How can I avoid paying rent if I don’t live there?

Utility bills account for a significant portion of a family's expenses . Some pay them regularly, on time and in full, fulfilling their obligations to service companies, while others ignore payments or transfer only part of the amount so as not to completely turn off gas or water.

Is it possible to save on utilities or even not pay for them at all? The answer to this question will be of interest to everyone, regardless of the area of ​​housing and the level of utility bills.

In any case, the supply of basic resources will need to be paid for, but some services can be refused without harm to everyday life. How not to pay for utilities?

Peculiarities

It is necessary to pay for utilities provided by the Management Company, Housing Office, Homeowners' Association, as well as suppliers of basic resources. This is the responsibility of all homeowners - apartments, private houses. Only in exceptional cases can consumers refuse both services and payment for them:

• With the low quality of such services. If the supplier provides water with a dangerous composition or serves cold water instead of hot water, this fact should be recorded, and in the future, payment can be refused based on the report.
• You also need to notify the Management Company in case of prolonged absence from your place of residence, in which case it will also be possible to refuse most of the payments.

In order to always keep the house in excellent condition, under any circumstances you need to pay for the maintenance of the house, cleaning in it and in the surrounding area. You can cut off the supply of water or electricity, but you must pay for heat.

Legislation

The obligation to make monthly payments for housing and communal services is fixed in Article 155 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation dated December 29, 2004 No. 188-FZ. According to the law, the owner must transfer funds to the management company’s account no later than 10 days after the end of the month following the billing period.

Payment may be made later if the condition is specified in the agreement between the service provider and the apartment building. The decision to postpone the repayment of debt for housing and communal services can be made at a general meeting of residents.

Attention! According to Art. 155 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, payment after the specified period is considered a violation of the agreement between the tenant and the management organization. But liability for non-payment occurs if contributions are delayed by 31 days or more.

Payment Responsibilities

At a general meeting, the residents of the house choose the Management Company and suppliers of heat, water, gas, and electricity. All home maintenance services must be provided on the basis of agreements between residents and suppliers.

If you study what we pay in the housing and communal services receipt, you can understand that all services are important, without them it is difficult to imagine a comfortable life and way of life. The apartment is provided with:

• warmth;
• cold and hot water;
• sewerage;
• drainage;
• gas;
• electricity.

Also, residents of apartment buildings pay for garbage removal, for cleaning the territory and the house, for the maintenance and repair of housing.

Both the owners of their own apartment and the tenants under a social tenancy agreement must pay the bills. The former pay for utilities immediately after signing the purchase and sale agreement, the latter - after signing the lease agreement.

ATTENTION! Payment for services is calculated taking into account the articles of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation.

The list of mandatory payments is given in articles 30 and 154, others .
Article 54 specifically states that residents will pay for heating even if they are absent for a long time, because it is impossible to disconnect one apartment in an apartment building from the heating system. Payment for services in a municipal apartment is carried out according to the provisions of Article 153 of the Housing Code. What services can you not pay for legally?
As can be seen from the provisions of the Housing Code, the presence of individual metering devices will allow you not to pay only for gas, light, water, electricity.

But home maintenance, which is usually performed as a whole (cleaning, repairs, maintenance) should be paid for. Even if the residents are absent, they transfer funds to the communal apartment every month.

Legal grounds for not paying for housing and communal services

How not to pay for housing and communal services if there is a good reason

According to Decree 354 of the Russian Government, citizens may not pay for utility bills only in certain cases. The latter are also provided for by the mentioned legal act. Circumstances not included in it do not provide for deferred payment. In 2021, apartment owners have the right to take advantage of the actions provided.

Recalculation

Residents are given the opportunity to recalculate if downtime is detected in the supply of water, gas, electricity, or other resources, official confirmation of the facts:

1. There is no hot or cold water supply for more than 4 hours.
2. Lack of drainage and sewerage for the same duration.
3. Disconnection of the house from the electrical network for 2 hours. If there are additional low-power devices in the building, the duration of the shutdown should not be longer than 24 hours.
4. Lack of gas supply – 4 hours. in 30 days.
5. The heating system of the apartment, when the outside air temperature is below +8° C, should not be inoperative for more than 16 hours.

