Product Center

Success Stories

How to do if the floor heating in your home is not hot? How to resolve heating disputes?

Published on:

2023-04-20

Indoor temperature is not up to standard

Can I not pay the heating bill? 

 

When heating in winter, the indoor temperature of the owner did not meet the standard because the heating company did not supply heat according to the standard, or because the owner modified or packaged the heating without authorization. In judicial practice, most of the owners do not pay the heating fee because the indoor temperature is not up to standard, which leads to civil disputes in which the heating company sues the owner for the heating fee.

case:

Mr. Zhang, who lives in Xihuan Road, has been in poor heating in winter since he moved into the house in 2014, and the room temperature is often not up to standard. However, he did not report the situation to the heating company, nor did he call the supervisory telephone of the heating supervision department, but refused to pay the heating fee to express his protest.
 
After three years in arrears, he was sued by the heating company.

 

After the trial, the court held that Mr. Zhang claimed that the heating in his home was not hot, but he had never measured the indoor temperature, so he could not submit evidence to prove that the indoor temperature was not up to standard. Therefore, the court ruled that Mr. Zhang pay the heating fee to the heating company in accordance with the standard stipulated in the heating contract.
In heat supply contract disputes, the heating owner has a relatively low winning rate because the heating owner has insufficient proof . In such cases, most of the owners do not pay the heating fee on the grounds that the indoor temperature is not up to standard. According to the law, the parties concerned have the responsibility to provide evidence for their own claims, and the heating owner needs to provide evidence to prove that the heating service provided by the heating unit does not meet the relevant standards . Therefore, this requires the owner to learn to retain evidence during the heating season.
 

the judge said

 
1. During the heating period, if the owner finds that the indoor temperature is not up to standard, he should immediately call the heating unit or call the supervision telephone number of the relevant government department.
 
2. The staff of the heating unit or the supervision department come to measure the room temperature and issue a measurement record, which is strong evidence.
 
3. If conditions permit, notarization or temperature measurement by a neutral professional appraisal agency jointly entrusted by the owners can be considered, so that the evidence obtained in this way is more powerful.
 

I don't need heating

Do I have to pay heating bills?

Some homeowners buy a house for investment. There are no people living in the house, and naturally there is no need for heating. In this case, it is more common for the homeowner to close the heating valve. Some heating owners refused to pay the heating fee on the grounds that they had closed the heating valve and did not enjoy the heating service, which caused heating disputes.
 

case:

The community where Mr. Li lives implements centralized heating and household management. When the heating season comes every year, the employees of the heating company will go to each household to ask whether it needs heating. If the user does not agree, the heating valve of this household will be closed. From his stay in 2015 to 2018, Mr. Li has been indicating "no" and "no" on the inquiry form and signed. Recently, Mr. Li received a subpoena from the court.
 
It turned out that the heating company had already sued him to court and asked him to pay a total of more than 11,000 yuan in heating costs from 2010 to 2015 in proportion.
Mr. Li was very puzzled by this. He believes that since he did not enjoy the heating service provided by the heating company, he should not pay the heating fee. After finding out the facts, the court organized mediation between the two parties on the case, and finally Mr. Li agreed to pay the heating company 8,000 yuan for heating.
In fact, even in the case of implementing household management, although users do not need to pay the full heating fee when they stop using heat, they still need to pay a certain percentage of the fee . The reason for paying the basic fee is mainly considered from the status of heating operation management and the reality of heat transfer between households. Heat energy is radiative and conductive. As long as there is a temperature difference, heat will spontaneously transfer from a high-temperature object to a low-temperature object. Therefore, after a single user stops heating, adjacent users still need to maintain a certain heating load in the surrounding area to keep the room temperature up to standard, and the heating resources temporarily disabled by the original user must also be retained. The basic cost of the equipment and operation guarantee of the original heating facilities will not be reduced due to the heat shutdown of a single user.

the judge said

1. In the case of separate household management, even if a single user suspends heating, he still has to pay a certain basic fee.
 
2. The ratio of the basic cost can be agreed upon by both parties in the heat supply contract.

Property damage due to heating leaks

Can I not pay the heating bill?

 
During the heating water test or heating process, due to the aging of the heating pipes and other reasons, the phenomenon of heating water leakage will occur. After the owners report for repairs, the heating company fails to repair in time or does not agree to compensate the owners for their losses. Some owners therefore do not pay the heating fee, which leads to heating disputes.

case:

Ms. Wang is the owner of a community in Baishui Street, Jincheng City. In January 2017, she found many water leaks on the roof of her house, and immediately notified the property owner. During the maintenance, it was found that the upstairs neighbor’s house was full of water due to the hot water pipe running out, causing the kitchen of Ms. Wang’s house to be flooded, the cabinets were soaked, the range hood was flooded, and many decorations including the ceiling were damaged. . Ms. Wang then refused to pay the heating fee to the heating company on this ground, and was sued by the heating company to court.

After the trial, the court held that Ms. Wang's property damage at home, after the loss is determined, Ms. Wang can claim rights and interests from the relevant responsible parties. However, in the heat supply contract dispute case, this cannot be used as a reason for refusing to pay the heating fee. Ms. Wang should fulfill the obligation to pay the heating fee to the heating company.

 
 

the judge said

 
 
Losses due to heating and running water are not a reason for refusing to pay heating bills, so how should we deal with it?
 
1. For such problems, the owner must first pay attention to retaining evidence. After the incident, you can ask the property staff to take pictures at the scene, and you can also record the situation in writing and ask the property staff to sign for confirmation, so that the proof is more effective.
 
