The President exempted Russian beneficiaries from paying for major repairs

When did such a responsibility first appear?

The creation and formation of special capital repair funds became known for the first time in 2012, with the introduction of appropriate amendments to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, and two years later the burden of making such contributions fell on the shoulders of apartment owners in apartment buildings.

There is no legislative regulation of the amount of such payments - such a function is assigned to regional government bodies.

This gave rise to instability in the ratio of the volume of payments, which are calculated based on the total area of the premises owned by a person, and another intensification of the wave of dissatisfaction with the decision taken by the authorities.

Lately, you can often hear the question: have the fees for major repairs been abolished? Cancellation of the contribution for major repairs, to what extent is this possible?

Who was exempted from contributions for major repairs?

They are entitled to a benefit if they live alone or in a family consisting only of non-working pensioners.

Disabled people of groups I and II, if they own an apartment, also receive a 50% discount.

On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin signed a law according to which residents of apartment buildings are no longer required to prove that they have paid contributions for major repairs in order to receive the stipulated compensation. The document was published on Tuesday on the official legal information portal.

Now the Housing Code provides for the obligation of regional authorities to reimburse the costs of paying such contributions to citizens who live alone and do not work when they reach 70 years of age - the amount of compensation for them is 50%. Upon reaching 80 years of age, contributions are fully compensated. The same measure of social support applies to families that consist exclusively of non-working pensioners, but only in the absence of arrears in contributions for major repairs. Thus, in the previous version of the Housing Code, pensioners had to independently present to the competent authorities information about payment of the contribution in order to confirm the absence of debt.

In the new version of the law, specialized institutions no longer “have the right to demand documents and information from citizens” to confirm payment of contributions in order to receive compensation. Now such information must be requested from the regional overhaul operator or from the owner of a special account. They must provide information within five working days.

Why might payments be cancelled?

The cancellation of payments for major repairs, the most obvious reason why this can be done is the dissatisfaction of citizens. The introduction of amendments to housing legislation does not take into account the property status of certain categories of the population, which puts them in an even more difficult situation.

In addition, some legal theorists refer to the fact that such an innovation itself violates the norms of Russian housing legislation and the basic law of the state.

But you should not expect that major repairs will be canceled only on the basis of applications for refusal to pay from the indignant mass of the population and motivated statements of several specialists - much more compelling reasons are needed to cancel the introduced legal norms through a decision of an authorized court.

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What is the year 2020 dedicated to by presidential decree?

Theater is one of the areas of culture where Russia has always occupied an impeccable niche of primacy. The famous Russian ballet is adored all over the world. Opera singers and professional musicians on tour abroad attract full houses. However, this area of the most ancient, most beautiful art needs full support.

For example, according to the UN plan, next year has been declared the year of the famous periodic table D.I. Mendeleev, in honor of the fact that exactly 150 years have passed since the discovery of the periodic law. This law made a huge contribution to the development of chemistry and related sciences and is still popular today. Russia will also support the policies of the United Nations. Our country will host various events dedicated to discoveries in the field of this natural science and the works of D.I. Mendeleev in particular.

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What is the situation at the moment?

What is happening now, has the overhaul been canceled or not? Mandatory contributions from owners of residential premises in apartment buildings have not been cancelled.

And this, despite numerous indignations of the population and appeals to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Constitutional Court

The initiative group, which applied for amendments to the controversial regulatory legal act to abolish the mandatory contributions for major repairs, did not receive satisfaction of the stated claim.

According to statements from authorized persons, such innovations are based on the powers of the owner (Article 30 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation) - he has an obligation to properly monitor his own property and keep it safe and sound.

Common household property, for the overhaul of which funds are collected without fail, in accordance with the requirements of modern legislation (Articles 36, 36.1, 39 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation), is also included in the ownership of residents in amounts proportional to the areas of their residential premises.

The size of the contribution depends on the area of the apartment - a certain amount is calculated, multiplied by one square meter.

The overhaul has not been cancelled; there are only certain categories of citizens who are exempt from paying such contributions.

Where are citizens' funds stored for future major repairs?

All funds allocated for capital repairs are kept either in a public or private fund. Until August 2020, residential property owners had to determine which fund was suitable for them. If the decision was not made, this was calculated as voluntary consent to be attached to the state fund.

State Fund

It is a general account created by a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, which receives monthly funds from each residential premises. Then, a specialist operator calculates the savings, then authorized persons at a meeting make a decision on what exactly to spend the savings on.

To provide a legitimate basis for choosing a house that receives funds for repairs, there is a special list of houses based on a hierarchy of the condition of residential premises.

The more dilapidated the house, the faster its turn will come.

In one year, it is possible to repair a small number of houses, the reason for this is the hope of citizens for the abolition of payments for major repairs. Despite the fact that this type of collection is state, therefore, legal.

Personal account of an apartment building

The second type includes a personal account of an apartment building, opened through the creation of an HOA or the assistance of a management company, since a bank account can only be opened by a legal entity.

The owners must, by a general meeting of residents, elect the person responsible for collecting funds (elections are held by universal suffrage; to appoint a specific candidate there must be more than 50 percent + one vote of all votes). Then, monthly funds will be transferred to the bank account from citizens living in the apartment building; after a year, the same general meeting of residents will make a decision on the sale or retention of funds. You can accumulate them without using them until you need them, or you can spend the money improving your home/driveway area.

Categories of persons exempt from payment

The initial interpretation of legal norms did not provide for any relief even for less protected categories of citizens, which was one of the points that outraged the population.

