The CPC is demanding a clear and precise schedule for restoring heat supply to people left without heating and hot water. We insist that, for every day without heat supply after the 48-hour grace period, Toplofikatsiya should charge penalties, which should be reflected in consumers’ bills for November, which they will receive on 15–16 December. Calculate for each Sofia resident how many days they were without heating and what compensation they are entitled to for that. Otherwise, we will see each other in court with class-action lawsuits, and I will not be calculating how much these lawsuits will damage the company’s financial position. That is your concern; my concern is for Sofia residents to be protected and treated with respect. This was stated at Wednesday’s meeting of the Sofia Municipal Council by the chairwoman of the Commission for Consumer Protection (CPC), Maya Manolova, addressing the executive director of Toplofikatsiya Sofia EAD.
We are also taking this opportunity to warn that, for the month in which citizens were without heating, it should not even cross Toplofikatsiya’s mind to charge people a building installation fee, Manolova added. She stressed that people are not interested in the company’s financial condition; they pay their bills and are therefore owed the service.
She also reported that heat-accounting companies continue to charge a fee for the distribution of consumption shares, even though consumers have been left without hot water. These 3 euros, when people are without hot water, are angering them, the CPC chairwoman added, saying that she had joined protesters from one of the capital’s southern districts at their invitation and in order to support them.
According to her, the CPC has established unfair commercial practices in negotiating a higher price between Toplofikatsiya Sofia EAD and the heat-accounting companies, without consumers having been informed about it. I do not understand what this preferential treatment of heat-accounting companies is about; I can only speculate. You negotiate the prices with them, and then Sofia residents pay that money. You announced the prices only after two months. This is an unfair commercial practice, and we will penalize both you and the heat-accounting companies for it. When you conceal from those who pay how much you have raised their prices, that is not fair treatment, Manolova said categorically.
Regarding the concession of Toplofikatsiya Sofia EAD, Maya Manolova expressed the view that municipal councillors should not be discussing a concession at the end of their term, especially if its terms have not been discussed and approved by citizens. Manolova supported her position, among other things, with new complaints filed by consumers with the CPC, stating that Toplofikatsiya Sofia EAD, through a private enforcement agent, had sold an apartment in Lyulin over a consumer’s unpaid bills amounting to a total of 860 leva including interest, with the debt dating back 10 years. In another case, a property in Dolni Bogrov measuring 2.5 decares was sold over a debt dating from 2006–2008, which is now being collected. I will not even comment on the statute of limitations, she said. There must be proportionality in the actions of the lawyers you hire, because these are citizens’ properties; citizens who, just like you, are owners of Toplofikatsiya, she told the company’s executive director. In her words, under a concessionaire, these cases of people’s properties being sold over unpaid old and not particularly large heating bills could become an avalanche-like process, and she called on the company to discontinue this practice.