What happens if you don’t pay your utility bills

How to find out your debts for housing and communal services and what will happen if you do not pay them – in the material “Kommersant”.

Utility bills must be paid a month in advance. If a person does not pay, then various penalties may be applied to him. These include fines, restrictions on leaving the country and eviction from the apartment.

What happens for non-payment

In case of delay for 31-90 days, 1/300 of the Central Bank rate is charged for each day of delay. Then the amount of the fine rises to 1/130 of the key rate of the Bank of Russia. According to Art. 67 FZ “On Enforcement Proceedings”if the utilities have applied to the court, then on the basis of his decision, the customs officers may not let the citizen go abroad.

In addition, if a person does not pay for housing and communal services for six months, then he can be evicted from the apartment through the court. It is impossible to evict tenants from a privatized apartment. In this case, the citizen’s property will be described and he will have five days to pay his debts. Otherwise, the property will be sold on account of the debt.

Tatyana Lykova, Chief Specialist of the Urban Economy Department of the Institute for Urban Economics Foundation:

“If a debt has accumulated for at least one of the utilities that exceeds the sum of two monthly fees for this service, calculated according to the consumption standard, this is enough for the managing organization to limit or suspend the supply of this utility service. In addition, if there is a debt for housing and communal services, they can suspend or terminate the provision of social support measures for paying for housing and communal services. As part of the enforcement proceedings, the recovery may be levied on the property of the consumer, including wages or other income.

How to find out your debts for utilities

There are several ways to find out about utility bills:

• personally contact the management company;
• on the website of the management company or HOA;
• call the resource supply company;
• on the public services portal;
• in your personal account on the bank’s website;
• at an ATM or terminal;
• at the bank teller.

What to do in case of debt

Tatyana Lykova, Chief Specialist of the Urban Economy Department of the Institute for Urban Economics Foundation:

“In order not to be left without utilities, social support measures (subsidies) or without property and an apartment at all, you need to contact the management organization to conclude a written agreement with it on repayment of overdue debts. In addition to the details of the parties, the agreement must specify:

• its duration;
• procedure (schedule) of debt repayment;
• consequences of violation of the obligations assumed by the consumer to repay the debt.

As a rule, managing organizations approach debtors individually and agree on a repayment schedule that is convenient for the debtor, as long as the debt is liquidated. It must be borne in mind that in parallel with the repayment of accumulated debt in installments, it is necessary to make current payments for housing and communal services and not accumulate new debts, otherwise all agreements lose their meaning and force.

There is a practice permitted by law when the managing organization offers debtors temporary employment (a fixed-term employment contract for two months or a one-time civil law contract, for example, for repair work in a house or snow removal from a local area). In this case, due to the wages (remuneration) received, at least partial repayment of the debt for housing and communal services is made, which also increases the chances of repaying the debt without prosecution.”

How to reduce the amount of debt and in what cases you can not pay utility bills

Tatyana Lykova, Chief Specialist of the Urban Economy Department of the Institute for Urban Economics Foundation:

“If there are significant debts for housing and communal services, you can think about options for reducing them. This is possible, for example, if the consumer proves that:

• the procedure for calculating the payment for utilities or the maintenance of the dwelling was violated, which led to an unreasonable increase in the amount of such a payment – in this case, the manager or utility organization is obliged to bring the amount of the payment to the appropriate amount and pay a fine in the amount of 50% of the excess of the accrued payment over the amount of the payment, which should have been accrued, the amount of debt can also be reduced by this amount;
• utilities, services and work on the management, maintenance and repair of common property in an apartment building were of inadequate quality or were provided with interruptions exceeding the established duration, which must be confirmed by acts of violation drawn up by the service provider or other means of proof (for example, witness statements, audio and video recordings , expert opinion) – in this case, a recalculation is made with a decrease in the amount of the fee (up to a complete exemption); in addition, the consumer has the right to demand damages, payment of a penalty, monetary compensation for moral damage and a fine in accordance with the law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”;
• the consumer was temporarily absent and did not receive a utility service, such as water – in this case, the recalculation of the payment for the utility service is made on the basis of an application submitted by a citizen within the time limits stipulated by the decree of the government of the Russian Federation;
• penalties accrued for late and (or) incomplete payment of housing and communal services are disproportionate to the consequences of a violation of the obligation to pay housing and communal services.

There are still some other cases when the consumer has the right not to fulfill the obligation to repay overdue debts. First, it concerns the acquisition of housing. The new owner does not have to pay the debt for housing and communal services of the previous owner, except for the debt on contributions for the overhaul of common property.

Exceptions include cases where the new owner assumes the debt of the previous owner under a sales contract or other debt transfer agreement, or inherits the home. If there are no such circumstances, the managing organization is obliged to provide the new owner with a payment document without the accrued debt of the previous owner (except for contributions for capital repairs).

Secondly, in the event of a change in the utility supplier organization, a change in the managing organization, or in the event of the creation of an HOA, the consumer who continues to pay the fee to the previous organization may not pay off the resulting debt until he receives notification from the new organization about the assignment of the right (claim) to return such debt.

Finally, to disputes related to the payment of housing and communal services by citizens, a general three-year limitation period is applied, calculated from the date of expiration of the period for making payments for housing and communal services (the 10th day of the month inclusive). The limitation period for claims for the recovery of debts for payment of housing and utilities is calculated separately for each monthly payment. Debts that were not collected from citizens before the expiration of the statute of limitations are actually written off.

Vasily Kuznetsov, Direct Speech group