The owner has the right to seek a recalculation if he provides documentary evidence of his absence or proves the lack of receipt of the services guaranteed by the contract, or poor quality of their performance. In this case, you can avoid paying for utilities and without consequences.

Recalculation is not carried out for the following categories:

• landline phone;
• central heating;
• access or common antenna;
• radio connection point;
• provision and repair of local areas and buildings.

Only those residential premises that are not equipped with individual metering devices are subject to changes to previously accrued amounts.

Recalculation for services provided but not received is possible in the following cases:

• the owner of the residential premises was absent from home for more than five calendar days;
• the application for recalculation is sent no later than 30 days later. on arrival.

The last condition in order not to pay for housing and communal services legally, is correctly executed documents that confirm the fact of some absence of the tenant in the house.

Poor quality of service

Failure to fulfill its obligations by a utility company also includes the provision of poor-quality services.

Then the citizen should follow the instructions:

1. Draw up a petition by hand or print it out to the housing authority, where you demand that a representative of the organization be sent to him. The document must indicate the period of time during which a housing and communal services employee must arrive. Typically this period is two days. The petition is drawn up in 2 copies - the first remains in the department, the second - the applicant, with the date of acceptance by the enterprise indicated, signed by the secretary.
2. A complaint is written, which indicates the inconsistencies identified by the citizen and the time period when they must be eliminated. An appeal for revision of the previously accrued amount is also provided here.
3. In the absence of a legal representative of the housing office or the organization’s refusal to sign the complaint, the owner has the right to collect signatures from neighbors about the identified deficiencies.
4. A statement of claim is filed with the court, with the presentation of all copies of documents collected for this case.

The apartment owner has the right to file a written complaint with the consumer protection department.

Watch the video: “I don’t pay for housing and communal services legally. Energosbyt."

The water in the apartment does not meet the standards

A resident of a house can count on a change in previously accrued amounts for water supply downwards under the following circumstances:

• long-term absence of hot media during hydraulic pressure testing of pipelines;
• discrepancy between the water in the apartment and the standards stated in the contract.

The owner of the property must state the identified comments in a written complaint and send it to the management company.

Charges for water supply are made subject to the following indicators:

• cold and hot supply - pressure from 0.03 MPa or 0.29 atm, which complies with SanPin standards;
• DHW should be heated to t +60° C, the rate of filling into a 3-liter vessel is 8.5 seconds.

Deviation from the set temperature is allowed in the direction of decreasing +50, increasing +75 degrees.

Inadequate heating in the apartment

Maintaining the required temperature in the apartment during the cold season is also an indicator of the performance of utilities. The air in the house should be heated according to established standards from +18° C, and in corner living spaces - from 20 degrees.

In cold regions of the country, where the thermometer drops below 30° below zero, the air in the apartment should be heated to +20 degrees in all rooms. The control measurement is carried out in the central part of the largest insulated room at a distance from the floor of 1 m. Non-compliance with the standards at night can reach no more than minus 3° downward and +4° up. During the day, temperature fluctuations in the heating system are not allowed.

Cast iron pipes must be under pressure no more than 0.6 MPa or 0.59 atmospheres. In convector, panel heating systems or air heaters - 1 unit or 9.8 atm. In these cases, deviations from the norm are not allowed. If you observe inconsistencies in the functioning of the systems, you can safely submit a request for recalculation.

By how much and in what cases should the cost of heating be reduced?

If the owner is registered, but did not live in the apartment

Russians have the right to register at one address, but are located in another place. However, citizens are interested in the question: if you do not live in an apartment, do you need to pay utility bills? In the absence of individual consumption meters, the owner has the right to apply for a recalculation of rent.

Changes to the previously calculated amount are made only in the temporary absence of residents. The principle of making adjustments to receipts is established by the new Government Resolution No. 354 (in the current version of 2021), replacing the old one that has lost force. But it should be added that the repeated calculation affects only the water supply of both types, sewerage and gas supply.

If no one lives in the apartment temporarily, you must notify the management company that services this house. The application is drawn up in any form, which expresses a request to stop accruals for services for a specified period due to the absence of residents at the given address. An official document confirming the fact of absence must be attached to the submitted application.

When there is no corresponding application from an individual, utility services have the right to charge him monthly payments in full.

