Information for residents of apartment buildings: where to complain if they don’t clean the entrance

Freezing once again in their apartment, our citizens are wondering: where to file a complaint against the housing and communal services regarding the growing amounts in utility bills, cold radiators and uncleaned entrances? However, anger and dissatisfaction are gradually giving way to apathy, since only a few know where exactly to file a complaint and how to prepare it. In fact, it is not difficult to write and correctly submit a complaint about violations in the work of the organization responsible for the condition of your home.

Cleanliness requirements

Requirements for the cleanliness of common property are regulated at the Government level. The rules for maintaining housing and a list of steps to keep it clean are listed in Resolution No. 290 (last amended June 29, 2020).

The document contains a list of works (see paragraph 23) that need to be performed to maintain cleanliness:

1. Wipe window grilles, handrails, window sills, correspondence boxes, doorways, meter cabinets.
2. Clean corridors, elevators, stairs and interfloor areas.
3. Carry out disinsection and deratization.
4. Wash windows with water.

The frequency of cleaning is approved by Decree of the State Construction Committee No. 170 (clause 3. 2. 7.). Every five days, management companies must perform the following steps:

1. Removing dust from floors, radiators, window sills.
2. Washing the floor covering.

At least a couple of times in 12 months. Walls must be cleaned of dust. Wipe all surfaces at least once.

Regional authorities may apply internal standards for cleaning frequency . The approved frequency and list of maintenance work for common property can be seen in the agreement with the management company.

Cleaning standards at the entrance

The first thing you need to start with is checking the powers and responsibilities of the management company in accordance with the terms of the agreement signed with it. This document specifies what exactly is being removed and on what schedule.

Moreover, these conditions must comply with the requirements of the above resolution and GOST 51617-2000. The latter determines the volume of housing and communal services.

In accordance with these regulations, the following should be cleaned and cleaned daily:

• garbage collection chambers;
• the area located near the waste collection chamber;
• elevator cabins at the entrance;
• staircases and landings on the first and second floors.

These places require not only physical removal of debris, but also wet cleaning, which is also carried out daily. Other areas of common property are cleaned less frequently, namely:

1. Weekly – area near the entrance;
2. Twice a week – staircases and flights, starting from the third floor and above;
3. Once every two weeks - complete wet washing of staircases and flights;
4. Once every six months - wet cleaning of heating systems, window sills, walls, lampshades and doors;
5. Once a year - glass on the windows of the stairwells.

This decree regulates the condition of the entrance and common property (windows, vents, ventilation shafts, etc.). A complaint to the Criminal Code about cleaning the entrance must be based on violations of the provisions of these regulations. Often, residents have their own point of view on the frequency and quality of cleaning, which is in no way confirmed either by these legal acts or by the agreement with the management company.

Who is responsible?

PP No. 290 states that the responsibility rests with legal entities that monitor the property by agreement with the owners.

In reality, the following organizations can clean staircases:

• developer;
• Management company, HOA or housing and communal services (the type of organization depends on the established form of management of the facility);
• cleaning companies hired by utilities.

The exact name of the legal entity obligated to keep the entrances clean can be found in the following documents:

1. Agreement with the management company.
2. A decision made by the owners at a meeting.
3. Charter of the cooperative, comrade.
4. Developer's decision.

You can find managers behind the house on the website dominfo.ru. A register of all housing service organizations is published on the portal.

What you can find out on dominfo.ru:

• what is the official name of the legal entity;
• what address is the office located at?
• how to contact representatives of the management company;
• what employees of the organization write in reports on the work done;
• what decisions were made at the meetings.

The information will be useful when preparing complaints. You can identify the organization responsible for cleanliness using a utility bill receipt.

Why you can complain about the management company (MC)

Owners of apartments in multi-storey buildings themselves choose the method of managing common property. One of these is a management company that operates on the basis of a state license. The management company's responsibilities include ensuring:

• safe and comfortable living conditions for residents;
• maintenance of common property;
• resolving issues regarding the use of common property of residents;
• maintaining the quality and condition of utility systems;
• provision of public services.

