Two men, Darren Cordina and Melvin Polidano, today filed a court application against the state water and electricity services company – ARMS for calculating bills on a pro rata basis, without presenting differences in estimated and actual consumption.
Cordina and Polidano reside in a Lija property, where the former is the owner of the property and therefore receives ARMS utility bills under his name.
The pair, in their court application, made reference to an ARMS bill presented covers the period from 27 September 2016 to 26 January 2017. In the court application, they request the courts to declare that the ARMS billing practice violates EU and local laws, while also demanding that they are awarded compensation for damages.
Cordina claims that he was charged pro rata on an annual basis when this should not have been the case. He cites the law where it provides that tariffs for residential homes should be based on cumulative consumption which can be calculated pro rata but eventually the calculations have to reflect annual actual consumption, with the possibility of being refunded for excessive estimated payments.
Cordina filed a protest based on the bill he received from ARMS where he stated that it does not reflect the aforementioned law as the tariff is not calculated on actual consumption nor does is provide for refunding excessive payments nor paying underestimated consumption.
ARMS did not accept the request to revise the tariff based on actual consumption and in its response to the protest, ARMS did not even acknowledge the issue.
Subsequently, another protest was filed where Cordina argued that the way in which ARMS calculated his bill goes against various laws and directives relating to rights of the consumer, energy efficiency and dishonest commercial practices in the internal market.
The pair are demanding that bills clearly show the actual price of the energy consumes, and they are also requesting damages for the excessive charges.
ARMS continued to ignore both protests, resulting in Cordina making use of all legal remedy to rectify the situation, the plaintiff argued.
He complained that because of excessive bills received which are calculated on estimated use, the pair are unable to make use of the underfloor heating installed at home, also preventing them from consuming water and electricity
ARMS threatened Cordina to cut off water and electricity should they refuse to pay the excessive bills, which prompted him to do so, under protest.
Lawyer Maxilene Ellul, who signed off on the court application, requests that the courts declare ARMS’ calculations as being in violation of the law and requested that the company calculates consumer bills in a way that reflects the local and EU laws currently in force, from now on.
Cordina and Polidano asked the court to declare that they had suffered damages as a result of billing practices adopted by ARMS, and order it to compensate them accordingly.