Seven sure-fire ways to reduce the amount on housing and communal services bills

Often in the bills that fall into our mailbox, you can see items that make the hair on your head stand on end

For some, the figures for payments for water and electricity are off the charts, others are confused by general household needs and expenses for them, and others are perplexed to discover fees for rain!

Residents of a house on Transportnaya Street in the city of Kungur pay 7 rubles a month for rainwater entering the sewer system. The line “One Tax for Wastewater” was added to payment bills quite recently and on completely legal grounds.

Residents, of course, were surprised: will they have to pay for rain only when it rains or all year round? The water utility, which issues bills, has dashed the hope of seasonality: you will have to pay all the time, and in order to collect money according to this column, there is a special order that calculates the general house drainage needs. It also describes rainwater that flows through sewer manholes into sewers, and the consequences of accidents on intra-house networks.

There is, of course, an exception in Russia - a house where utility bills are similar to telephone numbers, but this does not bother the residents at all. He is, of course, located in Moscow, and his address is known from numerous news reports. The living space was glorified by Evgenia Vasilyeva, a former employee of the Russian Ministry of Defense, who was accused of embezzling more than 800 million rubles.

The head of the HOA of this house in Molochny Lane is ex-Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov. At the initiative of the building manager, the payment system now depends not on the number of rooms, but on the square footage. The monthly payment for utilities is 113 thousand rubles. You will have to pay 27 thousand a month for cleaning the rugs, and there is also an annual payment of 380 thousand rubles for the collection of payments itself. However, for the owner of the 13-room apartment, Evgenia Vasilyeva, they made an exception and left lenient rates.

Starting July 1, utility bills in the country officially increased in price. Payments received in August will be calculated at the new rates. Perhaps it's time to take a good look at the receipt and throw away everything unnecessary. The website EG.RU has figured out what you can refuse and not pay.

How to refuse a radio point

This service is a legacy of Soviet times. Nowadays only a few people listen to wired radio, but many people pay for it. It doesn’t cost much per month—about 100 rubles. It seems to be unnoticed, but 1,200 rubles accumulate per year - this is already noticeable.

You can cross out an unnecessary column from your payment card at the MFC by writing a statement and asking to disable the unclaimed service. Previously, it was possible to get rid of a radio only after visiting the office of a radio broadcasting and public address company.

Utility bills must be carefully checked every month. Image: KP

Apply for subsidies

If a difficult financial situation has arisen, and most of the money is spent on paying for utilities, then you should contact the City Center for Housing Subsidies or the MFC at your place of residence to apply for a subsidy for housing and communal services.

Source:

Channel "Power of Right"

Heading:

Housing legislation

increase in tariffs for housing and communal services utility bills

• Svetlana Petropolskaya, co-owner of the Law Firm URVISTA

How to cross out the column “Social housing insurance”

Sometimes there is a Social Security column on receipts. It is paid at the request of the homeowner and is voluntary.

On the one hand, this is a good thing. For a nominal fee (about 100 rubles), a person can count on compensation in the event of flooding or other emergencies. But there are a number of subtleties: there is no policy in hand, which means the grandmother said in two parts who will pay whom. It would be much more reliable to insure your home against the same risks with a self-selected insurance company. The chances of receiving compensation are much greater this way.

Experts advise simply crossing out this column from the receipt and paying the amount minus insurance. They cannot calculate your debt under this item, but insurance is voluntary.

What to do if there is an error in the housing and communal services receipt in favor of the consumer

It happens that the management company did not take into account the newly registered tenant and continued accruals for a smaller number of registered residents. It turns out that an error in the housing and communal services receipt in favor of the consumer led to the accumulation of payment arrears, because consumers are required to pay for the use of services.

However, it is worth paying attention to the length of the period during which payments are made for a smaller amount. Important! The management company has no right to demand payment of debt accumulated over more than 3 years. That is, if an error in a housing and communal services receipt has been repeated for 10 years, then the user is obliged to pay only the last 3 and the recalculation of utility bills occurs only for the last 3 years. In this case, debt for previous years is cancelled.

If the management company does not agree with the refusal to pay the debt, you should go to court. The legislation will be on the tenant's side.

