April payments for housing and communal services promise the Russians unpleasant surprises

The next increase in the payment for the “communal” is associated with the recalculation of expenses for general house needs (ODN). How exactly this recalculation will take place is probably clear to officials and some specialists, but it is absolutely not clear to the residents. The Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation tried to bring some clarity to this issue. At the very least, it was promised that the accruals would not be made all at once for the entire year, but would be divided evenly over the months.

Constantly growing in recent months, utility bills in cities and villages today is topic No. 1, even the seasonal rise in the price of vegetables has receded into the background. Literally from day to day, homeowners in apartment buildings will receive April payments, in which, in theory, the numbers should change again. The apartment owners will pay for the maintenance of the common house space: water, light and heat. Previously, this mission was “kindly” carried out for us by management companies, many of which, as a result, were mired in debt and, according to the authorities, are no longer able to pull this strap.

The Ministry of Construction indicates that if there are common house metering devices in the house, residents can choose for themselves whether to pay for ODN according to meter readings (that is, according to the actual consumption of resources) or based on their average monthly consumption.

Here the question arises: why the second option, if the apartment building is equipped with all the necessary metering devices? After all, this equipment was specially installed in order to determine the actual costs? Meanwhile, it is this second option that automatically begins to operate if the owners themselves did not decide at the general meeting how to pay for the one-time tax.

For clarification on exactly how the methodology for calculating ODN will change and what changes in the amounts in payments it threatens residents, MK turned to Konstantin Krokhin, chairman of the Housing Union, a member of the housing and communal services committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

– There is a lot of conflicting information around ODN. Some management companies report that recalculations will begin in June. Is there any clarity?

– Let the management companies do not drive gag. According to the decree of the federal government No. 354, recalculations for ODN must be made before March 31 of this year. This applies to heating and water. Meanwhile, in many Russian regions for heating, such recalculations have not yet been carried out. Although in the central regions of Russia there was a rather warm winter and, according to our information, they took too much from the residents.

– How exactly are the rules for calculating common house needs changing?

– In September last year, the maximum limit on the allocation of water expenses for general house needs was canceled. It was set at 5% and meant that tenants could not be charged more than this indicator. Realizing that management companies will now begin to blame all their losses on the owners, the government just the day before approved changes to the procedure for charging additional payments to citizens, breaking them down into 12 months.

If the accruals are not in favor of citizens, that is, they remain debtors to monopolists and management companies, the owners repay this debt evenly during the calendar year. Which, of course, softens the financial burden: the costs will not have a very strong impact on the family budget of citizens. And if the owners paid for resources that they did not actually receive, then the procedure remains the same: they need to recalculate during the first quarter of the year.

– Will the recalculation be done retroactively for the whole of 2022?

– Yes. The recalculation in favor of service providers and public utilities will be carried out for the past 2022, but will be paid monthly in 2023. And if people have to return the overpayment, this must be done within the first quarter.

– In the receipts that we will receive in April, will we see the difference between “before” and “after”?

– According to our calculations, due to the warm winter, residents of the central regions of Russia overpaid about 10% for heat supply. Only in some areas, public utilities have recorded this excess – but only within 0.5-2%. That is, 8-10% of many apartment owners were “thrown”.

– And what is the situation with regard to water supply in general?

– There are cases where water consumption for general house needs has increased by … 4000%! If earlier a large house with 600-700 apartments paid a total of 10 thousand rubles for washing entrances, elevators and other public spaces, now residents have to pay 450 thousand a month, 5 million rubles a year – only for water. For electricity, 3 million rubles extra and for garbage disposal 2.5 times more ….

– That is, another increase in utility bills in Russia is inevitable and it is unlikely to please our fellow citizens?

– in any case, you need to be 100% ready for this. I am sure that the current and future 2024 will be rife with utility scandals. All leaky pipes, losses and theft of public utilities will try to throw it on the citizens.

– And what should citizens who do not agree with the new utility price tags do – go to court?

– What kind of courts? All according to the law. Now it is officially allowed to shift the costs to homeowners. Meanwhile, there is a federal law on energy conservation. According to it, since 2012, the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation was obliged to equip all houses, except for dilapidated and emergency ones, with general house devices for metering heat and water. Such meters should now be in all homes. As you know, the Ministry of Construction did not comply with this law. The second point: the resource consumption of houses with meters is calculated according to their testimony. And where there are no such devices – according to the standards.

How are standards calculated?

– According to the project documentation of the house. There is a ratio of the area (volume) of apartments and common space, the presence or absence of elevators, and other nuances. The previously existing average standard, more precisely the limit of 5% for water, was canceled last autumn. From this year, everything that flows through the pipe can be “hung” on homeowners. There are cases when water is bottled and sold to non-residential premises, hairdressers and various eateries. And the costs are “smeared” by tenants. It used to be considered theft. Now it’s legal. For example, the April payment under this standard may exceed the March figure by 100, 200 or more percent.

– Why do departments make such decisions, clearly not directed in favor of citizens?

– But it is for the benefit of lobbyists: resource monopolists and management companies. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that in the light of the new opportunities that are opening up for the actual payment of common house needs, they will not miss the chance to “pinch” homeowners.