Changes in regulation of housing and utility services in the draft laws No. 2458 and No. 4383: matters of intra-building gas supply networks and energy efficiency
On May 20, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada approved in principle the draft law amending certain laws of Ukraine to regulate certain aspects of housing and utility services (registration No. 2458[1]). On December 3, 2020, this law was adopted. Besides, on November 16, 2020, a group of MPs introduced for consideration a draft law on procedure and timeframe for concluding agreements on providing utility services (registration No. 4383[2]).
The purpose of these amendments to the legislation is to regulate the matters of implementation of the Laws of Ukraine “On Housing and Utility Services” and “On Commercial Metering of Heat and Water Supply”, in particular the two critical issues: procedure of maintenance of intra-building gas supply networks and commercial metering of heat consumption.
Regarding the procedure of maintenance of intra-building gas supply systems, the Law “On Housing and Utility Services” separates maintenance services from gas distribution services, thus enabling conclusion of not only individual agreements, but also collective agreements and agreements with a collective consumer on the said services. At the same time, the Law defines solely gas distribution systems operators (hereinafter – DSOs) as providers of maintenance services, along with the provisions that allow other legal entities to provide these services on contractual terms. Furthermore, the practice of the Law implementation has shown that the absence of a competitive market and regulation of intra-building networks maintenance has resulted in disconnection of buildings from gas supply with a demand to enter into contracts with gas DSOs on ultimatum (non-negotiable) basis.
The draft laws No. 2458 and No.4383 suggested the following as possible solutions for this range of problems.
DiXi Group experts give recommendations to MPs and other entities with the right of legislative initiative.
