Overhaul is underway in new buildings – Newspaper Kommersant No. 38 (7483) dated 03/06/2023

Industry communities are trying to resume the revision of the existing terms for payment for overhaul by owners of apartments in new buildings, initiated almost two years ago. Now each region has its own rules, and in some of them, the owners begin to make payments even before the end of the warranty period, during which the developers must eliminate the shortcomings. Market participants suggest that the government introduce a five-year moratorium on participation in major repairs for all newly built houses. A number of developers, as expected, perceive the idea with caution and advise, on the contrary, to start collecting contributions from residents of new buildings as soon as possible.

At the disposal of Kommersant was a letter from the head of the movement “People’s Housing Inspector” (NZhI) Sergei Krekov to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin dated February 28 with a proposal to review the existing procedure for including new buildings in the program for the overhaul of houses. This organization, created by the Association of Real Estate Service Market Participants (AKON), calls itself a structure that “assists in ensuring the legitimate interests of citizens in the housing and communal services sector.” The prime minister’s office confirmed to Kommersant that they had received the appeal.

The letter proposes to unify the rules in all regions and include new houses in the overhaul program five years after they are put into operation. Five years is a guarantee period during which the developer is obliged to eliminate defects that have arisen during construction. “Premature inclusion of a house in the overhaul program may become a reason for the developer to avoid fulfilling its warranty obligations,” Mr. Krekov believes.

An attempt to resolve the issue with the timing of the inclusion of new buildings in the overhaul program was made back in 2020. Then, according to Izvestia, deputies from the LDPR came up with a similar initiative. In the State Duma Committee on Transport and Construction and the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, Kommersant did not answer the question of why the bill remained without movement.

Now the authorities of each region themselves set the deadlines for including new buildings in the program. In more than half of the regions, residents of houses for which the guarantee period from the developer is still valid begin to pay contributions for major repairs, Mr. Krekov explains. For example, in early 2023, Sverdlovsk deputies adopted an amendment by Governor Yevgeny Kuyvashev, obliging them to collect funds for overhaul from owners six months after the house was put into operation. But after criticism of such a decision by residents of the region, the governor introduced a three-year moratorium.

It is beneficial for regional funds trying to improve their financial situation that new buildings are included in the program as early as possible, Sergey Krekov explains. However, according to the Federal Fund for the Development of the Territory (which included the Housing and Utilities Fund), the collection rate of this contribution in the whole country in 2022 was quite high – 97.2%, or 273.3 billion rubles.

There really is a request from the owners of new housing to review the timing of their inclusion in the program, they often do not understand why they have to pay for major repairs in new buildings, confirms Andrei Akhinko, general director of the Samolet Management Company. In Moscow, for example, the minimum contribution is 24 rubles. for 1 sq. m per month. Owner of a 40 sq. m annually pays about 11.5 thousand rubles, in five years he could save more than 57 thousand rubles. At the same time, according to the managing partner of Prime Life Development Denis Konovalenko, there are no real costs for overhaul in the next five years after the house is commissioned.

However, Ingrad Group of Companies believes that overhaul fees are in no way connected with the developer’s warranty obligations: the duty of developers is to correct hidden construction flaws, and regional operators are responsible for the physical deterioration of structural elements of buildings. Developers bear most of the costs for restoring not the common property of the house, but privately owned premises, Andrei Akhinko clarifies. At the same time, he suggests that when considering the initiative of the NZHI, take into account the possible risks of bankruptcy of small developers after the delivery of houses. “In such a situation, apartment owners will not be able to get the defects removed either from the developer under warranty or from the regional overhaul fund,” explains Mr. Akhinko. Therefore, in his opinion, it is better for buyers of apartments to pay for major repairs as soon as possible.

Daria Andrianova