Fellow tenants signed up for acceptance – Newspaper Kommersant No. 165 (7366) dated 09/08/2022

Homeowners’ associations (HOA), being dissatisfied with the quality of new buildings, want to independently engage in the commissioning of houses. They believe that in this way management companies affiliated with developers will not be able to accept an object with significant defects. Developers, in turn, are against such an initiative and believe that the level of consumer terrorism may increase, and the terms for the transfer of apartments may be delayed for several months.

At the disposal of Kommersant was a letter from the President of the Association of Real Estate Service Companies (AKON), Nikita Chulochnikov, dated September 5 to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin with a request to amend the Town Planning and Housing Codes, as well as to adopt a law on homeowners associations, which will regulate the procedure for creating such associations from among the participants in shared construction. This is necessary to give them the right to accept the entire facility from the developer at the commissioning stage. The government confirmed the receipt of the letter to Kommersant.

Now, according to the current legislation, within five days from the date of obtaining permission to commission an apartment building, the developer must conclude a facility management agreement with the managing organization (MA), and then the local government must hold a competition to select a permanent MA. But while equity holders do not have certificates of ownership of property, it is impossible to organize an HOA, explains Nikita Chulochnikov. Thus, the temporary UO chosen by the developer accepts the built house with all engineering systems.

The ACON indicates that none of these organizations is chosen by the owners and does not represent their interests, but signs the act of acceptance and transfer of the house from the developer to the MA.

This leads to the fact that an MA that does not have the proper motivation or is simply affiliated with the developer accepts and puts into operation an object with a huge number of construction defects and shortcomings: for example, elevators do not work, the object is powered by a temporary power supply scheme, construction work in public places has not been completed. use, etc.

Developers are expectedly against this idea. Valentina Tugusheva, Deputy General Director for Legal Affairs of Astrum-Moscow Management Company (Granel Group), believes that the ACON proposal is difficult to implement not only in terms of legislation, but also the maturity of owners to independently manage their property. This can create many risks for both the developer and homeowners, adds Alexander Begunov, Director of the Department for Work with Management Companies of FGC Group of Companies. In his opinion, the level of “consumer terrorism” will increase many times, and the terms of acceptance of the house will increase by at least a few months. The goal of such organizations is to find the maximum number of shortcomings even in the absence of comments, and not to carry out a high-quality acceptance of the house, Vladislav Lukyanov, Deputy General Director for Operation and Construction of PIK-Comfort, is convinced.

Due to the lack of funding for the HOA, which is formed from the rent after the date of acceptance and transfer of the apartment, the owners do not have the opportunity to hire a specialized company to receive the entire house, Ms. Tugusheva notes.

And non-professional inspectors, in particular apartment owners, may not notice defects that are really important for the operation of the house, says Pavel Antonov, Director of Legal Affairs at A101 Group of Companies. This can lead to utility accidents, and in the worst case, to injuries and deaths, insists Mikhail Buzulutsky, Vice President of the Ingrad Group of Companies.

At the same time, the developer cannot transfer the object into operation with significant defects, otherwise the commissioning permit will not be obtained, Ms. Tugusheva assures. The management company that takes the house into operation bears criminal liability, and the developer risks his image, which may directly affect future sales, Alexander Begunov adds.

Now the most popular form of home management in the Russian Federation is the transfer of authority to management companies. According to the GIS housing and communal services, there are more than 948 thousand apartment buildings in the Russian Federation, of which 627 thousand are managed by professional management companies, 234 thousand are directly by homeowners and 53 thousand are homeowners associations.

Daria Andrianova