Things seemed to be moving in the right direction when heating meters were introduced and Toplofikatsiya would start charging its clients based on actual use of heating. But things are not always what they appear to be.

At first, insulation-of-sorts was introduced. Some more durable and more efficient than others, some better installed than others, but at least an awareness of how much heating one used was introduced, if only out of selfish financial reasons.

Then, things started to come apart.

Toplofikatsiya did not renew part of the licenses it had granted the year before to companies that performed the metering of how much heating had been used by individual clients. For most of those companies this meant they had to simply close shop.

One of those companies was the company that the building entrance our apartment is in had a contract with. Many of our neighbours had repeatedly accused the company of over-writing bills. Mysteriously,even if you had kept heating to an absolute minimum, it was again more than you used last year when all heaters were fully opened.

The search for a new metering company was enlightening; any new company that was approached to take on the metering in our three neighbouring entrances was only interested if they could first sell us a new set of meters. One for every heater in every apartment, regardless of whether the heater was used or not.

Since none of the owners of the apartments could see the point of having to fork out a few hundred leva per apartment for something they already had, the companies shortlisted for metering this year was extremely short: none.

Meanwhile, Toplofikatsiya raised its hands in despair every time the old metering was brought up. True, they had the monopoly to licence companies for metering of heating use, but that did not mean they could be held responsible for anything these companies did or had any control over the metering and accounting performed by the companies they had licensed.

With the new heating season just a few weeks away, the alternatives for this year's metering were few and far between. Switching to alternative heating was not feasible anymore, there was simply not enough time left before the winter.

Last option; accounting Toplofikatsiya style.

So this season, our three entrances will be charged by the cubic meter of the rooms in which the heating system was connected, irrespective of how much one uses.

Facing this, at the last moment, a large part of our neighbours took down all or most of their radiators. Unfortunately, when Toplofikatsiya inspectors came to make an inventory of connected radiators, the total number never dipped below the minimum number required by the company, so this too was no reason for Toplofikatsiya to stop our heating.

And with as much as over 22 per cent of total debt of our entrance to Toplofikatsiya paid, we never made it beyond the list of entrances who received threatening warning letters that our heating would be closed off.

As of the beginng of the heating season it is nice and warm in our entrance. All radiators are switched on permanently and if it ever gets a little too warm, you just open a window. Sort of the way it was before. When the snow fell, it started melting near our entrances before it did anywhere else in the neighbourhood.

If nothing else, maybe the excessive, uncontrolled use of heating that is stimulated by the completely inadequate metering Toplofikatsiya enforces on its clients and the effect that will have on its debt to Bulgargaz will be the final nail in its coffin.