A recalculation of the amount billed for housing and communal services can be made at the request of a citizen if he has not been in the apartment for more than 5 days. However, please note that days of departure and arrival are not taken into account.

The maximum period for which you can request a one-time change in previously accrued amounts is determined by six months. To extend the mentioned period, you must submit the application again, attaching the necessary documents.

If all of the above conditions are met, if an individual is registered in the apartment but does not live, it is necessary to pay for utilities used to maintain the house and its functions.

Refusal of housing and communal services

The homeowner has the right to completely refuse the services of utility organizations if he has individual metering devices that allow him to record the fact of non-use.

Here, parity is maintained between his rights and the interests of other residents under the following circumstances:

1. In the absence of consumption of both types of water supply, metering devices will show zero consumption, which is the basis for the absence of charges.
2. A similar fixation applies to the electric, gas meter and heating system, if it is registered by the meter.
3. Disabling the wired radio is also allowed when such an item for payment is included in the receipt;
4. The owner of satellite TV can refuse to use a collective home television antenna.

The apartment owner will not be able to cancel other services, for example, garbage disposal, since the housing office is not able to accurately establish this fact.

However, the apartment owner has the right to completely refuse the above-mentioned services and terminate the contract only after paying for the previously provided resources.

Watch the video: “Goszhilnadzor. Unscheduled inspection."

Payment for the elevator

If an elevator is installed in a multi-story building, but it has been under repair for a long time, you can file a petition to revise previously accrued amounts for the use of the lifting structure. Based on the management agreement for a multi-storey building, the maximum period for an elevator to be under repair is determined by one current month.

If residents register for a longer period, they can submit a request to the management company to remove charges for using the elevator. This is indicated in Decree of the executive authority No. 491 (as amended in 2021).

Payment for garbage removal

Payment for waste disposal at this time is calculated based on the total area of ​​the apartment or premises. However, the calculations used do not always justify themselves and, therefore, the earliest time for calculating the amount of fees for the removal of mucor will be the number of officially registered citizens in a certain apartment.

However, if an individual is registered in this area, but does not live for a long time, he still needs to pay for waste disposal.

Rules for drawing up and sample refusal of utilities

A citizen may not pay for the services of a housing company if he stops using them.

To do this you should:

• visit the Criminal Code with a civil passport or other identification document;
• file a petition to refuse any service;
• supplement the application with documentary support.

After the organization makes a positive decision, the company will send an authorized person to the applicant to confirm the information.

A sample application for termination of a contract for housing and communal services according to the 2021 rules is available for download here.

Other reasons for not paying for housing and communal services

An individual has the right not to pay for utility services provided in a poor quality manner.

This indicator is:

• constantly dirty hall;
• non-working elevator;
• absence of an access door or its damage;
• invoices for waste disposal exceed those specified in the contract.

If such violations are detected, the citizen also has the right to demand a recalculation.

Refuse services

It is difficult to imagine that someone would want to live in an apartment without electricity, gas, water, or sewerage. And for these amenities you need to pay monthly, according to your invoices. The supply of such services is carried out under a contract, which specifies the responsibilities of both parties to the cooperation.

The consumer receives services and pays for them, and the supplier undertakes to deliver on a regular basis and maintain high quality. And it is precisely the quality, if it does not meet the standards, that can become the basis for refusing payment. What are the requirements for the quality of services in the housing sector?

1. The characteristics of hot and cold water must comply with SanPin 2.1.4.1074-01. it also gives a requirement for pressure in the pipeline; it should be at the level of 0.03 MPa.
2. Hot water must have a temperature of at least 60 degrees.
3. Voltage requirements are determined by GOSTs 13109-97, 29322-92.
4. The apartment must maintain a temperature of at least 18 degrees during the heating season. The temperature is measured at a level of 1 meter from the floor.
5. GOST 5542-87 dictates the requirements for voltage in the electrical network.

Residents of apartments in an apartment building should know these parameters established at the legislative level, since deviation from them is a significant reason for recalculating the rent.

IMPORTANT! Services must be of high quality and constant.

You can also seek recalculation in the following situations:

• If there is no electricity for more than 2 hours.
• If the drainage system has not worked for 4 hours or more.
• If water, cold or hot, has not been supplied for more than 4 hours.
• When there was no gas supply for a total of 4 hours during the month.
• If the heating supply is interrupted for a period of more than 16 hours in cold weather.

