Previously, apartment buildings were built according to one type and were rarely improved. This led to the fact that ten-year-old buildings fell into disrepair, which means they could become a cause of dissatisfaction among their residents.
Today the situation has changed. When private property began to dominate the market, and people were able to buy real estate in large quantities, the question arose of how to maintain apartment buildings?
There was no practice of maintaining and maintaining buildings in proper condition in the Soviet Union, and now, when the owners are ready to shell out a lot of money every month for maintaining the house in the required condition , the question arises about what exactly should be done as part of managing the house.
The Housing Code quickly put all the answers to questions in their place, and now management organizations are trying to carry out their activities properly, largely because they are afraid of losing trust, and therefore losing income.
When making utility payments, many residents cannot understand some things.
threatens its residents to become unsafe in the near future . The same thing happens with numbers and utility bills.
Residents of some houses receive quite acceptable payment amounts in their bills, while others are amazed at the amounts of payments.
All these aspects are individual in nature and depend on various factors: the degree of occupancy of the house, the number of people living in it, the condition of the house after delivery by the developer, the number of debtors, the policies of the management organization, and so on.
But if you are the legal owner of housing in an apartment building, and you are not satisfied with the fact that it is not clear what exactly, where and in what quantity the money is going , we suggest that you read the text of our article and get a little closer to the world of housing and communal services and the whole its internal kitchen.
Read about issues of reorganization, liquidation and bankruptcy of HOAs on our website.
How are tariffs formed and on what do they depend?
Many owners living in different houses are perplexed as to why the numbers on their bills differ so much. Why can one house be cheaper than another? Unfortunately, we have not yet moved away from the Soviet past, where everything and everyone was equal.
And you will agree that in many ways the false impression that all payments should be the same is due to the fact that we all use the services of resource companies , and they often set approximately the same tariffs.
Tariffs for the services of management organizations vary in the most incredible way.
The partnership, consisting of a board and a chairman, is authorized independently, but based on certain regulatory legal acts, to set tariffs for utility services .
Before talking about payment schemes, we will briefly tell you what a homeowners’ association is.
This is an organization that is recognized as a non-profit, although this statement is quite controversial, because the partnership works with residents’ funds .
In addition, the partnership appears before us as a full-fledged legal entity, since it is a taxpayer, has the right to hire citizens, and also has a leader in the person of the chairman.
The organization is formed from residents of the house who have ownership rights to this or that real estate.
The partnership is obliged to carry out actions for the maintenance and management of the apartment building, for which, in turn, the residents are obliged to pay monthly funds.
Find out how the reserve fund of an HOA is formed from our article.
The regulatory framework for calculating tariffs for the maintenance of residential premises is the following acts:
- methods of planning and accounting of public utility services No. 303;
- benefits for housing maintenance and repairs;
- rules for maintaining common property of owners No. 491;
- rules and regulations for the operation of apartment building No. 170.
The calculation is carried out using the following formula. First, a list of necessary works , their frequency, and quality are determined.
After which it is necessary to move on to collecting data on the condition of the house - technical and functional.
Next, the wages of workers involved in carrying out the work (for example, a manager), prices for necessary materials, components, fuel, resources spent on work, taxes and other expenses are calculated.
Next, the costs of labor, materials, information about the house, taxes and other items are added up.
After this, the received amount is adjusted, modified and presented to the board for discussion.
You can find out about which objects of the local area and common property are on the balance sheet of the HOA, as well as who has the right to provide technical and other services to the HOA on our website.
Target collection
VIDEO ON THE TOPIC: Everyone watch it urgently! Housing and communal services receipts.
This is the basis of the receipt form, but each management company, HOA or other service company can add the names of payments if this is required by a regional act or if residents at a general meeting approved it with their votes. There is nothing superfluous in the receipt; on the contrary, the form is designed in such a way as to bring to the attention of payers as much as possible a detailed list of components from which the final figure is obtained.
Download a receipt template for payment of housing and communal services in Excel. The maintenance of housing in the housing and communal services receipt is a check and inspection by a specialist building caretaker: the maintenance of residential premises, building structures - walls, ceilings, basement, etc. Seasonal work should also be carried out: Cleaning drainpipes and gutters. Clearing canals and wells from branches and leaves. Removing snow, chipping ice, sprinkling sand on paths. Painting of wooden and metal small forms and platform equipment.