How to save on utilities while living in the country

If you went on vacation or went to the country for the summer, you can save a lot on rent. The homeowner will have a whole month after returning to come to the management company and ask for a discount on utilities. Naturally, one request will not be enough. You need to confirm your absence, for example, with train or plane tickets, checks from the hotel or a certificate from the chairman of the SNT that you lived in the country during the summer season.

Recalculation is not due to everyone, but only to those in whose houses it is physically impossible to install meters and utilities are charged at the average tariff. The impossibility of installation will also need to be confirmed by a document - an inspection report, which will be drawn up by a house mechanic.

For “cold” hot water, you can receive a recalculation from the management company. Image: KP

Errors in housing and communal services receipts: causes

Errors in utility payment documents are quite common. There are a number of reasons for their occurrence, which include:

1. Unlawful increase in tariffs. This allows unscrupulous management companies to significantly increase profits without extra effort.
2. Extra columns. The same unscrupulous management companies often add lines to the payment slip for work that was not actually provided.
3. Problems with the programs used to fill out receipts. This is the case when an error can be not only in favor of the performer, but also of the payer.
4. Inclusion of defaulters in the amount of debt.
5. Errors of employees who calculate the numbers indicated on the receipt.

In order to avoid overpayments, carefully study the payment document and what is indicated in each line.

Errors in housing and communal services receipts in favor of the service provider

The homeowner has the right to demand a recalculation of the amount accrued in the payment order. But there must be good reasons for this:

1. The receipt contains charges for work that was not actually performed.
2. The supplier company increased tariffs without reason.

Remember! The management company does not have the legal right to independently index tariffs. Changes must be approved at a meeting of owners. This means that in this situation the payer has the right to report it to the housing inspectorate, and then to the prosecutor’s office. Tariffs for water, gas supply, etc. are the same for each locality and are controlled by local authorities.

1. The amount of the payment document includes the debt of defaulters distributed among the owners.
2. The service provider does not provide them or does so poorly.

What to do if an error is found in the housing and communal services receipt in favor of the service provider

The first instance for the owner to contact is the organization that provided the services and write a statement detailing the essence of the claim. The application must be registered. This is mandatory, since after registering the application, the organization is obliged to respond no later than 30 days.

If an organization made a mistake by accident or simply does not want to have problems, then the issue will be resolved quickly and a recalculation will be made in the next payment. If the service provider has not responded to the claim or does not recalculate the amount, then the next authority is the municipal housing inspectorate.

You can also seek help from the following organizations:

1. Rospotrebnadzor.
2. Local body of the Federal Antimonopoly Service.
3. Regional and municipal authorities.
4. Prosecutor's office.

The final authority is the court where the claim is filed.

Helpful advice! If there is an emergency in the house, there is no water or heat for a long time, the entrance is not cleaned, etc., record these cases and try to notify the housing inspector about them. This will make recalculating accruals much easier and faster.

Errors in housing and communal services receipts in favor of the payer

Such errors are due to negligence in calculations made by the company. This means that for some time the calculations were made according to the old tariffs. Also, the company may not take into account the newly registered resident and calculate the amount based on the previous number of registered residents. If the owner sees this error in the receipt, then in order to avoid problems in the future, he should contact the organization for recalculation. Such errors lead to the accumulation of debt, and when recalculation is made, the amount on the receipt may differ significantly from the monthly average. Collection of debt for housing and communal services for more than 3 years is prohibited at the legislative level. The remaining debt, if any, is simply cancelled.

How to recalculate utility bills

The scheme is similar to the previous point, but even those who have meters can receive this deduction. Recalculation can be done if the hot water in the tap is not hot enough. There are approved standards: minimum 60°C, maximum 75°C. True, there are permissible deviations of 3-5 degrees depending on the time of day.

For every three degrees deviation, you can pay 0.1% less per hour. And if the hot water temperature is below 40 degrees, then you can pay at the cold rate. To obtain this right, you need to inform the management company that the water is not hot at all. They will take measurements and issue the owner with a report with the measurement results. If there are doubts about its reliability, you can check it at your own expense. The results of personal changes with a thermometer will not be taken into account; specialists from specialized organizations will have to be called. If the temperature is below normal, then we write an appeal to the Criminal Code, Rospotrebnadzor, or go to court.

