The power was turned off for non-payment: what to do, how much does it cost to connect?

November 4, 2018
Housing law
Elena Zhmakina

In our world, nothing is given for free, you have to pay for everything. Living in an apartment, even if it is personal property, involves spending on various services. Electricity, gas, water and heat have their own tariffs, which must be paid monthly. If you do not do this in time, you may face certain sanctions. Especially if you don't pay your bills regularly.

Most often, there are problems with repaying debts for electricity, but utility companies have found a solution to the problem - the supply of electricity to all non-payers is cut off and the justification for such measures is non-payment of the receipt. For what non-payment are the lights turned off? Every tenant or owner should be familiar with this issue.

In what cases can a power outage be carried out?

Before you figure out how to turn off the lights in an apartment for non-payment, you need to find out what the company providing the service means by this term. If the consumer was unable for some reason to repay the debt for the past month, then his electricity will not be turned off. But if payments were delayed for two months or more, then this is already considered a serious violation, and utility companies have a reason to legally turn off the electricity. Here, too, not everything is done as quickly as it seems: they came, turned off the lights for non-payment without going to court, and that’s it.

The consumer must be notified of the debt and that the contractor may limit or completely suspend the supply of electricity. This requirement is mandatory, otherwise the disconnection will be unreasonable and illegal, even though there is a debt.

How does the service provider notify the consumer about the debt?

Notification of the existence of a debt for electricity must be sent to the consumer in writing, but only if payment for utility services has not been made for 2 months or more. This condition is mandatory, otherwise all actions of the supplier are unenforceable and can easily be appealed. Without a debt of more than two months, they have no right to turn off the lights for non-payment.

The notification is given in person, in the form of a letter against signature. If this could not be done, then it is sent by mail and only by registered mail, to which is attached a description of the attachment and a notification that it was the consumer who received it. It may also be accompanied by a receipt indicating the exact amount.

Once the consumer receives a letter about the debt, he has 20 days to pay it off, so that his electricity will not be turned off for non-payment. If the funds are not received, the service provider may limit the supply of electricity.

Following from this, we can say for sure that the power supply can be stopped:

if there is a debt for 2 months or more;
the consumer ignored the notice that was handed to him against signature;
the debt will not be repaid within 20 days after receipt of the notice.

If at least one of the points was not met by the supplier, then you can file a complaint with the housing inspectorate, which will conduct an inspection and oblige the utility to restore the power supply and strictly follow all stages of the shutdown procedure.

Disconnection is accompanied by an act

No one has the right to come and just turn off the electricity. Everything must be legal. Every subscriber should know how electricity is turned off for non-payment in an apartment, so that if such a situation occurs, they can track all the actions of a representative of the management company and go to court if violations are noticed.

If payment of the debt is not received within the period specified in the notification, then the company has every right to suspend the provision of the service. Regardless of what the reason was, the fact of disconnection is confirmed by the act.

The procedure is carried out only by a representative of the management company, who will have a certificate confirming this fact. The act must also be drawn up by a company representative. The appropriate form is filled out after the electricity supply has been interrupted. The presence of the consumer in this case is not necessary.

The act is drawn up on a special form. A sample of it looks like this:

Date and place of document preparation. The number and exact address of the subscriber to whom the power outage was carried out is indicated.
Personal data of the consumer or authorized representative. Be sure to indicate who was present at the disconnection site or write that the procedure was carried out without a subscriber.
Personal information of the management company.
Parts and time of complete or partial termination of the provision of the service.
How was the shutdown procedure carried out?
Record the current readings on the meter.
Number of the electricity meter.
Signature of the company representative and the consumer, if he was on site during the procedure.

The debt is not indicated in the act.

Legislation

The Civil Code of the Russian Federation regulates relations in the field of rights and contractual obligations, including on the part of public utilities. Article 1064 applies when property is damaged due to illegal interruption of the supply or connection of light.
The Housing Code of the Russian Federation establishes criteria for the quality of housing and communal services.
Federal Law of the Russian Federation dated March 26, 2003 No. 35-FZ “On Electric Power Industry” introduces the concepts of electricity suppliers and the principles of operation of the energy market.
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated May 4, 2012 No. 442 “On the functioning of retail markets for electrical energy, complete and (or) partial restrictions on the consumption regime” approves the rules for limiting the use of light: reasons, order depending on the grounds.
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated May 6, 2011 No. 354 “On the provision of utility services to owners and users of residential premises in apartment buildings” lists the criteria for the quality of water supply, payment procedures, and recalculation practices. Paragraph 122 prescribes what utilities must take into account when cutting off the electricity supply. Chapter 11 contains a mechanism for limiting and shutting down a resource due to non-payment of debt, and the notice period. Appendix 1 contains information about energy supply standards and permissible breaks.

