In order to ensure the connection of heating, the board of “Rīgas namu pārvaldnieks” (RNP) has decided to cover customer debts for last year’s heating season from the company’s wallet.
Every year, the debts of Rigans for heat reach several million. However, bill payers often also suffer because of dishonest neighbors. The newly appointed chairman of the board promises to look for new, more effective ways to fight debtors.
Heating for RNP managed houses “Rīgas siltums” is connected only when all bills of the previous season are paid. Although the fight with debtors is every year, this season the new board has decided to cover the debt from the company’s funds.
“It is 2.6 million euros right now, maybe something else will have to be paid, but we have paid 2.6 million euros. We do not see that we would demand it, because after all it is not a question of Riga City Council, but a question of our mutual debt as a company and our customers, ”points out Rolands Neimanis, Chairman of the Board of RNP.
The company covers the debt so that the people of Riga are not left without heat, but the money will still be recovered in accordance with the law. Industry experts believe that one way to improve the situation could be for service providers to be receptive to operators.
“The only solution is either to change the understanding that the service provider understands that it can pay as much as can be charged, and that there are payments that are late and there are payments that cannot be collected at all,” says Ģirts Beikmanis, Chairman of the Latvian Association of House Managers and Administrators. .
“Rīgas siltums” does not consider such a possibility.
We supply both our suppliers with gas, wood chips and heat purchased by Latvenergo, and we have to settle accounts with them within a certain period of time. They are unlikely to meet us to defer these payments, ”says Biruta Krūze, a member of the board of JSC Rīgas siltums.
The company believes that RNP should work more efficiently with debt collectors, because other managers do not have such a big problem with dishonest customers. Residents of Lokomotīves Street houses have similar views, who have already addressed the council management in writing four years ago to encourage the municipal company to fight more actively with dishonest neighbors.
“We don’t have to wait for those debts to grow in some cosmic, thousands of ways. These demands simply need to be made in good time. It is difficult for us to do anything with debts, because you can politely approach and share your worries, but this person is a natural person who lives next to you, those levers are very small, which we as citizens can do, ”says RNP client Gints. Beautiful.
His house debt is more than 40,000 euros, but so far the heating has always been connected. This is because the house manager pays many debts in advance every season. At the same time, the company admits only partial accusations of poor work with debtors, as 55 million euros have been tried in ten years. Although only half of them have been recovered, the recovery of money is already the duty of sworn bailiffs, says the municipal company.
The new head of the board cannot yet name concrete steps for a more effective fight against debtors, but sees several solutions.
“We see that there has been no work with private debt collection companies. There are also very good initiatives from other companies in the industry, which we support, let’s say that the utility debt could be tied not to the owner of the real estate, but to the property itself, ”says Neimanis.
Discussions about such changes at the national level have been going on for several years and have always ended without success.
– .
