What if HOA does not provide the unit owner with a utility bill settlement? What if the landlord does not provide the tenant with a utility bill settlement? And what are the consequences of delayed or incorrect utility bill settlement?
Which "services" are we talking about? These are in particular:
- heat supply and centralized provision of hot water,
- water supply and sewage disposal,
- lift operation,
- lighting of common areas in the house,
- cleaning of common areas in the house,
- waste water removal and pit cleaning,
- enabling reception of radio and television signals,
- operation and cleaning of chimneys and
- removal of municipal waste.
In summary, these are therefore advances for "utilities" - services connected or related to the use of the apartment, which one party provides for the other. Whoever uses the apartment is a recipient of services. Whoever provides (or better ensures) these services to the recipient is a provider. If the apartment is used by the unit owner, the HOA (home-owners association) is the service provider. If the apartment is used by a tenant, the service provider is the landlord or owner of the unit. Of course, the delivery of services with the help of third parties (energy suppliers, elevator maintenance, cleaning).
The owner of the unit, or tenants who use the apartment, are obliged to pay advance payments to the provider. They agree on the amount of advance payments, or SVJ will decide on it. If the price of a service were to change during the year, the provider may unilaterally change the amount of the advance payment for it - he may request the advance payment in the new amount (at the earliest from the first day of the month following the delivery of a written notification of the new amount of the advance payment).
Utility Bill Settlement
The service provider (i.e. HOA to the owner of the unit, or the owner of the unit or the lessor to the tenant) has the obligation to bill the recipient for the actual amount of costs and advances for individual services. Must state in the bill
- the actual amount of service costs broken down according to the services provided with all the necessary details, and
- the total amount of received monthly advances for services,vvv
in such a way that the amount of any differences in the billing is obvious and controllable in terms of the methods and rules agreed upon for billing. Services that are covered by a flat-rate payment are not billed (typically, e.g. payment for the Internet, but it can also be a flat-rate amount for all services provided, if the recipient and the provider so agree).
The bill must be made and delivered to the service recipient within 4 months of the end of the billing period. The billing period is a maximum of twelve months and its beginning is determined by the service provider - typically it is one year.
What if the number of people living in the apartment changes? In this case, the recipient has a notification obligation towards the provider. The recipient must notify the provider of a change in the number of persons in writing and without undue delay (within days). The number of people is important for the settlement of payments for services.
Objections to advance billing
What if the recipient of the services does not see something on the bill? Does he have the opportunity to check the documents for the bill? Yes, the service recipient has this option by law (according to § 8 of Act No. 67/2013 Coll.). Within 30 days from the delivery of the bill, the recipient of the services may request in writing the provider to document the costs of individual services, the method of their billing, the method of determining the amount of advance payments for services and the execution of the bill in accordance with this Act, and to allow him to obtain a copy of the documents. The provider must comply with this request within 30 days of its delivery. Obtaining copies of documents will be at the expense of the applicant.
What if the recipient of the services does not see something on the bill? Does he have the opportunity to check the documents for the bill? Yes, the service recipient has this option by law (according to § 8 of Act No. 67/2013 Coll .). Within 30 days from the delivery of the bill, the recipient of the services may request in writing the provider to document the costs of individual services, the method of their billing, the method of determining the amount of advance payments for services and the execution of the bill in accordance with this Act, and to allow him to obtain a copy of the documents. The provider must comply with this request within 30 days of its delivery. Obtaining copies of documents will be at the expense of the applicant.
If he does not raise objections, it is valid that he agrees with the billing (both with its method and content).
Late Payment Penalty
The law stipulates a relatively strict consequence of non-fulfillment of mutual obligations between the provider and the recipient. If one party fails to fulfill its legal obligation towards the other party, it becomes liable to pay the other party a late payment penalty. E.g. if the service recipient does not notify the provider of a change in the number of people living in the apartment. Or if the service provider does not deliver the advance billing to the recipient on time, or does not allow the recipient to view the documents for the billing. Or the provider does not deal with objections to the advance billing in a timely manner.
How big is this fine? According to the law, this fine is CZK 50 for each started day of delay (a lower rate can be negotiated, or the SVJ can decide on it). Delays can therefore become more expensive.
Example from practice: In practice, the following situation occurs. Tenant and landlord (unit owner) break up on bad terms. The tenant moves out and they stop communicating. The lessor will not provide the lessee with an advance payment statement for the last year. Regardless of whether the tenant should return the overpayment, or could ask for an underpayment (even if these amounts were very low), the landlord has thereby violated his obligation. Therefore, the tenant can ask the landlord to pay a late payment penalty. For half a year of delay in the delivery of the bill, such a fine rises to CZK 9,000.
In the same way, for example, the SVJ can fine the owner of the unit who did not notify without undue delay that the number of people living in the apartment has changed.
Jurisprudence: If the beneficiary does not notify the provider in writing in time of the change in the number of people living in the apartment, does this mean that the provider is not obliged to bill the beneficiary for advance payments for services? No, it does not.. This issue was resolved by the Supreme Court (NS 26 Cdo 2088/2022) and came to this opinion:
The obligation to bill the specified advance payments for services in a timely manner is not conditional on fulfilling the obligations that Act No. 67/2013 Coll. on the contrary, it imposes on the recipient of the services (written notification of the change in the number of persons in the apartment). However, if the invoicing is not proper, because it counted the wrong number of persons responsible for invoicing the services, the service provider will not be obliged to pay a fine for late payment according to § 13 of Act No. 67/2013 Coll. – the recipient of the services was to blame for the billing inaccuracy.
If you have doubts about the rights and obligations of the recipient and the service provider, we are here to help you.
