At whose expense is the gas meter installed – Ministry of Justice

It is impossible to determine the actual consumption of natural gas in a separate apartment if a common house natural gas metering unit is installed. Therefore, an individual consumer may be overcharged with a subscription fee for the natural gas used. This situation can be solved by installing an individual gas meter. The Ministry of Justice provided an explanation on its Facebook page on the question of who should pay for the installation of individual gas meters.

The Ministry of Justice noted that the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring Commercial Accounting of Natural Gas" defines that the financing of works on equipping the population with gas meters is carried out, in particular, at the expense of economic entities that distribute natural gas in the relevant territory. Gas distribution companies are obliged to ensure the installation of gas meters for the population living in apartments and private houses in which gas is used for heating water and cooking. In accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Consumer Rights Protection", the state:

- provides consumers with protection of their rights;

- provides an opportunity to freely choose products, gain the knowledge and qualifications necessary to make independent decisions during the purchase and use of products in accordance with their needs;

- guarantees the purchase or receipt of products by other legal means in an amount that ensures a level of consumption sufficient to maintain health and vital activity.

According to this law, the consumer's rights are considered violated in any case if the service provider imposes such conditions for receiving the service that put the consumer in an unequal position compared to other consumers, the principle of equality of the parties to the contract is violated, the price of products is determined incorrectly. If the consumer pays for gas supply at the established tariffs, which provide for the costs of installing gas meters, including individual ones, then the defendant is obliged to provide the services that were paid.

The information is current on: 04.07.2022