Planting flowers and shrubs, watering, weeding, etc. If cracks, damage to the plaster or paint, whitewash are detected, repairs are carried out in separate places, windows and doors in the entrances, and the roof are repaired in separate places. This is the current repair. What is a targeted housing and communal services fee? A targeted fee can be charged only when the issue of raising funds specifically for a specific purpose - for example, the purchase of new equipment for a pumping station, boiler room, or other, was raised at the next general meeting of Art.
This is important to know: Application for replacement of a heating battery: sample
But in order to be able to legally collect money under such names, it is necessary that the general meeting fundamentally decide to adopt the Regulations on targeted collections. Owners and tenants can decide, again by voting, whether this fee will be fixed for each residential premises, or will be tied to the area. This is the target fee in the housing and communal services receipt. Also, this Regulation stipulates the deadlines for collecting these funds, which means only one thing: if the residents agreed to purchase something with additionally collected funds, then this targeted collection has a final figure and deadline.
How to refuse a targeted fee if it is stated in the housing and communal services receipt? Conclusion: the management company must draw up an agreement on targeted fees with each owner or tenant.
If this is in the contract or in additional But it is better not to hush up this problem, so as not to become one warrior in the field, you should, by written request from a group of owners, notify the organization serving the house about the refusal to pay the target fee and lay the legal groundwork, enlisting the support of a qualified lawyer specializing in this area of jurisprudence.
This HOA or management company offers to pay for hot water, which was spent last month for maintenance of common property: cleaning entrances, stairs, corridors; maintaining elevators in proper sanitary condition; cleaning and sanitary treatment of areas near garbage chutes, waste unloading rooms, etc.
This number of cubic meters of hot water is determined as follows: they take readings from the general building meter, subtract the actual consumption from apartment meters, subtract those volumes that can be billed to residents whose apartments do not have meters, and the remaining cubic meters are distributed among all users. Only now the service company does not have the right to completely throw away the remaining unpaid water, but only by comparing it with the standard consumption established at the government level for general household needs.
If the cubic meters are distributed without exceeding the standards, great, but if not, then the service company should think about why there is an imbalance in hot water consumption, and how to pay for this excess consumption. In fact, the receipt is created in a way that is understandable to every consumer; you just need to figure out what the abbreviations mean and where the expense comes from.
Tariffs are easy to check - they are published in the press, on stands and at the accountant of the management company. Understanding the essence of a housing and communal services receipt makes it possible to control the correctness of charges. Similar articles:.
The owners themselves approve these estimates with fees at meetings. This is a herd effect and has been well studied. When the owners, members of the HOA, gather for a meeting, including absentee voting, their minds turn off, they vote for what the chairman says. The owners, members of the HOA, are not tormented by such questions, they like it, as the chairman milks money out of them. And in the HOA, like in a black hole, money disappears without a trace.
How are utility bills calculated?
Utility bills are charged once every month . At the same time, this bill must be paid before the tenth day of each new month, so that the HOA does not decide that you are a malicious defaulter and threaten penalties .
Additionally, you need to remember that utility bills are calculated on a door-to-door basis. That is, each owner will receive an individual payment document .
You should not compare prices for utility bills with residents of neighboring apartments. Everyone receives an individual invoice, since the cost is formed not only according to the above-mentioned features, but also based on the square footage of your apartment.
You can find out how to write a statement to the HOA about leaks, flooding or repair requirements from our article. Also find out whether the HOA can turn off water or electricity to debtors.
What is required for payment?
If the residents of an apartment building have not yet decided which organization will service their home , then they are not required to pay rent on the bills that you receive.
Only after an appropriate vote has been held at a general or absentee meeting of residents and one single service organization has been chosen can you rush to pay the bills.
Thus, in order to pay, it is necessary that your house has an officially assigned organization that manages the construction.
The existence of such an organization is confirmed by a drawn up service agreement. Such an agreement is drawn up upon a positive vote between members of the meeting of legal homeowners and the partnership.
Find out on our website how and where you can complain about the HOA, and whether you can get out of it completely.
Membership
Membership contributions cover the costs of:
- wages for temporarily hired workers (plumbers, electricians, etc.);
- remuneration of member employees;
- remuneration of governing bodies;
- remuneration of members of the audit commission;
Read our article about how the chairman’s salary is determined.
The entity to which the ownership of residential/non-residential premises located in the complex of the company's premises has been transferred becomes a member of the HOA from the moment it receives ownership of the premises. Membership fees are collected from a new member of the organization immediately after his entry .
Membership contributions are the main source of income for the organization, but their size should be insignificant compared to other contributions to ensure regular payment.
Read about the responsibilities of the HOA manager in our article.
Where can I find my current account?
