---
title: "Unlawful use of drinking water and of the sewerage network (Art. 149)"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/administrative-and-public-law-en/unlawful-use-of-drinking-water-and-of-the-sewerage-network-art-149-en"
field: "Administrative & Public Law"
description: "Article 149, Administrative Offences Code of Georgia: unlawful water and sewerage use — a warning, then 100, 1,000 or 15,000 GEL. Legal.ge."
updated: "2026-10-14"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# Unlawful use of drinking water and of the sewerage network (Art. 149)

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/administrative-and-public-law-en/unlawful-use-of-drinking-water-and-of-the-sewerage-network-art-149-en

## What Article 149 covers

Article 149 of the Administrative Offences Code of Georgia brings together two closely related acts: the unlawful consumption of drinking water and the unlawful use of the sewerage network. Both concern the use of shared infrastructure without the legal basis that such use is supposed to rest on. The article itself does not define what makes the consumption or the use unlawful — that assessment is made on the facts of the individual case, which is precisely why most disputes under this article turn on that question rather than on the size of the penalty.

The article does not confine liability to private individuals. Its second paragraph names, separately, a natural person, an individual entrepreneur, a legal person and an institution, and then divides them further according to whether they are registered as VAT payers. The practical consequence is straightforward: the same physical act — one connection, one recorded instance of use — produces very different financial outcomes depending on who the law treats as the responsible person.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/administrative-and-public-law-en/unlawful-use-of-drinking-water-and-of-the-sewerage-network-art-149-en

### Will I be fined the first time this happens?

Paragraph 1 of Article 149 provides for a warning, not a fine. A monetary penalty appears only in paragraph 2, and it attaches to an act committed repeatedly. The first thing to check on the protocol is therefore which paragraph the conduct has been classified under.

### Why does the decision say 15,000 GEL?

That amount applies under paragraph 2 to an individual entrepreneur, a legal person or an institution registered as a VAT payer. Where the addressee is not VAT-registered, the article provides 1,000 GEL for a legal person or an institution and 100 GEL for a natural person. Checking the status recorded against you is the first practical step.

### The premises are let to a tenant. Am I still liable?

The article attaches liability to the person who committed the act, so the decisive question is to whom the unlawful use is actually attributed. A lease, the subscriber record and the billing history are the documents normally used to answer it. Owning the premises does not settle the point on its own.

### I have just bought a property and the connection predates me. Does that matter?

It can, because the article penalises the act rather than the state of the pipework. Documents showing when the property changed hands, along with the contract and the billing history, are what place the use in time and attribute it to a person. That question is established separately and does not follow automatically from current ownership.