Do not pay for destroyed housing: the Rada has adopted Law No. 13155

In March 2026, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Law No. 13155, which exempts owners of damaged or destroyed housing from paying utility bills for dwellings unfit for living and changes the approach to relations between consumers, providers and local authorities.

Essence of the adopted law
The document exempts owners and users of housing from paying utilities for properties destroyed or significantly damaged as a result of russian aggression, provided that such housing is entered in the state Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property. The law prevents the accrual of “debts” for resources that are not actually consumed and establishes for utility companies a mechanism to exclude such volumes from total consumption, helping to balance local finances.

Who does not have to pay
The law covers several categories of residential properties:
private houses, apartments and other residential premises destroyed or damaged as a result of hostilities, terrorist attacks or shelling;
properties declared unfit for habitation based on a technical assessment or a decision of local authorities;
assets recorded in the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property, regardless of whether reconstruction has begun.

Both owners and tenants are entitled to this exemption if they were officially registered utility consumers. To exercise this right, it is sufficient to provide utility providers with data from the Register or a commission’s act, so the system works on the basis of official information from a single state resource rather than manual applications.

Problem the law solves
Since the start of the full‑scale invasion, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have lost their homes, yet utility billing systems continued to automatically accrue charges, creating debts for non‑existent consumption and legal and financial traps. Law No. 13155 addresses this problem systemically: it prohibits charging for utilities in destroyed or uninhabitable housing, cancels already accrued amounts from the moment the dwelling became unfit for living, and obliges service providers to write off such charges within a defined period without applications or additional costs for consumers.

How it will work in practice
The law’s mechanism relies on data from the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property: everyone who reports damage via Diia or a CSC receives a unique record that becomes the legal basis for stopping accruals. Local authorities pass this information to utility providers, after which the consumer is automatically removed from the list of payers, while for temporarily occupied territories a simplified data‑entry procedure is envisaged after de‑occupation. To ensure transparency, the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development must establish electronic interaction between utilities and state registers to promptly record changes in a property’s status, including after reconstruction.

Who compensates utilities’ losses
The law also answers a key question: how to keep local utility providers financially stable. Compensation will come from earmarked state‑budget funds and international assistance, including the Ukraine Recovery Fund. The Ministry of Finance must create a dedicated program to reimburse companies for services that were planned but not actually provided. This is crucial, as without compensation many utilities would face insolvency.

Social and political dimension
The law’s adoption shows that the state takes responsibility for a fair balance between the interests of citizens and businesses even during war, without shifting losses onto people who have already suffered. It is also a political signal: every family and every destroyed home is not left “for later”, and the law’s provisions become part of the post‑war recovery strategy, where protection of property rights and digital transparency of procedures are priorities.

Implementation challenges
In practice, technical difficulties are likely: not all communities have up‑to‑date databases, some utilities use outdated systems, and data exchange between registers is not yet fully automated, so full relief from charges may take several months. Another challenge is documenting damage where housing lacks a cadastral number or where papers were lost; although the law provides simplified procedures, they still need to be detailed in secondary legislation.

Why this law is a step toward a new state policy
Exempting affected people from utility payments is not only a humanitarian move but also a shift to a model in which the main value is the person, not an “account number”, and which may extend to other areas, such as automatic termination of tax or lease obligations when property is destroyed. Adoption of Law No. 13155 is in line with international humanitarian practice, as in many war‑affected countries the state assumed responsibility for compensating utilities for people who lost their homes.

Future outlook
After the war, this law will become part of a digital housing registry system that automatically determines each property’s status, simplifying reconstruction and ensuring fair billing in peacetime. For people who lost their homes, it is a signal of trust and genuine social responsibility from the state, while further success will depend on sound secondary legislation, effective digital integration and honest local administration.

If you have any questions or issues related to the application of Law No. 13155, registering housing in the Damaged Property Register or interacting with utility companies, you should consult a legal expert specializing in compensation for war‑related damage.

Author: Ihor Yasko, Managing Partner of the law firm “WINNER”, PhD in Law.