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In Russia, they can introduce uniform standards and the cost of housing services. Today the state controls the level of utility tariffs only. At the same time, citizens have to pay monthly for the so-called housing services for the maintenance and repair of common property. What is the cost, what services should be provided? Not all consumers know the answers to these questions. The authorities decided to help the citizens. In 2023, Russia may introduce uniform standards and prices for services provided by management companies (MCs). Who will control the tariffs, how the quality of cleaning the entrances will change if the initiative is implemented, understood “MK”.

Housing and communal services should work according to uniform standards and prices. The Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia are developing a project to implement relevant initiatives. We are talking about such services of the Management Company as cleaning of entrances, maintenance of the yard, current repairs, maintenance of elevators, etc. The work of management companies is now very non-transparent both for consumers of services and for inspection bodies. Meanwhile, courts across Russia are overwhelmed with lawsuits from tenants of apartment buildings, and of very different levels – from premium class to an ordinary old panel house. And often it is impossible to prove anything, because the standards of the work of the Criminal Code are absent.

Housing services are contractual relations at market prices. But the service implies a certain service, so GOSTs of service are needed, by analogy with hotels – somewhere the entrances can be washed with shampoo, and somewhere with bleach. Somewhere plumbers are given shoe covers, and somewhere they enter the apartment without taking off their shoes. This is the choice of owners, what services to order and how much to pay for them.

The standards are structured by the MC market by segments of housing, says Pavel Sklyanchuk, an expert of the Popular Front, a member of the public council of the federal project “School of a Literate Consumer”. So the owners will understand who to hire and how much to pay such house managers. “If they want “cheap and cheerful”, then this will be one management company, and if they want “expensive and rich”, then this is a different standard for managing an apartment building. Today there are no such guidelines, so the elections of the Criminal Code are chaotic and through scandals, forgery of protocols, a lot of hassle with the previous company and the housing inspectorate. Choosing a management company should be simple and pleasant, then the quality of services will increase, and the management companies will do what the owners pay them for and how much, ”the source of MK believes.

According to Ivan Samoylenko, managing partner of the B&C Agency, the government is now creating a legislative framework on the basis of which the management companies will operate. This is a huge amount of preparatory work, especially since the standards for different types of housing may differ. “It is one thing to clean the entrance of an ordinary panel house, and another to keep order in an elite cottage village. But at the same time, the problems of the residents are the same – the poor work of the Criminal Code, – the expert emphasizes. “It is to standardize this activity that new legislative initiatives are being created.”

Meanwhile, it is still difficult to guess how exactly these services will be controlled and how tariffs will change. Samoylenko believes that the following will surely happen: residents of apartment buildings will have the opportunity to choose “tariffs” (more expensive or cheaper, a narrow scope of services or an expanded one). Then it will become clear to everyone what people pay money for, who is responsible for what kind of work.

“These norms should streamline the system of operation of management companies and remove openly fraudulent or irresponsible companies from the market. And consumers will get a tool in their hands that they can rely on in case of dissatisfaction with the work of the Criminal Code,” he concluded.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28948 dated January 12, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Communal equalizer