This list is incomplete. You can find out more precisely what the management company owes you from the management agreement concluded with it. For example, the management company is not obliged to install and maintain video surveillance in the entrance, but this can be included in the contract at the request of the residents. If you do not have an agreement, request a copy from the management company itself. She is obliged to provide it.

You can complain to the Criminal Code for any improper fulfillment of obligations. For example, for dirty entrances, rusty tap water and a constantly stuck elevator.

Where to call, contact?

You need to contact the legal entities responsible for the situation, following the hierarchy.

Management of the management company

The appeal must be sent to the administration of the management company responsible for housing maintenance. The message must mention violations committed by the legal entity.

The message should mention that if there is no response, residents plan to send complaints to higher institutions.

Rospotrebnadzor

Employees of the authority must, on duty, supervise the management company. Rospotrebnadzor officials have the authority to solve such problems.

You can send a letter to the organization on the Rospotrebnadzor portal , through the “State Services” service. There is also a number by which officials receive requests (8-800-10-000-04).

You can call him at work. days from 10:00 to 17:00 (Moscow time). The telephone is unavailable between 12:00 and 12:45. Calls from the Russian Federation are accepted free of charge.

Housing Inspection (GZHI)

The organization is entrusted with the tasks of supervising the management company. You can send a complaint to the institution in three simple ways:

1. On the Internet through the GIS Housing and Public Utilities portal, the website of the regional State Housing Institution (see in the search engine or 2GIS application).
2. By mail to the address of the regional office of the State Housing Institute. You can clarify the recipient’s details on the inspection website, in the 2GIS help service.
3. By phone. Contacts for communication are published in the 2GIS and Yandex.Maps applications.

You can also complain in person. The procedure, opening hours and address of meetings between representatives of the Civil Housing Inspectorate and citizens are published on the websites of regional authorities.

How to submit an appeal

There are several ways to submit an appeal. Here are some tips:

• if you submit a complaint in person, be sure to make two copies of it and take one for yourself, which will have a mark of acceptance;
• if you file a complaint by mail, send a letter with a list of attachments and a receipt receipt - this way you can confirm that you sent the complaint and the addressee received it;
• if you file a complaint through government services, attach electronic scanned copies of all documents confirming the grounds for the complaint.

How to prepare a complaint about poor cleaning?

The easiest way is to write an appeal in electronic format. The required fields will appear automatically when creating a letter. Organizations will not accept anonymous letters in electronic format (Clause 5, Article 18 of Federal Law No. 8).

When sending a letter, you must provide the following information:

• FULL NAME.,
• telephone,
• address.

There will be no response if the request has already been considered.

Letters to any institution must be clearly formulated. It is also necessary to indicate the laws that were violated and the date the message was sent.

Reasons

Vodokanal is responsible for maintaining city water supply networks. Any violations of the law and the rules of work/water supply may entail the need to file a complaint with various authorities. However, it should be remembered that complaints may often remain unanswered, which gives you a reason to contact other bodies whose responsibilities include control over government entities. The grounds for filing a complaint against Vodokanal can be very different. Here are some of them:

• unsubstantiated debts for water that you did not use (for example, from a water pump on the street that has not been working for a long time);
• insufficient water pressure in home pipes;
• long repair works on the street, as well as noise from them;
• unsafe circumstances of the work - for example, it takes a long time to fill up the ground dug up to replace pipes, which can cause harm to people and animals;
• unsafe situations with manhole covers on roads;
• low-quality water with impurities of metals and other substances (expertise is needed);
• flooding of houses due to inaction of services;
• cessation of water supply for no reason and for periods exceeding legal norms;
• emergency state of communications.

If nothing helps, what to do?

If none of the representatives of the above institutions could help, and the problem gets worse, you need to report the problem to the prosecutor’s office or court.

