Three categories of citizens settled in the nine-floor building of the medical institution in 2002: victims of earthquake, socially indigent and homeless families. The inhabitants state that Telasi did not annul the bill arrears of the Neurology Institute. “The 70 families, who did not admit the bill arrears, won the trial. We won it but the Telasi refuses to execute the court judgment. The families, who admitted the debt, were deceived by the Telasi: they tried to convince them that if we win the trial, their debts will also be annulled,” said the chairwoman of the building fellowship Ketevan Goliadze.

The electricity supply was suspended for several families living in the building because of the debt. Among them are old people, who cannot move; pregnant women and underage children. The lawyer of the mobile group of monitors from Human Rights House Tbilisi, Eka Kobesashvili, said that the Telasi imposed payment of the bill arrears on the inhabitants of the former building of the Neurology Institute is illegal. “The state assigned the accommodations to these people for a symbolic price – 1 lari. According to the rule, they should have received the property without any legal faults – if there was any debt in the building, it was to be annulled. The state order and assignment protocol also state about that, but Telasi demands the inhabitants to pay 87 lari for 1 square meter. The only solution is to petition to the state to get interested in the problems of these people and execute its obligation to assign the property free from legal faults to the citizens – these people should be freed from illegally imposed bills.”

Chief operator at the Nadzaladevi district branch office of the Telasi, who did not wish to say his name, clarified that the total debt of the Neurology Institute was divided according to the total space of the building and the citizens will have to cover the debts according to the spaces they occupy.
Lali Shengelia’s house burnt down in 2002. Since then she has been living in Gudamakari Street 2a. “We have won the trials in all three instances of the court but nobody executes the court judgments. Telasi did not annul the old debts. Besides that the space was not correctly calculated.”

Nadzaladevi district administration also takes part in the resolution of the problem. District governor Zaza Gabunia said that the district administration plans to organize a four-sided meeting, where inhabitants of the former neurology institute, representatives of the district administration, Telasi and Energy Ombudsman will participate. “Registration of the accommodation is a fundamental issue for one part of these people; second part urges for the annulment of the electricity bill arrears. We found out that the debt belongs to the institution, which located in the building before their settlement: the debt was accumulated before these families settled in the building.”

The inhabitants have registered most of the accommodations in the building. So their main problem is the electricity bill arrears. Zaza Gabunia clarified that it is up to Telasi to resolve this problem.

In order to find out about the situation we contacted the public relation service at the JSC Telasi, who promised to assist us in organizing an interview with the decision-making person in the company, but they did not keep their promise.

Giorgi Janelidze