Property management company illegally increased electricity charges; two levels of courts legally uphold the market supervision department's penalty decision.

Recently, the Intermediate People’s Court of Haikou City, Hainan Province, concluded an administrative dispute case involving a penalty for charging electricity fees at a markup.

A certain property management company is a property services company for a certain residential community in Haikou City. The electricity bills for the homeowners of that community are not collected directly by the power grid enterprise. Instead, they are collected by a certain property company on behalf of the homeowners—i.e., “resale of electricity” (referring to a situation where the power grid enterprise cannot directly supply electricity to end users, and other entities, including but not limited to operators such as industrial parks and property management providers, must resell/supply electricity).

On January 20, 2022, the Xiuying Branch of the Haikou Municipal Market Supervision Administration conducted an inspection of a certain property company regarding its charges for “resale of electricity.” It found that the property company was charging electricity fees without following the required standards. On April 20, 2022, the Xiuying Branch of the Haikou Municipal Market Supervision Administration decided to file a case for investigation against the property company.

After verification by the Xiuying Branch of the Haikou Municipal Market Supervision Administration, the property company collected excess electricity fees totaling 2.6377 million yuan for commercial use during the period from January 2020 to November 2021.

On May 14, 2024, the Xiuying Branch of the Haikou Municipal Market Supervision Administration, in accordance with law, issued a penalty decision against the property company. It confiscated illegal gains of 1.9629 million yuan that had not been returned upon the expiration of the time limit, and imposed a fine of 395,000 yuan.

The property company was dissatisfied and applied for administrative reconsideration to the People’s Government of the Xiuying District of Haikou City. On July 18, 2024, after review, the Xiuying District government made a reconsideration decision to uphold the penalty decision. The property company then filed an administrative lawsuit, requesting that the penalty decision and the reconsideration decision be revoked.

After trial, the Xiuying District People’s Court of Haikou City issued a first-instance administrative judgment, dismissing the property company’s claims. The property company, dissatisfied, appealed to the Haikou Intermediate People’s Court. After trial, the Haikou Intermediate People’s Court issued a second-instance judgment, dismissing the appeal and upholding the original judgment.

A judge said that electricity is a special commodity that is produced, transmitted, supplied, and consumed at the same moment. According to relevant provisions of the Price Law and the Electric Power Law, the electricity fees collected by the “resale of electricity” entity from end users must not include any other additional charges. But in real life, some property companies charge electricity fees at a markup to homeowners through various means, infringing on the lawful interests of the vast number of homeowners. This serves as a reminder to property companies: take warning, never charge electricity fees at a markup in violation of regulations; otherwise, you will inevitably bear legal responsibility. (Reporter Xing Dongwei and Zhai Xiaogong)

Source: The Legal System Daily