It can happen to everyone to forget about it, perhaps because they are busy with work or because they are moving. The fact is that when you don’t pay for one bill electricity, gas, water and other services, the utility supplier rightly requests the balance of the amounts due, but there are time limits within which this request is valid, because even the bills go into prescription.
According to the provisions of art. 2934 of Civil Code after a certain period of time, the right to exercise a specific action ceases to apply, which may concern both the conviction for a crime and the request for payment of a bill. For the law the ordinary prescription of debts has a time limit of 10 years but for the bills of electricity, water and gas there are specific rules following some changes that have occurred in recent years.
The Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (Arera), in fact, with Resolution no. 97/2018 / R / com applied the provisions of the 2018 Budget Law regarding the reduction of the statute of limitations for the consumption of electricity, gas and water.
The time limit predicted, so, it went from 5 to 2 years but with some differences:
- For the supply of electricity, in fact, the new limitation periods – 2 years – concern bills subsequent to March 1, 2018, while it remains five years for bills relating to the previous period;
- As regards gas bills, on the other hand, the new statute of limitations entered into force starting from January 1, 2019 and therefore bills expired before this term continue to be prescribed after five years;
- For water bills, the 2-year statute of limitations entered into force starting from January 1, 2020 with the consequence that bills prior to that date expire in five years.
For electricity, gas and water, the two-year prescription is valid for both consumers and micro-enterprises, while the time limits of five years remain unchanged for all other users – such as telephones -. Care must be taken, however, the cancellation of the debt is valid only in the event that during the entire period of this time, the debtor has not received any reminder for payment or formal notice; the creditor, therefore, must have been completely inert.
The statute of limitations, therefore, can be interrupted only through a formal letter of formal notice from the company supplying the user which must be sent by registered letter with return receipt or certified e-mail (only for companies, professionals and VAT numbers). On the other hand, the following have no legal value: the telephone call from the credit recovery call center; letters sent by ordinary mail; the reminder contained in the next bill.
In the event of a formal reminder, the limitation period is interrupted and starts running again from the following day.
How is the prescription calculated?
The date from which the limitation period is calculated is the one following the expiry date of the bill. Care must be taken; in some cases, suppliers also include adjustments in subsequent bills that may refer to bills already paid or, in any case, previous ones. In the event that a payment reminder should be received after 2 years from the effective expiry date of the bill, the consumer would have the right not to pay by virtue of the fact that the bill would have already expired.
How to enforce the two-year prescription?
Legal action for a bill is usually unlikely; therefore, it is almost never necessary to have recourse to the judicial authority to ascertain the prescription.
A prescribed bill can therefore be contested by submitting a complaint – preferably by registered letter with return receipt or certified email – to the supplying company. In this case, the communication must indicate:
- the data of the holder and of the user;
- name, surname and POD code (light) or PDR code (gas);
- the reasons for the complaint;
- copy of the identity document;
- the invoice or reminder received after the deadline.
In the event that the supplier company decides to have an injunction being served, however, it is possible to oppose it within 40 days of notification by contesting the prescription of the credit right. The same action must be carried out in the event that the company had decided to sue the consumer.
Before getting to legal action, however, an attempt at mediation is mandatory: for electricity, water and gas bills, the request must be presented to the Arera; for telephone bills, however, the application must be presented to Co.re.Com. (Regional Committee for Communications).
If the conciliation attempt does not have positive results, it will be possible to proceed in court – before the justice of the peace – through one’s own lawyer.
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