The same goes for heating. If there are cold radiators in the room during the heating season, then you can call the utility workers and draw up a report of the malfunction. Based on it, the settlement center will make a recalculation.

Recalculation of electricity

Advice from lawyers:

1. For what period can I request a recalculation for electricity according to the EPU?

1.1. For the previous 3 months, the difference will be applied to the following periods.

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2. How to correctly write, I don’t know, an application or a letter, for recalculation of electricity?

2.1. Writing such a letter is a paid service...

Did the answer help you?YesNo

3. How to correctly recalculate electricity costs.

3.1. Hello. Please specify why you want to recalculate. As a general rule, it is necessary to contact the management company with a written application, presenting the reasons why recalculation is necessary, for example due to temporary absence, which is confirmed by relevant documents.

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4. I have never paid for electricity, but the meter is registered, the bailiffs wrote off the debt according to the standard, can I get the money back by recalculating the meter, the apartment was bought two years ago, no one lives there.

4.1. Good afternoon. Only through the court. Bailiffs execute the writ of execution. You must appeal the court decision because you were not notified. In court you can already claim a reduction in the claim, since the apartment was purchased two years ago. Good luck to you and all the best! I hope my answer will help you.

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5. Write a statement to the Criminal Code that the attic space is not equipped with any communications, there is not even an entrance to the attic, in order to remove the attic area from ONE, draw up an act on the recalculation of the amounts for electricity for ONE.

5.1. If you need assistance in drawing up an application, you can contact any lawyer in a personal message.

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6. I overpaid for electricity due to the fact that the readings were not transmitted before, then a recalculation was made. Receipts for payment have not been preserved. I ordered a certificate from the housing office about reconciliation of payments and charges for services. Could this be grounds for a refund of the overpayment? Thank you!

6.1. Hello! Overpayments, as a rule, are not refunded; they are taken into account against future payments when recalculating. A payment reconciliation certificate may be the basis for a refund. To do this, you need to submit an application for a refund of overpaid funds. Since the withheld funds when the payer applies for a refund are unjust enrichment, your requirements must be satisfied. However, more often the claims are denied and you have to go to court. In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 1102 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a person who, without the grounds established by law, other legal acts or transaction, acquired or saved property (acquirer) at the expense of another person (victim), is obliged to return to the latter the unjustly acquired or saved property (unjust enrichment). Please do not forget to rate the answers. Your rating is very important. Good luck!

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7. 8 years have passed since the death of the owner. Do I have the right to apply for electricity recalculation? Sincerely, Alexander.

7.1. What is the connection between the events? Recalculation is carried out for certain reasons.

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8. Is it possible to recalculate utility bills? No one lives in the apartment (new building). And the ownership of the apartment has not yet been registered. The management company sends utility bills. The water supply and electricity meters are not sealed because the management company, citing quarantine, refuses to do this (send a technician). Is it possible to recalculate payments before the meters are sealed?

8.1. Recalculation is possible, please apply. Good luck.

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9. No one was registered in the one-room apartment for a long time; on March 29, one person was registered. On April 29, we sent certificates and documents to TNS Energo. Both months we hardly used electricity in the apartment, and the amount charged was around 500 rubles. Do we have the right to demand a recalculation for April, since one person is registered in the apartment and 10 kW of electricity is used?

9.1. How did you know that 10 kW of electricity was used? Does the apartment have a working meter?

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9.2. Hello, What does registration have to do with it? Electricity is paid according to the meter readings, or according to the standard if there is no meter or it is faulty. I wish you good luck and all the best!

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10. This is the situation... A receipt for electricity and water supply has arrived. For water supply there is a recalculation and a debt of 1800 rubles. When they started to look into it, it turns out that due to a mistake by Vodokanal and a program failure, for three years they indicated only water supply in the receipt, but did not indicate sewerage, now because of their mistake, they calculated a debt of 1800 rubles. Should I pay that much for water because of their mistake, since it’s not my fault that they had a problem? I paid correctly.