Most likely, every home sooner or later faces the problems listed above. But few people know that due to such interruptions, the amount on the rent receipt can be significantly reduced.

Privileges

It is not recommended to wait until the debt grows to 300 thousand: if you have problems repaying housing and communal services, it is better to contact the supplier directly. But some categories of citizens of the Russian Federation have the right not to pay utility bills completely or partially. These are beneficiaries who are allowed by the state to reduce the cost of maintaining their property by up to 100%.

According to Article 159 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, subsidies for utilities are available only to citizens of the Russian Federation.

Benefits are provided:

• veterans of the Great Patriotic War and military operations;
• disabled people of groups 1 and 2;
• Knights of the Order of Glory;
• Heroes of Russia and the USSR;
• labor veterans;
• some pensioners.

To receive a subsidy for housing and communal services, you should contact the territorial social protection authority with a passport and a document confirming your right to the benefit.

Eliminate completely

There are a number of services that are not of global importance for creating normal living conditions in the home; you can refuse them completely. For example, there are also houses connected to a radio network; each apartment has a radio point. Nowadays it is possible to find out news on other types of radio or via the Internet; you can completely abandon such radio outlets.

Apartments equipped with cable television or a satellite dish can submit an application to disconnect from the collective antenna.

You can refuse to pay for house cleaning if it has not been done for a long time and this can be proven. You also don’t have to pay for the elevator if it’s not working most of the time or hasn’t been repaired for a long time.

Other services are more important; refusing gas or electricity will not only worsen the quality of life in a single living space, but may also affect the amenities in other apartments.

ATTENTION! You can only save significantly on many household amenities if you use them rationally and install meters in your home - for water, gas, electricity. Moreover, the installation of individual metering devices or communal meters has already become a legal requirement.

With meters, consumers decide for themselves how and how much resources to spend, and what they can limit themselves to. Significant savings can also be achieved by installing a communal heating meter .

Actions of bailiffs in case of violation

If in a privatized apartment the debtor does not pay the obligations, or the tenant does not fulfill the requirements under the rental agreement, the bailiffs can recover funds from such clients to the service provider.

Actions of FSSP employees:

1. Notice of seizure. Warning in the form of an SMS message from all banks with which the client opened accounts or cards.
2. Collection in the amount of debt for utilities. Bailiffs can write off no more than 50% of the debtor’s income to the management organization.
3. Seizure of property. If the client’s funds or income are insufficient, FSSP officers may seize the citizen’s property.
4. Transfer of property as payment for a debt. For a debt of 100 thousand, the apartment will not be taken away, but an arrest will be imposed. Defaulters may lose their housing if they owe a debt of 1 million rubles or more.

Control over payments

When signing an agreement with the Management Company, the residents of the house stipulate a list of services that will be provided by the management company. And it is these services that should appear on rent receipts. But sometimes you can see unfinished home maintenance work there.

In this case, you should submit a collective or individual application to the Company’s management, achieve recalculation and exclusion of fictitious services.
If there is no response from the service company, you should contact the Housing Commission. The statement indicates who is issuing the illegal invoices and whether the Management Company has been contacted.
But it is also possible to pay for some services without a contract if residents consider them important and relevant. For example, the Management Company hired a concierge for the house, who was not provided for in the contract. The residents of the house appreciated this service highly and decided to include it in the contract list.

If the apartment owner agrees with the receipt, which also includes unforeseen services, he simply pays for them.

What you need to know

Citizens of the Russian Federation who do not have a debt to the management company can receive a subsidy for paying for utility services (Article 159 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation).

If available, preferential categories have the right to receive reimbursement of housing costs if the payment is late due to a valid reason:

1. Delay of wages.
2. Loss of a job, inability to get a new job (if there are attempts).
3. Inpatient treatment for the property owner or family members.
4. The presence in the family of a minor child, a disabled person or an incompetent member of society.

Expert opinion

Klimov Yaroslav

More than 12 years in real estate, higher legal education (Russian Academy of Justice)

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The reason why the debt arose to public services requires documentary confirmation: a certificate from work, about the composition of the family, from the social service.