Important: it is necessary to involve a lawyer (possibly collectively) so that he can help draw up a claim or statement correctly, with a clear indication of those articles of legislation that were violated in this case.

A competent approach to the matter in some cases will even help to recover financial costs from housing and communal services.

Consequently, you can leave a complaint about the work of housing and communal services (HCS) in Moscow online, using the official website of the mayor, the Our City platform, or by calling the hotlines of the reception of the City Government and the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.

If emails and calls do not find the addressee, you should make an appointment with the mayor of the city, or submit an application to the prosecutor's office. But most often, complaints about housing and communal services in Moscow to the mayor's office do not go unnoticed, since most problems really fall within the competence of the utility organization servicing the apartment building.

Deadlines for consideration

After the complaint is sent to the above authorities, there is a certain period for its consideration. According to Federal Law No. 59, a standard deadline has been established for the consideration of complaints against Vodokanal. It is 30 days.

If any investigations are needed, the period may be extended, but the addressee must be notified of this. The period may be extended if the complaint is forwarded to other authorities. Here, after registration, the standard 30-day period also begins to apply.

In all of the above authorities, the period for consideration of a complaint is a month, with the exception of the prosecutor’s office, which considers complaints within 15 days. If a prosecutor's inspection is required, the period will also be 30 days.

Appealing the decision of the general meeting of the HOA

As you can see, appealing against actions or inactions committed by the governing bodies of the HOA is quite simple.

But what to do if you do not agree with the decision that was made at the general meeting of owners of residential premises by a majority vote:

• First of all, during such a meeting, clearly indicate your disagreement with what is happening. Your position must be recorded in the minutes of the meeting. In this case, while carrying out a scheduled inspection, the state housing inspection will consider the arguments you present at the meeting and, if they turn out to be correct, will oblige the HOA to hold a new extraordinary meeting of owners of residential premises and make changes to previously made decisions that will correspond to your arguments;
• If the state housing inspection considers your position to be unfounded, or you cannot wait for its representatives to come check the HOA, you will have to go to court.

In this case, an appeal to the judicial authorities should be carried out taking into account a number of features:

• Before sending your statement of claim to the court, notify all owners of residential premises included in the HOA of your intention. This must be done so that those who voted for the decision you disputed have the opportunity to defend their position during legal proceedings, or, on the contrary, to side with you. In addition, they have the right to present to the court a variety of arguments that are relevant to the situation under consideration;
• It should be clearly known that in court it is impossible to challenge the same decision made at a general meeting of owners of residential premises twice, even if unrelated aspects of such a decision are disputed.

This restriction was established in order to protect the rights of all owners of residential premises, and to prevent a situation in which each point of the decision adopted by the general meeting will be challenged in separate legal proceedings, thereby paralyzing the work of the HOA.

Before filing a complaint against the HOA in court, you should clearly understand that the process you are starting will be very long and quite tedious.

Therefore, before filing your claim, consult with a professional housing law attorney.

He will help you correctly assess the situation, tell you about possible risks and, if possible, suggest ways to solve your problem pre-trial.

If the case goes to court

As a rule, control authorities, if necessary, initiate recourse to court. However, if this does not happen, the violated rights are not restored, and the losses are not compensated, you can go to court yourself. To do this, you need to draw up a statement of claim based on a previously drawn up appeal.

It should be noted that the following requirements can additionally be included in the claim:

• on the payment of a penalty in the amount of three percent of the price of the service for each day of delay and its calculation (Article 28 of the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”);
• on the payment of interest for the use of other people's funds in accordance with Art. 395 Civil Code of the Russian Federation;
• on reimbursement of legal expenses if the plaintiff applied for paid legal assistance;
• on compensation for moral damage. The court may award monetary damages to compensate the plaintiff for his emotional distress.

In addition, when satisfying the plaintiff’s property claims, the court also orders a fine from the executor in the amount of 50% of the claim price for untimely fulfillment of the consumer’s requirements.

