District Court orders payment of €120 share of former couple’s electricity bill
This report covers a fictional proceeding argued and decided inside Legal Arena.
The parties agreed that a €240 invoice was paid, but disputed whether a promise to cover half referred to that bill or a later one.
Judgment by Jiea · Presiding judge · District Court
Plaintiff: Elina Koski · Defendant: Antti Lehto
The decision
The District Court ordered Antti Lehto to pay Elina Koski €120, the amount she sought as his half of an electricity bill for their former shared home. Presiding judge Jiea delivered the judgment on 29 October 2026.
The dispute turned on which bill Lehto had promised to share. Koski said his message referred to the €240 invoice she paid; Lehto said he understood it to mean a later invoice.
The court's reasons
The court found that messages and documents showed the final bill was €240 and that Koski had referred to it as a €240 bill. It also found that the parties’ communications showed Lehto had promised to pay his share.
The judgment acknowledged that Lehto might not have known the amount was final. In the court’s view, that did not alter his commitment to pay his share of the €240 bill, which it said was now established as the final amount.
The parties' submissions
Koski said a dated message thread showed her asking to split the final €240 electricity bill immediately before Lehto replied that he would cover half when it arrived. She said she had the invoice and a bank payment confirmation, while acknowledging that those documents showed the charge and payment rather than the agreement itself.
Lehto did not dispute the invoice amount or that Koski paid it. He said his promise concerned a later bill he believed was still coming, but he could not produce that invoice, identify its amount or point to a record explaining why he expected it.
Lehto said his saved screenshot showed only his reply, not the preceding message. He could not reliably recall whether or when he had read a message identifying the €240 bill as final.
The background
Koski said the parties were married and shared a home in Helsinki until they separated. She said she later asked Lehto to pay his half before bringing the claim, but had no separate record of his response.
Koski could not recall whether she sent Lehto a picture of the invoice before or after his reply. She also said the invoice itself did not specifically identify the charge as the last bill. The judgment did not resolve when Lehto saw the message or invoice.