from December 11, 2013, to July 29, 2014, which, according to the calculations provided by DTEK and the above protocol, amounted to 76,432 hryvnias.

The debt according to the violation report from June 10, 2014, must be paid since the man is the owner of the apartment. By the decision of the Desnyansky District Court of Kyiv dated July 29, 2015, in civil case No. 754/18060/14-c, the citizen's claim against PJSC "Kyivenergo" for the protection of consumer rights was left unsatisfied. In leaving the claim unsatisfied, the court justified its position by stating that the violation report from June 10, 2014, revealed a fact of the consumer violating the rules, namely: an unauthorized connection of electrical installations, current receivers, and wiring to the electrical network (installation of a three-phase electrical installation and accounting device). There is no seal from the electricity transmission organization on the terminal cover of the electric meter (the seal from the electricity transmission organization is absent on the devices intended for sealing to accounting devices). According to the ruling of the Kyiv Court of Appeals dated October 1, 2015, the decision of the Desnyansky District Court of Kyiv from July 29, 2015, was left unchanged.

"Given the above, the circumstances established in the court decision in case No. 754/18060/14-c are binding for the court, which resolves the civil dispute regarding whether these actions took place and whether they were committed by this person," the case materials state.

What did the court decide?

The court denied the man’s claim. There is no evidence of a violation of his rights by the energy supplier, which consisted of disconnecting his house from the electricity supply.