60% of utility debts were closed without repayment

There are 794,604 active utility debts in Ukraine as of early November 2025. Despite being marked as active, most of these cases have actually reached a dead end: 60% of them — more than 476,000 — were formally closed without any real repayment. The debts remain in the Register, but enforcement officers simply were not able to collect the money.

This year, 194,000 new enforcement cases for unpaid utility bills were opened. Two-thirds of them — 132,578 cases — are still active.

The largest number of utility debts was recorded in Kharkiv region: 47.9 thousand cases. Almost the same amount is in Dnipropetrovsk region with 45.4 thousand cases. All other regions show much lower numbers — at least three times less. The next ones are: Mykolaiv region — 11.9 thousand, Poltava region — 11.3 thousand, Sumy region — 8.5 thousand.

In 40% of cases, Ukrainians in 2025 owe money for heating services. Water supply is in second place (18%), followed by gas supply (15%) and housing maintenance (10%). Waste removal and electricity account for 8% and 6%, respectively.

The largest number of enforcement proceedings has been opened against people aged almost 36% of all cases. Meanwhile, one in four debts belongs to pensioners.

More than half of all proceedings (55%) this year were opened against women. A striking case involves a 71-year-old pensioner from the Mykolaiv region, against whom 28 proceedings for electricity debts were opened just this year. All of them were closed due to the impossibility of collection. In practice, the debts remained, and the system simply accumulated new “dead” cases.

Context ​

As a reminder, the Verkhovna Rada has supported in the first reading draft law No. 14005, which is expected to significantly change the rules for working with debtors. The document proposes automatic inclusion of debtors in the register and a ban on selling or gifting property until the debt is fully repaid. The new rules will allow for faster asset seizures and help prevent attempts to re-register property.

Private enforcement officer and PhD in Law Andrii Avtorhov comments on the hype surrounding the yet-to-be-adopted law:

«Some of the loud statements around the draft are based on a misunderstanding of the current legislation: the Unified Debtor Register has existed since 2017, and the seizure of a debtor’s only home, under certain conditions, was already possible before. The new draft law essentially brings back norms that existed earlier and actually makes things easier for debtors — immediately after the debt is paid, the enforcement proceeding will be closed automatically, and the debtor will be removed from the register».

He notes that such changes must be implemented carefully so as not to undermine the already fragile system of enforcement proceedings, since the enforcement rate today is extremely low.

Despite the panic on social media, even if the law is adopted, the mechanism for seizing a debtor’s only home will not change significantly. It will remain possible, as it is now, only if the debt exceeds 20 minimum wages (160,000 UAH) and only with the mandatory involvement of child protection authorities if children are registered at the property. The law will still be revised before the second reading, so the final provisions may change.