Ningxia: Heating Regulations Promulgated

A few days ago, the twenty-seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth People's Congress of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region reviewed and approved the first district-wide heating regulation, the “Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Heating Regulations” (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulations”). The "Regulations" will be implemented starting on April 1, 2012, which indicates that there will be laws and regulations for heat supply in Ningxia.

The "Regulations" consists of 8 chapters and 59 articles. In light of the current problems in the development of heating business and the outstanding problems and contradictions in the management of heating planning and construction, the basic guidelines for the development of heating and the concrete methods for solving problems are proposed from the macro and micro perspectives.

The "Regulations" make it clear that in the future, for newly-built buildings and existing buildings where heat metering devices have been installed, the heating units must collect heating costs according to the basic heating price and the measured heating price. For a heat-supplying enterprise that does not have a heat-supplying business permit to engage in heat-supplying business operations but has a heat-dispensing metering charge but has not yet implemented a measure- ment charge, the heating authority has ordered it to correct or stop the illegal act, and imposed an amount of more than 50,000 yuan. Ten thousand dollars shall be fined. The shared heating facilities shall be maintained and managed by the development and construction unit within the warranty period. After the warranty period expires, the heating unit shall be responsible for maintenance and management. After the warranty period of the heating facility for self-use is expired, the hot user can entrust the heating unit to perform the maintenance at the expense of the hot user. The heating administration department shall establish a comprehensive evaluation system for heating quality, evaluate unqualified heating units, and the heating administration department shall order them to rectify within a time limit. If the rectification still fails, the heating business license shall be revoked according to law.

In addition, the “Regulations” stipulates that during the heating period, the temperature of the resident's bedroom and living room shall not be less than 18 degrees Celsius. If the room temperature does not meet the standards due to the heating unit, the heating unit shall refund the heating fee in accordance with relevant regulations. The heat supply unit shall not be liable for any change in the structure of the house due to the heating of the user, the effect of heat insulation by the interior decoration blocking the radiator, or failure to adopt normal insulation measures to cause the room temperature to fail.