Termination of the association’s 3% fee for collecting heating payments

KÜ Valge Sein sought 8599.88 kroons, or 549.63 euros, from AS Narva Soojusvõrk for October 2008–February 2009. An appendix to the heat-supply agreement provided a fee of 3% of payments received by the supplier for the association’s collection service. The supplier stopped paying the fee from 1 October 2008 after advance notice. The association argued that a term of the unified agreement could not be changed without its consent. The county court dismissed the claim, and the association appealed. The circuit court found that this part of the relationship had the features of an indefinite mandate agreement: the association collected payments and the supplier remunerated it. Including the term in the heat-sale agreement’s appendix did not exclude the rules governing that service arrangement. Under the provision applied, it could be terminated by unilateral notice without proving a special reason. The letter of 19 June 2008, received by the association, clearly communicated cessation of the 3% fee from 1 October and constituted sufficient notice. Its connection to a new regulated maximum heat price did not alter that conclusion. The appeal was dismissed and refusal of the fee claim upheld. Termination of the collection-service arrangement did not end the parties’ obligations to supply and pay for heat. Costs in both instances were allocated to the association. Subsequent appeals, entry into force and actual enforcement have not been separately verified.