Water Meter Installation in Riga and Across Latvia

At the apartment owners' collective's general meeting, you have the right to choose and authorize a legal entity that, in your view, will best handle these tasks.

On 9 June 2026, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia (Satversmes tiesa) issued a ruling in case No. 2025-35-03 — about how a discrepancy between a building's shared water meter and the sum of individual apartment meters should be allocated when one apartment's meter wasn't verified on time. It's one of the rare cases where the country's highest court has officially and publicly defined what a "unified metering system" actually is and why it matters.

Download the full ruling (PDF) — anyone can verify the source themselves.

What a "unified metering system" is

The ruling records the Cabinet of Ministers' position, which the Court did not dispute on this point:

In plain terms: the building's shared meter and each apartment's individual meter work as one system. If even one element in that system fails to meet requirements, it throws off accurate metering for the entire building — not just for one apartment.

What industry participants add

Industry professionals also took part in the case — the Court heard from both property-management representatives and an industry association. Their explanations are part of the same official ruling text.

To be fair, here's what the Court actually decided

For this article to be honest and complete, it's worth mentioning what the dispute was actually about: the Court declared invalid one specific, already-superseded regulation (paragraph 19.¹⁴ of MK Regulation No. 1013, in force 2013–2019) — a rule that made a single apartment owner liable for the entire water-consumption discrepancy regardless of its cause. The Court found this specific allocation rule disproportionate.

The Court also notes that, since 3 June 2025 (MK Regulation No. 329), apartment owners are no longer legally required to have their water meters periodically re-verified. This doesn't change the underlying principle — that accurate, mutually consistent metering across the whole building is important and legally recognized — but it's only fair to say that verification deadlines are no longer mandatory.

Accurate, modern, mutually compatible metering is still what makes fair, verifiable billing possible — as confirmed by the Cabinet of Ministers, an industry association, and property managers, all in this same ruling.