The option to interrupt the debtor’s supply of heat and hot water was confirmed by the Supreme Court in its February decision. He assessed a case where the community of owners in a building in Mostec disconnected an apartment from these services, whose owner had not paid for them for a long time.
“If the community of owners can decide what services to provide to the unit owners, it can also decide not to provide these services, or – if this is technically possible, of course – not to provide them to the unit owners who owe payment for their provision,” the court stated.
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Last year, the Association of Czech and Moravian Housing Cooperatives published data according to which problem owners owed housing cooperatives and SVJ about 170 million crowns in 2022. But it is only about the data of union members. It represents the owners of more than half a million apartments, i.e. less than a fifth of the housing stock. The actual debt will thus be even higher.
Four years ago, the union reported that its members alone registered over 15,000 defaulters. A newer number is not available. “But I think it will be similar. It is not the absolute number of debtors that is growing, but rather the level of uncollectible debts,” said the chairman of the union, Jan Vyslužij. About 53 percent of debts cannot be collected in the long term. In some cases, it is tens of thousands of crowns, but with some borrowers, unpaid obligations reach hundreds of thousands.
According to Vyslužil, the court’s verdict can help defend against defaulters more effectively. “Until now, the borrowers have been calm because they believed that we could not disconnect them from the services anyway,” he stated.
The intervention has conditions
Disconnecting problem owners from services will not be so easy even now. The president of the SVJ or the community committee cannot decide on it. The step is approved by the assembly of owners. At the same time, it must set the rules in advance according to which such cases will be followed.
“The assembly must establish general rules that will be the same for everyone. The rules must not favor or disadvantage only some owners. Such a decision should contain, for example, the determination of the period of delay in the payment of services, after which the community can proceed to interrupt supplies,” described lawyer Pavla Krejčí from the DBK Partners office.
According to the court’s decision, the decision to disconnect the debtor from services must be a response to a long-term state of affairs. This means that the apartment owner does not pay for services for at least several months. There should be no threat of communities turning off the heating to people who are late in paying one month’s deposit.
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“In my opinion, the owner should also be asked to pay the debt before the supply is interrupted. But the decision itself does not state such a condition,” added Krejčí.
You also cannot disconnect a problem neighbor from any service. The decision must always concern the one for which he owes money. For example, if he does not pay the house management contributions, it is not possible to punish him by turning off the heat or hot water.
At the same time, the SVJ must think that the decision does not endanger the safety and hygiene in the house. For example, it is not possible to disconnect the apartment from cold water. In the same way, an intervention against a non-payer must not disrupt the supply of services to other residents of the house.
At the same time, the court’s decision does not change the relationship between landlord and tenant. While the owners’ association can cut off the non-paying apartment owner from services, the landlord is no longer allowed to do so. His defense is, for example, termination of the lease.
The Supreme Court also changed the previous view on the fate of debts in the voluntary auction of an apartment. Until now, lawyers believed that obligations do not transfer to the new owner. But the court decided the opposite in the mentioned case.
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