2. According to the division of responsibilities, rights should be protected according to the law from the corresponding responsible subjects. There are usually two situations. One is that the upstairs residents improperly use it to cause water leakage, and the residents should bear the responsibility. The other is water leakage under normal use, which may be a quality problem of the house. After the owner has determined the responsible subject, he can recover according to law the property loss he suffered as a result.

 

 

Problem 1: The signing rate of heating agreements is low.

Judging from the case trial situation, less than 50% of the heating units signed written heating contracts with heating users. In most cases, heating households were unwilling or lazy to sign a written agreement with the heating unit. The reason is mainly that the reform of the heating system has led to major changes in the heating units, payment obligors, and heating fee standards. Some heating households feel that it is unbearable, and hope to continue the payment that is beneficial to them in the past by delaying the signing of new contracts. Way.

 

 

 

Question 2: The heating standard agreement is not clear.

Judging from the current situation, the heating terms agreed by the parties are generally relatively general, especially the agreement on heating scope, heating temperature, measurement standards and other matters that are prone to disputes is not clear enough, which has laid hidden dangers for future disputes. This phenomenon is particularly prominent in disputes over the heating of shops, factories, and office buildings. Due to the lack of relevant regulations on heating standards for commercial buildings, and the agreement of the parties on the relevant rights and obligations is not very clear. One word, difficult to reconcile.

 

 

 

Question 3: The service of the heating unit is not in place.

The survey found that heating households are dissatisfied with the service quality of the heating unit, which leads to antagonism, which is one of the reasons for long-term arrears. During the trial, it was found that some heating units were strongly affected by the previous welfare heating system, did not treat heating households as equal subjects, had a weak sense of service, and failed to perform reminders, inspections, monitoring, and repairs and maintenance of heating equipment. Obligations, and failure to deal with problems in a timely manner, resulting in a decline in the quality of heating services and user dissatisfaction.

 

 

 

Problem 4: Not paying attention to collecting and preserving evidence.

The heating temperature does not reach the standard stipulated by the state or agreed in the contract, which is the defense reason for the vast majority of heating users to refuse to pay the heating fee. However, in the trial of the case, few heating households were able to cite sufficient and strong evidence to prove their claims. The reason is that most heating households lack the awareness of collecting and retaining evidence, or do not know what kind of evidence should be provided to prove their claims. Many heating households submit their own temperature records as evidence, and some submit them to the hospital for diagnosis. Proofs or rental contracts, in order to prove that due to lack of heating, he was frozen sick or moved, but these evidences are obviously difficult to be accepted by the court.

 

 

 

Question 5: The awareness of heating households' active payment obligations is not strong.

Affected by the heating welfare system in the planned economy era, many heating households, especially employees of old state-owned enterprises, have become accustomed to paying heating fees by their units. However, with the implementation of the new payment method of "whoever uses the heating, who pays the fee", the unit has rarely paid the heating fee for the employees. Households can no longer enjoy heating benefits as before, so the initiative and consciousness of payment are naturally low. At the same time, due to the nature of heating as a public service, users do not pay fees. Even if there are technical conditions, the state does not allow heating units to stop heating without authorization, and the request of heating units to pay late fees is often not supported. In the future, heating households hardly need to pay extra costs for arrears, and there is no pressure, so they can naturally procrastinate.

 

 

Question 6: There are misunderstandings about heating. 

During the trial of the case, it was found that some employees and units lacked sufficient understanding of the nature of heating as a public service, equated heating services with general commercial services, and one-sidedly emphasized the principle of voluntariness and compensation, resulting in some unrealistic ideas or requirements. If you refuse to pay the heating fee on the grounds that you have not signed a heating contract or the house is unoccupied, or ask the heating company to stop heating or remove the heating on the grounds that you do not need heating, this is very difficult in the existing policies and communities without household heating conditions. difficult to achieve.

 

Typical Case

 

In order to regulate the behavior of heating and heating, prevent and reduce heating disputes, the judge made the following suggestions to both sides of heating and heating:

1. Suggestions for heating units:

Actively fulfill the heating obligation to ensure that the user's room temperature meets the standard. At the same time, eliminate all kinds of hidden dangers in a timely manner, and reply and deal with the problems reported by users in a timely manner. Establish a user heating temperature sampling measurement system, regularly test the user's room temperature, and the temperature measurement record should be signed by the user or other witnesses. Since there was no mandatory requirement for the temperature measurement work of heating units in the past, some heating units would not measure the temperature as long as the user did not report that the temperature was low. The user can't produce evidence that the temperature is not up to standard. According to the principle of whoever advocates, the court often decides that the user loses the lawsuit. Now, if the heating unit does not follow the new management method to do a good job of temperature measurement and recording, and keep the temperature measurement records in case the court finds out the facts during the trial, it is likely to bear the risk of losing the lawsuit.

 
2. Suggestions for heating households:

First of all, residents consciously fulfill their payment obligations while enjoying heating services. The second is to strengthen the awareness of evidence and learn how to present evidence. When users find that the room temperature is not up to standard, they should promptly report the situation to the heating unit and the local heating management department, and pay attention to obtaining valid evidence through proper channels. The new management method has required the heating unit to measure the temperature regularly, and the user can request to copy and keep the temperature measurement record; if the user has a dispute over whether the temperature meets the standard, it is not necessary to sign the temperature measurement record, and can entrust a third-party organization with room temperature testing qualifications to test. Temperature measurement has a certain degree of professionalism, and users should avoid collecting evidence by self-measurement. Some users ask the notary office to notarize the results of their own temperature measurement, but the notary office can only confirm the authenticity of the temperature measurement process and the obtained data, but cannot judge whether the temperature measurement method meets the professional requirements, and it is difficult to be adopted by the court in the end .