{"id":1357557,"date":"2026-02-13T20:56:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/utility-providers-are-actively-going-to-court-to-collect-debts-from-consumers-what-is-known\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T20:56:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:56:03","slug":"utility-providers-are-actively-going-to-court-to-collect-debts-from-consumers-what-is-known","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/utility-providers-are-actively-going-to-court-to-collect-debts-from-consumers-what-is-known\/","title":{"rendered":"Utility providers are actively going to court to collect debts from consumers: what is known"},"content":{"rendered":"

Utility service providers have begun to actively apply to court to consider cases of collecting debt from subscriptions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This<\/span> was reported<\/span><\/a> by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, citing lawyers.<\/span><\/p>\n

As noted, this is due to the fact that the statute of limitations has been resumed in Ukraine, while the debt “freezing” mechanism is no longer in effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Ukraine, there is no legally regulated concept of “debt write-off” for non-payment of housing and communal services, however, if there are certain grounds, the amount of debt for payment of communal services can be reduced or partially appealed,\u201d explained Tetyana Danylenko, head of the Ukrainian Bar Association’s committee on civil law and procedure.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the beginning of 2026, utility providers are required to independently remit fees for services if they were not provided, partially provided, or of inadequate quality. Remittance will be carried out automatically, no applications or appeals from residents are required.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only territories where active hostilities are taking place are exempt from compulsory collection, however, this does not apply to areas with a potential threat.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, persons staying abroad can significantly reduce their housing and communal services fees, but this does not apply to charges for heating, maintenance of intra-building networks, and cleaning of the adjacent territory for residents of apartment buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

“In general, the legislator has established a general statute of limitations of three years for the forced collection of debts for utility services in court. But in practice, service providers do not always calculate such debts correctly, and also try to collect them over the longest possible period of time. Therefore, you should know that the court can apply the statute of limitations to such debts only if the consumer defends his rights and submits to the court an application for the application of the statute of limitations due to its expiration,” the lawyer noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyer Oleksandr Gruzdev confirmed that utility providers are \u201csuccessfully\u201d using the court system to collect debts, even in cases where there is no written contract.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court clearly stated: the absence of a paper contract does not exempt the homeowner from the obligation to pay if he actually used the services (received heat, water, etc.). The court regards this as an \u201cactual contractual relationship\u201d, where the property owner has an irrevocable obligation to maintain it. Moreover, in addition to the principal debt, the courts charge inflation losses and 3% per annum for the entire period of delay, qualifying this as liability for breach of a monetary obligation,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to him, despite the ban on debt collection for people who have left their place of residence, martial law does not exempt citizens from paying for services.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is separately noted that there is a practice of suspending the provision of some utility services if citizens live in another region or outside the country for more than 30 days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a decision to recalculate utility bills<\/a> for consumers.<\/p>\n

We remind you that there are no plans to change the tariffs for electricity, gas, heating, and hot water<\/a> until the end of the heating season.<\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , X<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Utility service providers have begun to actively apply to court to consider cases of collecting debt from subscriptions. This was reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, citing lawyers. As noted, this is due to the fact that the statute of limitations has been resumed in Ukraine, while the debt “freezing” mechanism is no longer in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":1313596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76875,76878],"class_list":["post-1357557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-other-news","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1357557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1313596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}