Ilya Shengeliya, project
manager at VEGAS LEX Southern directorate, has reviewed court practice in
dealing with non-payments in housing and utilities at a roundtable organized by
the Kommersant Media Holding in Krasnodar.

On June 6, 2017, Krasnodar hosted a roundtable on Non-payments in Housing and Utilities:
Judicial Practice and Current Issues in 2017, where regional authorities,
energy market participants and invited experts evaluated the effectiveness and
practice of applying the law tightening the payment discipline*, which regulates settlements between energy consumers and
suppliers of gas, heat and electricity.

Ilya Shengeliya, project manager at VEGAS LEX Southern directorate,
explained the reasons why debts owed to suppliers accumulate in the housing and
utilities sector, pointing out possible ways of regulating payments for the
resources supplied. The expert talked about the judicial practice of recovering
debts in the housing and utilities sector and listed the recent initiatives in
the sector’s regulation, including simplifying the procedure for signing direct
contracts, increasing the responsibility of managing companies and their
officials, establishing control over information transparency, introducing the requirement
that managing companies ensure their liabilities by bank guarantees, etc.

The participants also discussed the state of payment
discipline in the fuel and energy sector and in the housing and utilities services
in the Krasnodar Territory; the problem of non-payments in the electric grid segment
and the prospects for their resolution; the need to work out a set of measures needed
to introduce a pre-established limit of subsidized electricity consumption in
the Krasnodar Territory; judicial practice and ways to deal with problems with owners
of non-residential premises in multi-apartment residential buildings paying for
their heat supply; and effective legislative measures to enforce payment obligations
and improve the payment discipline.

As a result of the event, a resolution is to be
prepared and submitted to federal executive and legislative bodies.

***

* Russia passed a law tightening the payment discipline* more than a
year ago. The need for the new legislation was particularly evident in large
industrial areas such as the Krasnodar Territory, where debts to water, gas,
heat and electricity suppliers were growing at an alarming rate. Collecting
debts through court action is not as effective as using measures provided by the
law http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3312250.

For more information on VEGAS LEX’s services to the
energy sector, please go here.

Read more about VEGAS LEX’s Southern directorate
here.

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