Absence of tenant

It is also possible not to pay for some utility services due to a long absence from your place of residence. We are talking about long business trips, treatment or rehabilitation in a medical institution, and departures for other reasons.

1. When the departure is planned, you can notify the accounting department of the Management Company or Housing Office in advance.
2. If there are metering devices in the apartment, the payment will decrease automatically, because the consumer will not use resources, there will be no consumption of electricity, water, or gas.
3. If there are no devices and the payment is calculated according to the norms, the accounting department will reduce the payment accordingly.
4. You can submit an application upon arrival, but in both the first and second cases you will need to prove your absence - a travel document, a medical card indicating the hospital, a voucher, or another document.

You can also achieve a recalculation if only one of the tenants, for whom payments are calculated according to the norm, will be absent from the apartment for some time.

But even a long departure will not be a reason for the apartment’s account not to receive payments for house maintenance, heating, repair services, etc.

Use resources sparingly

Oddly enough, the most banal savings can reduce utility bills by several percent. For example, it is not difficult to turn off the lights when you are not in a room. Or just don’t pour water. You can save resources without compromising your comfort. If you do not have water, gas, or electricity meters, you can install them. This is especially true for those who do not use water and gas according to the established norms. Over the course of a year, with the proper approach, you can save up to 30% of the cost of housing and communal services.

Be sure to take an interest in the tariffs in your city, because it happens that at night there is a discount, for example, on electricity. Many people structure their schedules in such a way that the most energy-consuming tasks around the house can be completed as efficiently as possible. For example, start washing and drying clothes late in the evening. When choosing household appliances, give preference to A-class products; they are the most economical in terms of electricity and water consumption.

To regulate the heat supply, you can install special valves on the batteries. To save water, you can use special nozzles that will reduce water pressure.

Mediator

One of the trends in the housing and communal services sector has been the emergence of organizations that act as intermediaries between consumers and Management Companies. As a result, current accounts appear on residents' receipts that are not related to the accounts of the management company. In fact, such actions are a violation of the law.

ATTENTION! According to the law, the residents of the house enter into an agreement with the Management Company and must transfer money only to its accounts.

Otherwise, citizens may not pay money to an organization with which they did not enter into an agreement for the provision of utility services. Cases of such intermediaries are increasingly ending up in court, where proceedings are being conducted about their misappropriation of other people's money and other fraud.

Lawyers advise citizens who have received receipts with settlement accounts from the Unified Settlement Center or another company not to pay rent, but to seek accounts from their Management Company.

What to do if you have a share, but do not live in this apartment?

This situation is not uncommon and you are required to pay for all utilities regardless of whether you live there or not. As long as you are the owner you will pay the bills.

But there is still a way to reduce the cost of housing and communal services.

First, you should contact the Criminal Code with a statement that you were not at home. You should also separate personal accounts and determine the procedure for using the house. To do this, you need to go to court, which will allocate shares for which you will pay in proportion to yours.

However, it is worth considering that you will still need to pay for repairs, heating, and maintenance.

As a last resort, you can sell the share, but this will be problematic.

Procedure for disconnecting services for non-payment

Housing and communal services services, after a written warning (3 days in advance), send an employee who blocks the supply of electricity, gas, and water to the debtor. Heating is a service that utility companies will not be able to turn off, even if there is a debt. The rule is stated in the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 8, 2012 No. 808. Restrictive actions can only be applied in the event of a temporary elimination of the malfunction. Complete isolation and termination of the contract cannot be carried out only at the initiative of the housing and communal services supplier.

If a client refuses to pay for utilities, he may lose his property. Fines for late payments are accrued starting from the 2nd month. The company may require the funds to be paid in a lump sum or allow the payment to be split over several periods.

Advice for debtors:

1. Pay all overdue payments within 3 months. Once fines are assessed, the case will go to trial.
2. Do not refuse cooperation if the supplier offers other tariffs and the opportunity to recalculate.
3. Take advantage of programs that allow you to reduce debt, learn about possible benefits and co-financing programs.
4. Respond to notices and notices received by mail from representatives of utility services.
5. Contact the office in person if you have financial problems. Employees do not take harsh measures if the client voluntarily explains why he is delaying payment.

The debtor's cooperative actions may help him negotiate a possible deferment of payments and a reduction in penalties. This will reduce the amount of fines and preserve property ownership.