Later, the government considered the possibility of reducing fees for certain categories of citizens, but the fee for major repairs was not cancelled.

The result was the introduction of preferential treatment (Article 159 of the RF Housing Code) for :

single citizens over 80 years of age - full compensation when paying the fee, but not its cancellation;
for single citizens over 70 years of age – a 50 percent discount;
also the possibility of introducing preferential treatment for disabled people of groups 1 and 2, disabled children and citizens with such children.

Tenants and citizens living in buildings with fewer than three apartments are also exempt.

Is it necessary to pay for major home renovations in 2020?

What the Decree says and the reaction to it Who has the right not to pay for major repairs Until recently, very elderly pensioners complained that their meager pension was barely enough to pay for utilities and survive on the brink of poverty. And then there are mandatory fees for major repairs, which sometimes turn out to be unaffordable. The recent decree of Russian President Putin on the abolition of fees for major repairs mainly affected pensioners who were over 80 years old.

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Back in 2014, management companies of apartment buildings included a new service in utility bills. The appearance of the line “for major repairs” in receipts alarmed and upset many homeowners. However, in the same year, the first recommendations appeared, which described in detail ways to help apartment owners avoid paying for this service on completely legal grounds.

Have the fees for major repairs been waived?

But whether the fee for major repairs will be abolished completely is a big question. At the moment, government bodies do not intend to cancel the obligation of citizens to make mandatory contributions for capital repairs, since this does not in essence contradict certain norms of housing legislation and the content of the obligatory side of the right of ownership.

It is impossible to exclude the possibility of a situation in which payments for capital repairs of apartment buildings will be canceled - everything depends on the further behavior of society and the actions of the authorized bodies to monitor the reasonableness of the amounts of contributions and their implementation.

Legal beneficiaries for major repairs

The payers of the contribution are the owners of residential premises, but the amount is calculated regardless of how many people are the owners. As with any rule, there are exceptions here too:

Persons over 80 years of age have the right to receive full compensation for expenses related to in-depth restoration.
Persons aged 70 years have the right to receive partial assistance in the amount of 50 percent of the contribution paid. This group also includes persons in whose care there are disabled people, families of people injured during the Chernobyl nuclear accident and disabled people of certain groups.

Questions for a lawyer from owners

Hello! I am a conscientious payer, I live alone, I am the owner of ½ of the house. I pay all utility bills monthly, but since I only own part of the apartment, I pay a contribution for major repairs, dividing the amount in half. I recently received a subpoena; the management company filed a lawsuit for a two-year delay in full payment of the required amount. What documents do I need to have with me during the hearing to prove my innocence? The second owner finally refused to appear in court, hoping for the cancellation of the fee for major repairs. Thank you.

Good evening! You need to have all the receipts for payment of this fee with you; the judge will count them as an evidentiary basis for the paperwork. Of course, we cannot make a decision instead of a magistrate, but in 95 percent of such cases a operative part is issued, obliging the second owner to pay; if voluntary payment of the obligatory payment is not made, then the materials will be transferred to the bailiffs.

Good afternoon. The meeting of the owners of our house made a decision to create a personal account, I am against such a decision, can I influence and change the method of accumulation? What do I need for this? Thank you!

Hello. There are several options for the development of events here. First, find out the form of vote counting; if the decision was made by more than 50 percent of one vote, then the election is considered legitimate. The second is the number of people present at the meeting, if less than 40 percent of the representatives of each residential area came and the elections were made without their votes, you can insist on re-election, after which a new decision will be made, but no one will guarantee that it will be different from the previous one.

Difficulties of isolation

All their own houses: Russians’ spending on housing and communal services in self-isolation will increase by 30%

This will primarily affect water and electricity costs.

During self-isolation, workers of contracting companies are prohibited from entering citizens' apartments due to the threat of the spread of coronavirus. Therefore, they will not be able to begin repairing engineering in the houses - hot and cold water supply pipes, as well as heating, are located in the apartments, Anna Mamonova, executive director of the Association of Regional Operators of Major Repairs of Apartment Buildings (AROCR), told Izvestia.

If restrictions last until July, engineering repairs will not be completed before the heating season - and then they will have to be postponed until next year, she predicts.

As previously reported, in Moscow and the Moscow region the collection of contributions for major repairs was suspended for three months. Construction and repair work has already been stopped in the capital region. Residents of the Kirov and Penza regions also do not need to pay fees until July 1; in some regions, payments were suspended until June.

overhaul

Photo: TASS/YAY/Sal Burciaga

According to the head of the State Duma Committee on Housing Policy and Housing and Communal Services, Galina Khovanskaya, in such conditions, canceling the fee is the right decision, since there is still nothing to spend the money on.

“It is unknown how long the epidemic will last; now it is only developing progressively. We haven’t even reached the peak yet, then we will go down just as much. It would be nice to sort this out at least before the end of summer,” said Galina Khovanskaya.

She confirmed to Izvestia that the overhaul work would have to be postponed. Now all efforts should be directed to financing medical institutions, she added.

Major leak: Management companies warned authorities about massive debts for housing and communal services

Companies also suffer losses due to the need to disinfect entrances

Probably, the planned volume of overhaul work will be completed by 65–85%, depending on the region, predicted Pavel Sigal, First Vice President of Support of Russia. At the same time, work that will be postponed until next year will become more expensive - the cost of materials and wages for repairmen will increase, he noted.