Do you reconstruct the house?You will no longer pay for the stream relocation

People who have a mast or a power line console on their house and need to reconstruct or demolish their home can expect unexpected financial expenses. They have to ask the energy companies to relocate the equipment and pay them for it. The costs often rise to tens of thousands of crowns. The Senate's draft amendment to the Energy Act is supposed to change that.

She reckons that the costs of setting up the relay would be passed on to the energy suppliers and producers who operate the electrical network. And that is when the equipment damages the property or when it needs to be relocated due to the obligations imposed on the owner by the Building Act. That is, for example, in a situation where the house is in such a state that it threatens passers-by, and its reconstruction or demolition is necessary.

Unhappy spouses

"Some time ago, I was approached by the mayor of a small village where, more than thirty years ago, the distribution network of electric lines was placed on consoles on family houses," describes the proposer of the proposal, senator Jitka Seitlová ( for KDU-ČSL), why she submitted the amendment. The houses in the village are said to have required demolition in several cases.

One of them belonged to a young couple who inherited it. "They had a demolition order and at the same time they had to pay one hundred and fifty thousand crowns to the operator for repositioning the console on the house," adds Seitlová, adding that she gradually learned about a number of other cases.

In the current situation, according to the senate proposal, there is disproportionate interference with property rights, when the entire company benefits from the distribution network, but unfairly transfers the costs to a small group of people who own the real estate.

Insufficient processing

According to energy companies, the amendment is not finished. It is said that it is not clear enough when they would cover the costs, and when the property owner would.

It is said that the owners could request reimbursement of expenses even when only they are using the device. "The costs of one entity's transshipment would thus have to be borne by other customers in the prices of the services provided," says Hana Klímová from the ČEPS company.

Furthermore, in other cases, the additional costs of transferring equipment would be transferred to prices for customers. It could be tens of millions a year.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is preparing its own version of the law, which is governed by similar principles as the senate proposal. "We propose that in the built-up area of ​​the municipality, the costs for the implementation of the transfer should be borne by the operator of the distribution system," says office spokesperson Štěpánka Filipová. This should apply to both electricity and gas.

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