Which categories of the population do not have the right to turn off the lights for non-payment?

If there is a debt for more than 2 months for electricity, then this is already grounds for stopping the supply of light. But this rule also has its exceptions - not all categories of citizens are allowed by law to turn off electricity for non-payment. Among them:

disabled people;

veterans;
pregnant women;
minor children.

If any representative of these groups has a debt on electricity and his services have been suspended, then he must submit documents to the office of the management company. The person to whom the benefit is granted must be the owner of the residential premises or be a member of his family. In this case, the person must be registered at the address where the power was turned off.

Responsibility

Utility companies will bear serious responsibility for illegal power cuts:

Administrative – cases of non-compliance with the legal procedure for terminating the service, exceeding the permissible breaks are punishable by a fine.
Civil – when due to illegal actions property has been damaged, moral or health damage has been caused.
Criminal - if the actions caused damage on a large scale, serious harm to health, or death of a person.

A person who tries to connect the light without permission will be subject to a similar punishment. The extent of liability will depend on the severity of the consequences: if there is no harm to the common property and the property of neighbors, then it will be limited to a fine.

If the network in the house is damaged, people or their property are injured, liability will range from civil to criminal.

Solving the problem yourself

Initially, you should figure out the reason for the power outage and whether the electrician had the right to touch the meter. If the notice was not delivered and it is known for sure that there is no debt, then the actions of the supplier company can be considered invalid. You can file a complaint that the apartment was cut off power illegally on the basis of:

all the food in the refrigerator is gone;
Due to the pitch darkness, an injury was sustained.

If you confirm all your stories with documents, for example, take a certificate from a doctor stating that an injury was sustained, then you have a chance to win a lawsuit against the service provider and win a good amount of compensation.

There are also a lot of other nuances that are best discussed with a lawyer, for example, what to do if the electricity is turned off for non-payment and no one lives in the apartment.

If the disconnection was made legally, then in any case you will have to pay off the entire amount of the debt. It is imperative to obtain a receipt for its repayment and personally visit a representative of the management company.

Activities of emergency services

Emergency repair services come to the rescue when unforeseen situations arise. Your call is received by a dispatcher, who must correctly identify the problem and dispatch the appropriate team to resolve it. The responsibilities of emergency service workers include:

Monitoring the condition of objects in the assigned territory.
Timely response to received complaints.
Detecting the causes of the incident and eliminating the accident.
Elimination of emergency consequences.
Carrying out preventive work.

The emergency service works around the clock, and they do not have days off, so you can call them at any time of the day. There is no need to pay for calling a brigade.
However, please note that they will carry out the check to the door to the house. Anything inside the premises is not their responsibility and can be inspected and corrected for an additional fee.

What to do if there is no electricity?

If the electricity has been turned off for non-payment, there are several ways to solve this problem. Some methods can result in hefty fines, but there are also those that will help deal with temporary difficulties legally. Solutions could be like this:

It is possible to temporarily connect electricity from a neighbor’s apartment, if he, of course, agrees to this. In panel high-rise buildings between adjacent apartments, sockets are installed opposite each other. If you remove the socket from your apartment, you can make a jumper, thanks to which light will appear in the apartment. The neighbor will have to pay for such a service, and when the debt problem is resolved and the electrician comes to connect the light, the jumper will need to be removed.
You can also negotiate with your neighbor and extend an extension cord from his outlet to connect your electrical appliances. But here you will also have to thank him, because he will have to pay for the electricity that is consumed by the devices from the neighboring apartment.
If a power outage occurs in a private home, then in this case you can use a mobile power station. Its price is high, but it can also help out in those moments when the lights are turned off during repair work.
Solar panels will help solve the problem with electricity in the country or in the private sector.

Climbing into the electrical panel and independently connecting the wires to a meter that is sealed is not only dangerous, but also illegal. Such an act is regarded as theft and is punishable by considerable fines. In addition, working with live wiring is dangerous, so it is better to deal with the debt.

If the machine is in the entrance, and the meter is in the apartment

Quite a common situation. The dashboard can be organized neatly, with signed apartments, or randomly (most often).

In this case, the identity of the machine can only be determined visually by tracing the path of the wire. In practice, this is impossible to do - the wire simply goes into the common channel.

You can turn off the electricity in your neighbors' apartment, causing a conflict situation. In addition, this method (without warning) can damage electrical appliances or destroy information on a personal computer.

It would be more correct to call an electrician from the service company and ask them to accurately identify your circuit breaker. After that, try to make an information plate with apartment numbers on your own (although this is the direct responsibility of the power engineers).

