Possibility of write-off of debts of housing and communal services to all Russians is estimated

It is no longer possible to return all the debts accumulated in the sphere of housing and communal services. This recognition was made by the Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing Alexei Yeresko. He estimated the debt at 1.4 trillion rubles. What exactly the authorities will do with the resulting debt, the official did not specify. This gave independent experts a reason to express their scenarios for the development of events: from a complete amnesty for housing and communal services debts to tougher fines and sanctions for non-payers.

According to Aleksey Yeresko, most of the debts have accumulated “for enterprises, many of which no longer exist, for real estate objects that no longer exist.” Therefore, relying on the amount of 1.4 trillion rubles is not worth it, since “it does not reflect the real picture.” All the same, they say, it is no longer possible to collect these debts in full. At the same time, the deputy minister did not specify what part of the debt falls on the population, and what part – on enterprises, as well as what part of the debt is non-recoverable. He also did not say what the department intends to do in this regard.

In the absence of official information, MK decided to address relevant questions to experts.

Ivan Samoylenko, Managing Partner at B&C Agency: “Of the total amount of 1.4 trillion rubles, more than 800 billion rubles are the debts of the population for housing and communal services. There is no need to talk about simply taking and writing off these debts. After all, such figures are the result, on the one hand, of the moratorium on penalties and fines (which was applied last year during the pandemic), on the other hand, the result of a fall in citizens’ incomes (according to Rosstat, in the first half of this year, real disposable incomes of the population decreased by 1.9%). That is, it has become more difficult for citizens to pay bills for the supplied resources for objective reasons.

But it is unlikely that the population will be able to write off such debts, because these funds in the housing and communal services sector are used to repair networks, upgrade equipment and infrastructure. And the total turnover of the housing and communal services system in money is more than 5 trillion rubles. It is easy to calculate that 1.4 trillion rubles is a third of the total amount of payments, and 800 billion rubles is 16%, which is a lot.

As for the prospects, the government will certainly consider the possibility of any subsidies to pay for housing and communal services for the most vulnerable segments of the population. Although various benefits are still being applied now – for families with many children, pensioners, the disabled … So the state will certainly provide assistance to those categories of Russians for whom payments have become a serious burden. But no one removed the responsibility for non-payment from other categories of citizens. The moratorium on penalties and fines has been completed, many residents have taken this practice as an opportunity not to pay for resources at all, and this is fundamentally wrong.

The housing and communal services system cannot exist in a situation of massive non-payments for the supplied resources, therefore, measures are needed to increase the discipline in payment, and at the same time help for those who have become really and objectively more difficult to pay for utilities.”

Polina Gusyatnikova, Senior Managing Partner at PG Partners: “In relation to debts for housing and communal services, there are 3 categories of debtors: individuals, legal entities and management companies.

In terms of legal entities that have already been liquidated, nothing can really be done. It remains only to write off these debts and forget about them. This practice cannot be extended to individuals and existing management companies, as well as to existing legal entities. As long as the debtor legally exists, he is obliged to pay his debts. Only citizens who have been declared bankrupt will be able to write them off. Also, in accordance with the law, there is such a thing as a limitation period. That is, citizens, as well as legal entities, have the opportunity to apply the limitation period, which is 3 years, and write off debts that are older than a three-year period. Everything that has accumulated within the last three years will have to be paid.

From the point of view of possible actions of the authorities, I think that it would be quite rational to try to prevent the accumulation of debts on the part of management companies, which also quite often delay or do not transfer payments to resource supply organizations at all. To do this, it would be logical to massively transfer citizens to direct contracts with resource-supplying organizations. This will help to avoid at least those losses that will be formed in the chain of a citizen-management company – a resource-supplying organization.”

Natalya Chernysheva, specialist in the field of housing and communal services, director of the People’s Control Organization: “There is still no single methodology for determining the total amount of debt of citizens for housing and communal services, but most often they call a figure of about 800 billion rubles. In a good way, each specific case of debt on housing and communal services should be dealt with separately, in court, and find out the reasons why the debt was formed.

If there are some debtors whose income has not decreased and they simply did not pay when they had sufficient funds, then it would be unfair to write off such debts. But if people objectively have a difficult situation, their incomes have significantly decreased, then such debtors should be helped and their debts fully or partially written off. Of course, this is a long and painstaking work, but this is the only way to do it fairly. The tax service has all the information for such proceedings.

Individuals who have accumulated debts, now in the general mass will not be able to pay them off, especially in order to somehow cover the debts of companies, many of which no longer exist.

As for the debts of enterprises, here the prosecutor’s office should also deal with all specific cases separately, since there may be situations when companies deliberately incurred debts, closed, and then opened under other names. It is most often possible to return the debts of such legal entities, although it requires the painstaking work of specialists. Therefore, writing off everything entirely would be unfair to those citizens and organizations who disciplined and scrupulously pay for housing and communal services, even in the presence of current financial difficulties. And this would be the wrong signal that in the future it will be possible to do the same. And if it is clear that each case will be dealt with separately, then those who want to cheat will beware.”