Frequently Asked Questions

Apartment owners pay their share for thermal energy consumption based on the criteria and methodology determined by the residential house owners in conformity with the Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015 “Procedures for Determining, Calculating and Accounting of the Payment Share of Each Residential House Owner for the Services Necessary for the Maintenance of the Residential House” (in Latvian – “Kārtība, kādā nosaka, aprēķina un uzskaita katra dzīvojamās mājas īpašnieka maksājamo daļu par dzīvojamās mājas uzturēšanai nepieciešamajiem pakalpojumiem”; https://likumi.lv/ta/id/276739-kartiba-kada-nosaka-aprekina-un-uzskaita-katra-dzivojamas-majas-ipasnieka-maksajamo-dalu-par-dzivojamas-majas-uzturesanai).

N.B. If the residential house owners have not determined criteria and methodology, they pay their share in conformity with the Cabinet Regulation No.1013 of December 9, 2008 “Procedures by which an Apartment Owner in a Residential Apartment House shall Pay for Services which are Related to Use of the Residential Property” (https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/185342-procedures-by-which-an-apartment-owner-in-a-residential-apartment-house-shall-pay-for-services-which-are-related-to-use-of-the-residential-property ). In that case, you can convene a general meeting of apartment owners in accordance with Law and decide to use criteria and methodology of Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015.

Check the documents related to methodology that are chosen for your apartment building and pay attention to whether the following principles are met:

•The types of thermal energy consumption mentioned in Clause 18 of Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015 (thermal energy that is consumed for heating, hot water consumption and hot water circulation) must be separated.

•The coefficients of the parts of thermal energy that is accounted for in the apartment and the constant (shared) part of thermal energy (Annex 21 of Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015) and correction coefficients according to the placement of apartment, non-residential premises, or artist's workshop in the residential house (Annex 22 of Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015) must be observed.

•The basic requirements of clauses 19.² and 19.³ of Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015, must be observed by analogy, e.g., at least 70% of apartments have installed allocators/individual heat meters.

•The sequence of calculations contained in the Annexes to Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015, must be followed (e.g., firstly are calculated the values that are easier to obtain (the value of the relevant meter, the constant value of circulation per apartment, etc.) and only then the remaining thermal energy difference is distributed).

•The relevant physics formulas mentioned in the Annexes of Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015 must be used (e.g., the formula for calculating the amount of thermal energy consumed in the heat exchanger to heat one cubic meter of cold water, formulas to be used in cases where the apartment, non-residential premises, or artist's workshop is disconnected from the common heating and hot water supply systems, etc.).

Pay special attention to whether the coefficients of Annexes 21 and 22 of Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015, are applied. In practice, there are often situations when the individual consumption system is used inefficiently, or distribution of thermal energy consumption is disproportional because apartment owners have not carefully evaluated the calculation methodology. According to Transitional provision 31 in Cabinet Regulation No. 524 of September 15, 2015, the person calculating the payment share is obliged to comply with the procedures specified in clauses 19.² and 19.³ of these regulations and to apply the coefficients specified in Annexes 21 and 22 of these regulations, when calculating the payment share in residential houses, where thermal energy accounting (distribution) is carried out with a meter at the entrance of the residential house and allocator or thermal energy meters in apartments, non-residential premises, or artist's workshops. The coefficients specified in Annex 21 of these regulations may not be applied if they have been determined by an independent expert in accordance with the standard LVS EN 834:2013 "Determinants of heat energy consumption for apartment heating radiators. Devices with a source of electricity" (in Latvian LVS EN 834:2013 "Siltumenerģijas patēriņa noteicēji dzīvokļa apsildes radiatoriem. Ierīces ar elektroenerģijas avotu").

In case the methodology does not follow the above-mentioned principles, it can be solved by convening a general meeting of apartment owners in accordance with Law on Residential Properties and deciding on a more appropriate methodology. Furthermore, an independent expert in the field of energy performance of buildings can be invited to make an accurate calculation when developing the methodology. Also, in a situation where an agreement is not reached between apartment owners, involvement of an independent expert is the only option to solve the issue.

You should request the calculation of economic justification for the installation of allocators from your residential house administrator.

According to clause 7 of Cabinet Regulation No. 730 of December 10, 2020 “Minimum Requirements for Energy Efficiency of Buildings in Service” (in Latvian – “Ekspluatējamu ēku energoefektivitātes minimālās prasības”; https://likumi.lv/ta/id/319443-ekspluatejamu-eku-energoefektivitates-minimalas-prasibas) the economic justification for the installation of allocator is evaluated by the residential house administrator, according to the methodology for calculating the economic justification for installing allocators (Annex 1). The installation of allocator is economically justified if, applying the relevant discount rate of the last available quarter published on the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia website for determining the fair value of long-term investments for the economic activity type “Real Estate (general)”, the net present value for a 10-year payback period is positive (Available on: https://www.kase.gov.lv/metodika/diskonta-likmes).

As stated in section 14, subsection 2 of the Law on Administration of Residential Houses, the administrator has a duty to present the residential house owner with current, unambiguous and complete information regarding the laws and regulations binding to the residential house owner and the obligations arising therefrom, regarding the obligations of the administrator arising from the administrative task, as well as - upon the request of the residential house owner - regarding matters, which relate to the administrative task.

Water loss is the difference between the reading of commercial meter installed at the water node of a residential house and the sum of readings from all the individual water meters of apartment owners. It should be reduced if the difference is greater than 20% in the long term. See more https://www.em.gov.lv/lv/udens-paterina-starpiba.

There can be various explanations why water loss occurs:

Real losses:

• Leakages

Apparent losses:

• Tempering in water meters
• Use of inaccurate and different meters
• Meters are read and the readings are submitted on different dates
• Erroneous meter readings are submitted
• The amount of water used for common use
• Meters are not installed or verified
• Clogged or otherwise damaged meters
• Non-compliance with meter installation requirements

Evaluate and decide on:

• The technical condition of the water supply system of the residential house (e.g. necessary repairs or replacement of utility networks)
• Procedure for accounting of water consumption by determining:
  • Same requirements for the technical parameters of water meters (e.g. flow profile sensitivity)
  • Same requirements for the quality of water meters (e.g. meters cannot be manipulated using a magnet)
  • Same requirements for the installation of water meters (in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and the requirements for the uniformity of measurements set out in regulatory acts)
  • Requirements for water meter reading (e.g. shorter term for meter readings or introduction of water meters with remote reading)
  • Solutions for water meter clogging (e.g. unified verification, filter installation, installation of other types of water meters)
  • Purchasing of water meters jointly belonging to all apartment owners and authorizing their installation, replacement, and re-verification to be performed by the administrator or another authorized person.
• The operation of the joint water meter of the residential house (commercial meter) and the need to request that the service provider ensures early verification of the meter (see Cabinet Regulation No.174 of March 22, 2016, paragraph 37)