The value of the tripping current does not matter: this is not a protective device - but a simple switch. The main thing is that the parameter is not lower than on the circuit breaker in the driveway panel. With this switch, you can always turn off the power to the apartment for work, or simply when leaving for a long period of time.

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Illegal shutdown

If the management company has turned off the electricity for non-payment, it must support all its actions with documentation and reasons, especially when it comes to ensuring decent living conditions for the population.

There are cases where companies illegally turn off the lights. That is why strict control is exercised over how the procedure occurs and for what reasons the decision was made not to provide this subscriber with its services.

Even though the grounds for turning off the light seemed to be justified, the subscriber has every right to file a lawsuit to appeal the decision. The presence of debt does not always legally deprive the subscriber of the supplied service. There are several situations that may deem the actions of utility companies illegal:

Failure to comply with the established procedure. Most often this happens in cases where the company does not send a notice of debt or does not have supporting documents for this.
The service was not fully restored. There have been cases when, even after repaying the debt and paying the receipt for reconnection, the terms for returning the service were not met. The sealing of the meter is removed no later than 24 hours after payment of the reconnection receipt.
Damage to the general communications of the house. There have been cases when, during the sealing of the debtor's meter, other power lines were affected, which led to an accident and loss of power to other subscribers.

If violations of this kind have been noticed, then the tenant of the house has the right to go to court with a statement of claim, in which he not only tells how everything happened, but also confirms all his actions with documents or testimony.

Option #1

Check circuit breakers. Circuit breakers are protective shutdown devices (circuit breakers, plugs, RCDs, differential circuit breakers, switches) that are located in the electrical panel in your apartment or entrance, and they turn off under certain conditions (overloads, leaks, short circuits). There are several types of machines, and sometimes it’s difficult for an inexperienced user to understand them. If you don’t know what they look like and where they are, look at the pictures!

You found machines, what to do next? How to understand where yours is, where it’s not, whether it’s on or off. With modern machines or RCDs, everything is clear - the toggle switch on them falls down (there are cases when machines are installed upside down, look carefully at the inscriptions). Here you can easily calculate your machine in the dashboard. Carefully, with one hand, without touching other wires and parts of the electrical panel, turn on the machine. Everything is fine? You don’t have to read any further and like and repost the article.

How to turn on machines correctly. You need to turn off all the machines (don’t touch the neighbors’ ones), and turn them on one by one, starting with the most important one, in this way you can calculate the problem line, leaving the problem machine turned off until the causes are eliminated. Leaving light on other lines. Option #2: You have old black machines, how can you tell where yours are? Typically, the machines in such panels are arranged in numerical order, in groups of two or three for each apartment. Old Soviet-style machines do not indicate that they are “off” in any way; they need to be overloaded, that is, turned off and on. Figure out where yours are, and feel free to turn them off and on again! Problem solved? Likes, reposts, ovations...

Fine for unauthorized connection of light

How electricity is turned off for non-payment and what steps should be taken to get the service back is already clear, but what could a subscriber face if he illegally connects his electricity?

A power outage is a rather unpleasant situation: home appliances do not work, food in the refrigerator spoils. And in these cases, many subscribers immediately take a risky step - they unauthorizedly connect their light to the panel, most often connecting the wires directly. But this may result in a huge fine, the payment of which will not save you from paying off the debt.

Russian government decree No. 442 describes what is meant by the concept of “unauthorized connection”:

connection to the general electrical network without concluding an agreement with the management company;
unmetered unauthorized connection, which implies connecting some devices bypassing the energy meter; an agreement can be concluded, but some devices are powered by electricity passing by the meter.

All connection work must be carried out only by an authorized specialist. High voltage can cause irreparable harm to human health and cause a fire due to a short circuit.

The fight against defaulters and irresponsible citizens forces representatives of the management company to regularly conduct raids, thanks to which it is possible to identify the attacker and prevent serious consequences.

Each resident can independently check whether a neighbor whose electricity was turned off due to debt has connected to his network. If you turn off all the devices in the entire apartment and look at the meter, then it should stop, but if it is actively generating kilowatts, then someone else is using the same power line. In this case, you urgently need to write a statement to the management company and identify the attacker, who will be fined. Its amount is constantly growing.

Where to contact

If the light went out in the entire house, you need to find out if any of the neighbors called the emergency service or the housing office. If yes, you should wait for a decision from the relevant services and power supply. Otherwise, you need to call the management company or emergency service yourself. The number is on the receipt.

The owner must know the following numbers:

Emergency dispatch service of the management company. The number is indicated on the receipt.
Number of the city operational dispatch service.
Emergency number. It is single - 112.
Energosbyt dispatch service number.

These contacts will help if there is a power loss in the apartment.