Residents of multi-apartment residential buildings connected to the central heating grid are reportedly barred from independently disconnecting their homes from the shared system to install individual boilers. Ozoda Juraeva, the deputy minister of construction and housing-communal services of Uzbekistan, allegedly justified this prohibition by citing the vital necessity to preserve the operational reliability of the building's overall heating infrastructure.

The official supposedly based her stance on Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 194, adopted on July 5, 2014, which regulates municipal services. According to this framework, consumers are strictly prohibited from dismantling heating devices, detaching individual indoor heating layouts from the communal network, or arbitrarily modifying internal utility lines without official authorization.

The deputy minister further claimed that unauthorized interventions—such as converting heating pipes for underfloor heating systems or extending them onto balconies—severely degrade the quality of heat supply for neighboring apartments. These alterations allegedly disrupt the hydraulic balance of the entire residential block, triggering numerous complaints from affected residents.

Additionally, authorities noted that restrictions remain in place regarding the connection of newly constructed multi-apartment buildings to natural gas networks. The government is purportedly shifting towards electricity and centralized or local heating alternatives instead of individual boilers, a policy that unfolds amid controversial plans to raise heating tariffs across the country.

Source: www.gazeta.uz