The state fee for going to court in cases of consumer rights protection is not paid. If an application of a non-property nature is submitted (for example, to restore water quality), a state fee of 300 rubles is paid.

The statement of claim can be submitted to the court in person or sent by mail.

In what cases should a claim be made for the work of a water utility?

All violations by the water utility can be divided into three large groups:

• provision of water supply services of inadequate quality;
• incorrect calculation and charging of payments for water supply;
• other violations committed during the operation of the water utility.

Poor quality water supply

The quality criteria for water supply are strictly regulated by law and cannot be violated by the water utility. In particular, when providing water supply services, a number of conditions must be met.

Important! The heat supply organization, not the water utility, is responsible for the temperature of hot water.

Water composition

In accordance with Article 23 of the Federal Law “On Water Supply and Sanitation,” drinking water must be supplied through centralized cold water supply systems. SanPiN 2.1.4.1074-01 describes in detail the standards for chemical substances, the content of which is permissible in drinking water.

If you have doubts about the compliance of the supplied water with these standards, you can contact directly any laboratory of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service (SES) to conduct a paid examination of water quality.

However, it is more effective to write a complaint about water quality to Rospotrebnadzor. He will be obliged to check the water quality and, if necessary, send an order to the water utility to eliminate violations.

Sample claim

Water pressure

The problem of low pressure in water supply networks is not only that water barely flows from the tap. Breakdowns of household appliances (for example, washing machines and dishwashers) and water supply systems are also possible.

The standard water pressure in residential buildings is established by building codes and regulations (SNiP) No. 2.04.02-84. The level of water pressure in the apartment can be determined independently by the speed of filling the container. However, for subsequent contact with the water utility and other authorities, it is better to invite representatives of the management company, HOA or just neighbors, measure the pressure with a pressure gauge and draw up a report.

Note! In the event of a breakdown of household appliances due to poor water quality or low pressure in the water supply, the consumer has the right to demand reimbursement from the water utility for the cost of repair or replacement.

Water cut off

Article 21 of the Federal Law “On Water Supply and Sanitation” regulates the procedure for turning off water. Thus, the basis for an unscheduled shutdown can only be cases strictly defined by law:

• accident in the water supply system;
• significant deterioration in water quality;
• the need to increase water supply to fire sites;
• discharge of unacceptable substances into the water supply system;
• obstruction by the subscriber of access to representatives of the water utility or to control sewer wells for sampling wastewater.

In addition, the water utility is obliged to notify consumers about the reason for turning off the water within 24 hours from the moment of shutdown.

If a water utility carries out a planned water shutdown due to non-payment (more than 2 months), repair work or other reasons specified by law, it is obliged to notify subscribers of the shutdown at least 24 hours in advance.

In the event of a long-term water outage, the municipality is obliged to provide residents with the minimum required amount of water.

If there was no proper notice of disconnection, or the disconnection occurred without legal grounds, the consumer’s rights should be considered violated.

Sample complaint

Incorrect calculation and charging of payments

According to Part 2 of Article 157 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, tariffs for utility services are approved by the state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

For example, in Moscow this is done by the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow. Vodokanal does not have the right to deviate from the approved tariffs when calculating payments.

If the water utility incorrectly calculated the payment for water (for example, calculated the amount according to the standard, and not according to the meter), it is obliged to pay the consumer a fine in the amount of fifty percent of the excess amount of the accrued fee (Article 156 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, two conditions must be met:

1. The violation was not the fault of the consumer (for example, he could have provided incorrect meter readings).
2. The consumer managed to pay the erroneously charged amount.

Sample complaint

Other cases of violation by the water utility

The water utility is responsible not only for water supply and sewerage, but also for the maintenance of water supply and sewerage networks. Therefore, in the event of damage to property or health of citizens during construction and repair work on networks, the water utility organization will bear responsibility.

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