- Under the September 2006 amendments of the Bulgarian Energy law these are the stages for a consumer to enter into a central heating contract for his home:
1. The central heating supplier prepares its draft of general terms and conditions which it submits for approval by the government commission for energy regulation. (art.139c and art.150). Please note that the consumer is not expected to propose its alternative terms- only the monopolist does.
2. These general terms and conditions shall be published in central media and 30 days after that publication they enter into force without any express acceptance by the consumer. (art.150.2). The reason of these 30 days term after publication is unclear because the law does not provide for any appeal or objection of the terms within that time. The only analogy is the 3 day publication term of legislation in State Gazette after which respective law becomes binding. This indicates that a heating contract is not a contract but a publicly announced order.
3. Within the next 30 days (following the 30 days since media publication for entry into force) the consumer can apply for correction/modification of the general terms but in this case the heating supplier has expressly to agree to these suggestions for correction. (art.150.3). So for entry into force of the general terms the consumer’s consent is not needed but for their correction suggested by consumer the heating supplier’s express acceptance is needed. And if supplier does not accept the corrections, the official general terms remain binding- after all they have entered into force.
4. It is in these general terms and conditions of the heating contract where the convict’s iron balls will be installed re price of heating energy, heating audit, allocation of heat losses and the impossible termination of the contract.
5. A consumer has no right to uninstall the radiators within his home. Even if he has switched them to zero consumption he will be liable for heat losses from the common parts of the building. (art.153.5-6). And he has no individual right to give up the service- only a 2/3 majority of all owners within the building entrance can vote for a total switch off of the heating supply. (art. 153.2).
6. Default debtors of heating bills will not be taken to court but the heating supplier will obtain a fast track court order for payment based only on his audit extracts. (art.154).
- And if default on heating bill is longer than one year, then that non-payment turns into a public crime punishable by up to one year prison sentence or probation. (art.293a Penal Code). So heating bills will be accompanied by a print out of a penal code provision.
- The above scheme cannot be challenged in court because it come from the law itself and regular courts only apply the law but cannot reject it. The only way to challenge a law is to appeal it before constitutional court but that is where an ordinary citizen has no access. Under constitution the only institutions entitled to make a case before constitutional court are: president, 20% of all MPs, government, supreme courts, chief prosecutor and the ombudsman. Their coordinated inaction on heating issues make them all accomplices in the heating trap. The only channel left are the EU mecahnisms to fight this anti-contractual and anti-consumer scheme.
- The only reasonable explanation of the heating trap are the accelerated privatization of regional public heating utilities all over the country. What is on sale are not exactly the assets of the local heating companies but the flocks of helpless and speechless consumers chained to the service through the unilateral general terms and conditions. Their market attraction is that the law pattern turns them into shareholders of the heating losses but not of the profits. Heating convicts on sale not in the 1st but in the 21st century.
- In the above context is the criminal trial against the top manager of the Sofia central heating company. Austrian authorities intercepted his money laundry operations for mlns of Euro and reported him to Bulgarian law enforcement. Only then the egg was broken. And later a few more million Euro were found in his bank safes- this time allocated in envelopes each carrying the name of a very top civil servant. Could have he acted alone? How did the consumer’s money from heating bills reach the foreign bank accounts and the envelopes? Prosecution should not allow to be used as a hair-drier which can be slowed or even switched off once the hair-style of the government is ready.
- We have a suggestion: Since heat losses are allocated to all residents of a building the same approach could be applied to top government corruption. Say one billion Euro have disappeared within government operations, let all ministers cover that financial loss from their own pockets regardless of their own innocence. Like heating consumers in a building for heat losses through common parts. Law is the art of good and fair.
- Ordinary poor Bulgarians do not understand sophisticated accession terms and acquis communautaire. After 01.01.2007 their unaffordable heating bills will be a major message what really the EU means.
November 2006
Braykov’s Legal Office