In Pervomaisk, a sole proprietor bought up the water utility’s old debts and is suing residents to collect them

In Pervomaisk, residents found themselves in court over old water bills. A private entrepreneur purchased the right to collect these debts at auction for 134,000 hryvnias—even though the nominal amount of the debt exceeded 11.2 million hryvnias.

This is evidenced by auction data on “Prozorro.Sales” and a ruling by the Pervomaisk City and District Court of Mykolaiv Oblast.

How the bankrupt company’s debts were sold

On March 31, 2025, the municipal enterprise“Pervomaiskvodokanal” was declared bankrupt. To recover some of the funds, the liquidator put up for sale the right to collect residents’ utility service debts.

On February 2, 2026, an auction was held on “Prozorro.Sales” to sell this debt portfolio. The nominal amount of the debt was over 11.2 million hryvnias, of which 8.3 million were debts owed by ordinary residents.

The starting price for the lot was 6.7 million hryvnias. However, the final sale price turned out to be dozens of times lower—about 134,500 hryvnias. Only one bidder participated in the auction—sole proprietor Gennady Galkin, who emerged as the winning bidder.

As noted in the auction minutes, the debt was confirmed only by a certificate and a register of debtors—the liquidator had no other documents.

The court case won by the sole proprietor

After the debt portfolio was acquired, the courts in Pervomaisk recorded a significant number of lawsuits against residents. In one of them, the court ruled in favor of the new creditor.

The case involved a woman who inherited an apartment after the death of a relative. Along with the property, she also inherited a utility debt of 1,382.14 hryvnias, accumulated from September 2021 to March 2023.

The court emphasized that ownership entails responsibilities, and therefore the heir must pay for utilities for the inherited residence. The defendant did not appear at the hearing and did not file any objections.

As a result, the woman was ordered to pay 1,382.14 hryvnias in principal debt, 370.38 hryvnias in inflation-related losses, 100.99 hryvnias in 3 percent annual interest, and 1,331.20 hryvnias in court fees — for a total of 3,184.71 hryvnias.

The case the sole proprietor lost

In another case, the court denied the entrepreneur’s claim. He sought 1,712.49 hryvnias from another resident of Pervomaisk, of which 1,296.93 hryvnias were allegedly a water bill.

Initially, the plaintiff claimed that the debt accrued from September 2021 to February 2022, but during the proceedings, he changed the period to March 2022–February 2023.

The woman denied the debt and stated that she had paid for the services on time. The meter readings became the key issue.

According to the records, the woman had paid her water bills through March 2022, and as of April 2022, she had even overpaid by 108 hryvnias. On March 14, 2022, the meter read 173 cubic meters. After that, the meter readings were not submitted, so “Pervomaiskvodokanal” independently calculated that the woman had allegedly used an additional 29.61 cubic meters—hence the debt.

However, on January 25, 2025, a Pervomaiskvodokanal employee recorded a different reading—168 cubic meters—during a meter check. And in May 2026, the new utility company informed the court that there was no debt at all for this address, and that the meter reading was 174 cubic meters.

The court concluded that the plaintiff had failed to prove the actual volume of water consumed and, on July 3, 2026, fully denied the sole proprietor’s claim to collect 1,712.49 hryvnias.

Ірина Глухова