A new obligation for property owners. These devices will have to disappear

Real estate owners or managers must replace old heat meters, heating costs and water meters for measuring hot water for new devices. According to the amendment to the Act on energy efficiency of April 20, 2021, it will be necessary to install devices enabling remote reading. The change is aimed at improving energy efficiency, as well as more accurate control of media consumption.

A new obligation for apartment owners

According to energy law, all devices mounted before May 22, 2021 are subject to replacement. The owners or property managers have until January 1, 2027. After this date, the lack of an appropriate device will result in a penalty. The legislator provided a fine of up to 10,000 PLN, and even the penalty of arrest and restriction of liberty.

As “Fakt” notes, it formally survives the meters is free. Costs are covered as part of operational fees – they are found in monthly accounts, as part of the so -called fixed costs. The owner will not receive a separate invoice, but he will bear a real financial burden. The simplest cases mean an expense of PLN 300 for one apartment, but this sum may be higher in premises with additional water divisions or deprived of earlier metering. In such cases, it may be necessary to install more devices, which significantly increases the costs.

The owners who already have meters with remote reading or for whom the replacement would be unprofitable are released from the exchange.

At the end of last year, the Minister of the Interior and Administration signed a regulation that introduces the obligation to install smoke sensors in new and existing residential buildings. The regulation aims to introduce changes in two areas of fire protection of buildings. In the first area, the change consists in determining the obligation to use appropriate devices detecting threats related to fire or release of carbon monoxide. The primary goal of this change is to limit the number of fatalities and people injured in fires and carbon monoxide poisoning (chad). The change in the second area concerns the introduction of the obligation to properly mark the places of connecting the fire separation wall with the outer wall and with a roof in large -scale commercial, production and storage buildings. The designation of these places in the manner indicated in the regulation will allow firefighters to immediately identify the borders of fire zones in the building, and this in consequence will allow you to take more effective fire -fighting actions and limit the possibility of spreading the fire to neighboring fire zones.

Detectors from the middle of next year

The deadline for introducing the obligation is scheduled for June 30, 2026. In the case of residential premises and their rooms, in which the process of combustion of solid, liquid or gas fuel takes place, and used as such premises or rooms on the day the regulation enters into force, the requirements for installing autonomous smoke detectors and autonomous carbon monoxide detectors are to apply from January 1, 2030. In other cases (newly erected residential buildings and residential rooms or residential units intended for the provision of hotel services) obligations to install autonomous smoke detectors and autonomous carbon monoxide detectors should be met after 30 days from the date of announcement of the regulation.