How to make the Criminal Code work, where to find control over it and how to fight

According to Article 165 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, management companies, associations of home (real estate) owners, and housing cooperatives can manage apartment buildings. The owners themselves decide who to entrust management to.

The most common form today is management companies.

But often the quality of service leaves much to be desired: repairs are not done, the entrance is dirty, warm water instead of hot, and others.

How to deal with this chaos? Where to contact? Let's talk about this today.

Responsibility of the management company, fine for failure to fulfill its duties

Starting from 2021, state control over the fulfillment of license obligations by management companies will be tightened.

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 13, 2021 No. 1090 recorded a list of gross violations of contractual obligations:

improper maintenance of engineering systems - gas, water, elevator;
debt for utilities to resource suppliers for a period of at least 2 months;
improper maintenance of common property, resulting in damage to the life or health of residents;
violation of transfer rules or refusal to transfer technical documentation.

New fines were determined by Federal Law No. 26 of March 18, 2019.

According to the law, when violations are identified in the activities of service organizations, control and supervisory authorities issue a resolution to eliminate them within a certain period of time.

If violations are recorded again during the year, the liability increases - the company may be removed from managing the building.

The fine for officials for gross violation of license obligations is 100-250 thousand rubles, or suspension of activities for up to 3 years. For an organization, the fine is 300-350 thousand rubles.

The amount of fines is also fixed in Article 14.1.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

There are other types of fines for 2021:

for inflated tariffs, the management company will pay 50% of the amount;
violation of rules for maintaining household property – 50 thousand rubles;
inadequate provision of resources to residents – 10 thousand rubles;
violation of fire safety rules – up to 200 thousand rubles.

Where to go if housing and communal services do not fulfill their duties

All complaints can be attributed to:

inaction of the company, which can harm the general condition of the apartment building - a non-working elevator, a clogged garbage chute, a leaking roof;

inappropriate actions - that is, due to the fault of the management company, equipment broke down, the heating system was poorly prepared for winter, and communal meters were not submitted for inspection on time.

If the company's work does not suit the majority of residents, they can:

Complain to regulatory authorities.
Terminate the contract.

The decision to terminate the contract with the management company is made at a general meeting of owners. At this point, a decision is made on the further form of management of the house: a new company is selected or a homeowners association is created.

But before terminating the contract, they usually try to hold them accountable and force them to fulfill their obligations. To do this, contact the authorized bodies.

When does the need to protect your rights arise?

Residents of the house have the right to protect their rights in case of dishonest performance by the management company of the obligations established by law and contract or if it exceeds its powers. The reasons for dissatisfaction among apartment building residents most often are the following actions of the management company:

Unfair performance of obligations for the provision of public services.
Incorrect calculation of consumed services. Managers often overestimate the figures for consumed energy resources and simply pocket the difference.
Unreasonable increase in tariffs. Having received the rights to maintain a house, some companies decide to enrich themselves at the expense of the residents.
Ideally, all tariffs should be discussed and adopted at a general meeting of owners.
In practice, notifications of fees for services are established in absentia, since only a few are present at meetings. It is not possible to influence the formation of the fee size.
The management company, without informing the residents, rents out common square meters and puts the rent in its own pocket.

Claim

Before you try to sue the management company, you first need to file a claim with its management. It can be individual and collective.

The claim is written in free form addressed to the head of the company, indicating the name and details. This data can be found on the organization's website. You also need to indicate your data in the header of the document: Full name, address, contact phone number.

The text of the complaint itself indicates which obligations the company is not fulfilling and what violations have been committed.

The document is drawn up in two copies. One remains with the company, the other is taken by the compiler. You just need to make sure that both copies are officially registered and stamped.

You must be given an official response within 30 days.

Then there are 4 possible scenarios:

The Criminal Code recognizes the validity of the claims and eliminates them.
They promise to correct the violations, but in reality they do nothing.
Refuse to fulfill these obligations.
The claim is ignored.

In the first case, the conflict can be considered settled. In the rest, you can contact higher authorities with a statement.

Statement of inaction of the Criminal Code, sample

Here you can download sample applications for a management company to the authorized bodies, which will help punish this organization:

Sample application to the housing inspection.

Sample complaint to Rospotrebnadzor.

Sample application to the prosecutor's office.

Sample statement of claim to court.

Invoices for excess services

A very old and primitive scheme, which in principle can be revealed by any tenant and in which a huge number of management companies have been “caught by the hand”. But despite all this, it is still one of the most common.

It’s just that one day a new line appears in the bills with an invoice for services that are not actually provided. This is done with the expectation that no one will read, check or wonder whether it is even possible to include such a line in the receipt.

Experienced employees of unscrupulous companies already have a ready-made answer to citizens’ questions about a new line, worked out over the years.

Appeal to higher authorities

If claims and complaints sent to the management company itself have no effect, then we must fight further.

When contacting various authorities, you need to prepare a package of documents, which will include: claims to the Criminal Code, photos and videos, copies of applications to other organizations.

Details and contact information of all organizations can be found on their official websites.

You can submit applications as follows:

bring in person;
send by registered mail;
write an appeal electronically.