You can get information about the current personal account of the HOA from the payment card itself.
It should contain details that will make it easy for you to pay your bills for all outstanding expenses for maintaining your home.
But home management organizations that have just started operating may forget to provide owners with such important payment information.
Then you can obtain information about the current personal account of your management organization by going to the office of the association of legal homeowners, or by referring to the text of the contract for the provision of services.
Samples of documents such as an application for joining a HOA and the HOA Charter can be downloaded on our website.
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What are membership fees in the HOA and how do they relate to owners who are not members of the partnership?
Owners' associations created by residents of houses to manage common property have the right to collect membership fees to ensure the functioning of the housing association structure and organize the provision of non-basic utilities.
The article will discuss membership fees in the HOA and non-membership fees, the amount of fees and the consequences of non-payment.
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Methods and terms
Let's talk about payment terms. Many people are dismissive of this issue, which is in vain.
Unfortunately, late payment of bills may expose you to penalties or unpleasant conversations with other owners and members of the partnership. Willful defaulters even become a target for summons to court.
As a rule, the payment document arrives at the end of each month. If the document has not arrived at the beginning of the month, you can call the partnership and demand its provision, since due to their slowness you may become the payer of the penalty.
If the document arrived on time, then it is necessary to pay the debt on the account before the tenth day of the new month that has begun. If the payment is not made on the 11th, then this is the basis for the accrual of penalties.
There are different ways to pay your apartment building maintenance bills. Some people pay the old fashioned way through the postal service by going to a branch of the Russian Post, which is not very convenient due to the long queues.
Some people prefer to pay by bank transfer , paying bills at nearby credit institutions. Also today it is possible to pay bills via the Internet .
You can find out whether an HOA is required to have its own official website from our article.
Through the Internet
How to make HOA payments online?
If you don’t have time to come to the bank’s office in person, you can pay for utilities online.
To do this, you need to know the current account numbers of your homeowners association, namely such data as OGRN, INN .
If you have access to the Internet bank from your card, you can simply go into it and send funds in the amount indicated in the payment order to the bank account numbers indicated in the same payment order. Be sure to save the electronic receipt , or better yet, print it.
If you are making a payment for the first time and do not know whether the payment will go through within the established time frame, be sure to go to the homeowners association several days after payment and make sure that the payment has gone through .
You can find out how to register an HOA on the GIS Housing and Communal Services from our article.
Without partnership participation
Is it possible to pay for utilities without the participation of the HOA? As you can already understand from this article, the partnership has the right, at its discretion, to establish the amounts of all available payments for the legal owners, and also have the opportunity to enter into an agreement with them, providing their maintenance services.
In accordance with the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the main regulatory legal act regulating the work of a homeowners’ association, all owners of premises in a particular building, without exception, are required to pay accrued utility bills.
Thus, we can conclude that it is simply impossible to pay for utilities without the participation of the homeowners’ association, since someone else will be able to charge it to you if the management of the building is carried out exclusively by this organization.
What HOA fees are due?
Contribution payers can be divided into two groups:
- Legal entities.
- Property owners.
Legal entities include management organizations (HOAs); such entities pay fees associated with the attraction and employment of full-time employees.
These payments are called insurance premiums and have three components, depending on the place where the funds are transferred:
- Pension insurance payments.
- Payments to the social insurance fund.
- Payments to the health insurance fund (CHF).
The responsibility for paying the listed contributions lies with the management of the housing association if there are officially formalized employment contracts with employees (in accordance with tax legislation).
Property owners, in turn, are required to pay the following contributions to the partnership cash desk:
Targeted contributions are mandatory payments for all owners of premises (Part 5, Clause 2, Article 153 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation), they are spent on the provision of utility resources (gas, electricity, water supply, etc.), as well as on the repair and maintenance of common property in proper condition (repair and cleaning of entrances, garbage removal, etc.).
Residents of an apartment building who are not members of the housing association are not required to pay membership and entrance fees, but are required to pay for the actual use of services provided through such fees.
Whether you are a member of an HOA or not, you will pay for the use of utilities.
Features of a special account for major repairs
A special account is a specialized account that was opened in the banking system or with a regional operator. This account contains funds collected by residents and intended only for carrying out work on the house within the prescribed period.
The responsibility to pay bills for utility repairs lies with each and every owner of the premises .
After all, these repairs will be carried out only in his interests, which are intended to extend the durability of the building.
You can pay the invoice for major repairs using the information given in the payment document.
Also today it is possible to pay bills for major repairs using special terminals , which are available in large banking organizations.
