Structural unit of SOCAR together with the courts violate the rights of citizens

Baku/10.04.23/Turan:  How can consumers be forced to pay for gas more than they used? It's very simple -to add  figures. This is what is being done in the Yasamal branch of “Azerigaz”, a structural association of SOCAR.

There is a boiler room in a multi-storey residential building at the address: Gurban Khalilov str., 5. There is one gas meter in the house. The house is managed by the Association of apartment owners "Yasamal-15".

In May-June 2020, the meter showed excessively inflated gas consumption figures.

This can be seen about the comparative indicators:

05.2018 - 3231 m3;

06.2018 - 2545 m3;

in just two months: 5776 m3;

05.2019 - 3764 m3;

06.2019 - 2793 m3;

In just two months: 6557 m3;

05.2020 - 4323 m3;

06.2020 - 9992 m3;

In just two months: 14315 m3;

05.2021 - 2998 m3;

06.2021 - 1658 m3;

In just two months: 4656 m3;

05.2022 - 4418 m3;

06.2022 - 2152 m3;

In just two months: 6569 m3;

After repeated appeals from residents, gas workers of the Yasamal branch of “Azerigaz” removed the meter and sent it to the laboratory for inspection, installing another meter instead of the seized one.

Checking the meter in the “Azerigaz” Metrology Laboratory confirmed its malfunction and overestimated the gas used (more than twice). However, despite this, residents were billed to pay for an inflated volume of gas (in the amount of more than 1,500 manats).

In this regard, the residents appealed to the management of "Azerigaz" with a request to issue a real account, taking into account that the incorrect indicators were confirmed by the “Azerigaz” laboratory itself.

Repeated appeals of residents to the chairman of "Azerigaz" Ruslan Aliyev remained unanswered. The attempt to resolve the issue through the court also turned out to be difficult.

In August 2022, the Partnership filed a lawsuit with the Khatai Court of Baku, on the territory of which the main office of “Azerigaz” is located. A month later, a refusal came with a proposal to apply to a Commercial court. In September, they appealed to the Commercial Court, from which, at the end of November, the answer came that they should apply to the Khatai court. All this took three months.

In December 2022, after the repeated appeal of the Partnership, the Khatai court finally accepted the case, and the first meeting was scheduled for January 17, 2023.

Judge Parviz Zamanli held three inconclusive court sessions, demanding at each meeting from the tenants' representative a certificate confirming his right to speak on behalf of the tenants. Although the document, confirmed by a notary, was presented at the first meeting.

At the last meeting on March 9, he asked the residents' representative - the building's commandant a strange question: "What do you demand?". The commandant's response that the lawsuit contains a request to urge “Azerigaz” to submit a real bill for gas consumption did not satisfy the judge. "I don't understand what you want, let your lawyer or the chairman of the Yasamal-15 Partnership come. After these words, the judge postponed the meeting for another month.

It should be noted that the representative of “Azerigaz” did not attend any meeting, except for the last one, and could not answer the question: how can gas consumption in the summer months be the same as during the heating season?

Thus, consumers faced, on the one hand, lawlessness on the part of the employees of “Azerigaz”, and on the other, the support of the judicial authorities of this lawlessness.

Personnel changes in the leadership of “Azerigaz” in recent years have not changed anything in the style of work of this department. Will the situation in the judicial system change with the arrival of Inam Kerimov as head of the Supreme Court?

By the way, on November 1, 2022, the director of the Turan agency, Mehman Aliyev, appealed to the Director General of “Azerigaz”, Ruslan Aliyev, with a request to deal with the incident and make the resulting decision. However, there was no response.

Today, the press secretary of “Azerigaz”, Eldeniz Veliyev, was asked for an explanation, but he refused to communicate, citing illness.—0-