Control and supervisory authorities

Such bodies in this case are:

State Housing Inspectorate - has the broadest powers in the field of housing and communal services, you can contact it in absolutely any case;
Rospotrebnadzor - here you can complain about the unsatisfactory sanitary condition of the house, as well as poor quality services;
local administration - it is authorized to conduct an audit of activities, convene a general meeting of residents, and completely get rid of the unscrupulous management company.

Prosecutor's office

If appealing to the above authorities does not lead to anything, then you can contact the prosecutor's office. Its main purpose is to monitor compliance with the law. Therefore, the application must list what legal obligations the Housing Office is neglecting, as well as what your rights were violated by its actions/inaction.

You can appeal decisions of other authorities to the prosecutor's office.

Court

It makes sense to complain to the court if you have suffered significant damage. You just need to take care of the evidence: copies of applications to other organizations, copies of claims to the housing department, photos and videos, checks and receipts. The authority may then make an order for damages.

If the Criminal Code ignores the court decision, contact the bailiff service!

How to make the management company work and fulfill its responsibilities?

When the residents of a house are not satisfied with something, they begin to think about who should ensure their comfortable living. Unfortunately, until this moment, many do not think about who manages their home and with whom contracts for its maintenance have been concluded.

First of all, the owner needs to study the agreement , which should be in the hands of every owner of residential premises in an apartment building. If you do not have such an agreement, this is wrong.

Come to your management company in person and demand that they give you a document. Don’t wait for managers to bring you contracts; they are least of all interested in you having this document.

After receiving the document, please read it carefully. It should specify the responsibilities of the management company.

The management company is obliged to provide residents with utility services of adequate quality and in full, to carry out repairs and maintain common property, and to eliminate problems in the event of any occurrence of engineering and technical equipment.

The minimum list of services provided is regulated by law and agreed with the owners. The approval procedure must be carried out annually.

In addition, the list of services must be listed in the contract. Failure of the management company to comply with the terms of the contract is the basis for filing claims.

The fight against the management company’s failure to properly fulfill its duties consists of 2 main stages, which we will consider further.

Filing a complaint with the Criminal Code

First, you need to send a complaint to the management company itself. A document addressed to the head of the management company is drawn up on behalf of a group of owners or on behalf of one person in 3 copies. The statement describes in detail the nature of the complaint and the demand.

The document is submitted directly to the Criminal Code or sent by registered mail with notification. On your copy, request the date of registration of the document and the signature of the person who accepted it.

Reference! The response to your application must follow no later than 30 days after its acceptance.

If after this period the problem is not resolved, or the management company does not respond to your complaints, take the next step.

Appeal to higher authorities

After communicating about the complaint directly with the Criminal Code, you can complain about its inaction to the Housing Inspectorate or the Prosecutor's Office . In this appeal, you must describe the situation with the management company and demand an assessment of the legality of its actions.

From the video you will learn what to do if the activities of the management company do not suit you and how you can make the management company work normally:

Lawyer to fight against the management company

If we are talking about significant damage, then a qualified lawyer will help ease the fight against the arbitrariness of the Criminal Code and save nerves and time:

he will draw up a competent agreement with the management company;
will review available documentation and help collect evidence;
explain in simple language what laws and regulations apply to your case;
will give instructions for further actions;
draw up a statement with references to laws;
will represent your interests in court.

Legislation in the housing and communal services sector is constantly being improved. In 2019, a number of resolutions were issued, the purpose of which is to protect the interests of owners, provide for severe penalties for management companies, and force them to fulfill their license obligations properly.

Now residents have the right to independently enter into contracts with utility providers. In this case, intermediaries represented by management companies are eliminated. The government believes that consumers themselves will pay for housing and communal services on time, and tariffs will not increase so much. Let's see how everything turns out in reality.

In any case, don’t wait, stop the lawlessness of your criminal code as early as possible by finding justice for it in accordance with the law!

What are the responsibilities of the management company to the property owner?

Among the main responsibilities of each management company are the following:

Monitoring the process of using common house metering devices, taking indicators from them and transferring them to the resource supplying organization. In addition, timely maintenance of meters is carried out and they are verified.
Removal of household waste or concluding an agreement with a company that has the right to do such work. The removal process must be carried out in accordance with sanitary regulations that prevent rotting and decomposition of garbage in containers due to long-term storage before disposal.
Cleaning entrances and areas of the house. If the site is jointly owned by residents, the management company is obliged not only to regularly carry out cleaning work inside the house, but also to monitor the cleanliness of the surrounding area.
Monitoring compliance with fire safety regulations. The responsibilities of the management company include notifying residents of the need to remove garbage or personal belongings littering the passages. Also, company employees must ensure that illegal structures that restrict passage, such as bars and doors, do not appear in the house.
Checking the integrity of communication networks and restoring them if problems are detected. Such a check should be carried out regularly in the form of a comprehensive inspection of the building. It is performed especially carefully immediately before the start of the heating season, when the system is filled with water after being idle.
Caring for the safety of living in the house, which includes carrying out routine repairs, restoring damaged stairs and handrails, monitoring the condition of entrances and other nuances that can affect the comfort of living.