10.1. Good afternoon You have the right not to pay; when filing a claim in court, you have the right to refer to the expiration of the limitation period in accordance with Art. 195, 196 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. You can also now submit an application for refusal of payment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

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10.2. Hello, In fact, you are not obliged to answer for other people’s mistakes and you can prove your case in court. Another question is, will you want it for this amount? You can write a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor and the housing inspection. I wish you good luck and all the best!

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11. The debt for non-payment of electricity is registered by one person, they take a recalculation for two people, they say they will do it, then I will pay off the entire debt correctly or this.

11.1. Of course not. They will still have to pay you a fine for incorrect calculation.

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12. Is it possible to recalculate utility services? If the meter is for electricity only. And two of the three residents were absent for several months. There are tickets and times. Registration. The manager refuses to recalculate. Speaks. That there is no such thing now. what to do?

12.1. Hello! Utilities are charged according to metering devices or according to the standard. If according to the standard, then either by the number of registered, or if they did not reside

by the number of owners. If there are fewer owners, then apply for a recalculation of accruals. If they refuse, appeal to court. Good luck!

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13. In the village, a house is inherited. We are there for 1 day (on Trinity Sunday). They charge monthly maintenance fees. Arguments about the service provided are dismissed, referring to PP 354. The response to the request to recalculate and not make further charges is not satisfied. Zero energy consumption is not an argument for them. Where can I go?

13.1. Unlike all other payments, removal of solid rubble waste does not depend on your place of residence. But only from the place from which the regional operator takes it out.

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14. An apartment building (former dormitory), there are no individual meters in the apartments and since December 2020 housing departments have recalculated, referring to Resolution 354 and electricity is charged according to the number of registered people, not taking into account the square footage (example: three people are registered and live in a room of 17 m2 and if three people are registered in a 3-room apartment of 55 m2) - the difference should be in terms of charges?

14.1. Hello, Natalia. In accordance with paragraph 2 of clause 42 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 05/06/2011 N 354 (as amended on 07/13/2019) “On the provision of utility services to owners and users of premises in apartment buildings and residential buildings” in the absence of an individual or common (apartment) appliance metering of cold water, hot water, electricity and gas and the absence of the technical possibility of installing such a metering device, the amount of payment for utility services for cold water supply, hot water supply, electricity supply, gas supply provided to the consumer in a residential area is determined in accordance with formulas 4 and 5 of the appendix No. 2 to these Rules based on utility service consumption standards. In the i-th residential premises that are not equipped with an individual or common (apartment) metering device for cold water, hot water, waste water and electrical energy, according to paragraph 42 of the Rules, it is determined by formula 4: Pi = ni x Nj x TCP, where: ni - the number of citizens permanently and temporarily residing in the i-th residential premises; Nj is the consumption standard for the jth utility service; TCP is the tariff (price) for a utility resource established in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. Thus, accruals are carried out in accordance with current legislation.

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15. The question is simple. The answer is complex. According to information, a project has been submitted to the lower house of the State Duma to recalculate payments for garbage for electricity consumption of no more than 30 kW per month. The question is: “When can we expect the final release of the Resolution?”

15.1. This project may not be accepted at all.

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16. Is it possible to demand a recalculation from the management company if we were charged for electricity according to the standard for two people, although no one is registered in the apartment and there is only one owner?

16.1. Hello, Oksana. Outgrows possible. They will recalculate it per person, but with a coefficient of 1.5. To recalculate, you must write an application to the Criminal Code.

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17. The company erroneously applied the rural Tariff when calculating for consumed electricity. Then, having corrected the error, we applied the city Tariff and recalculated it, going back three years. Due to the fault of the company, I have the status of a debtor and the requirement to pay a debt of 25,000 rubles. I `m a pensioner. Can I not pay this debt?

17.1. Judging by the text, you cannot, they are asking you what is due and within the limitation period, there are no violations of your rights in this case.

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18. I had an electricity tariff of 3 rubles per kilowatt, now they sent me a receipt for 5 rubles per kilowatt, when I arrived at the company’s office they told me that a year ago we changed your area to urban and now you have to pay 50 thousand for what you have It’s heated up, I’ll clarify again in the receipts it says 3 rubles per kilowatt and the recalculation was done for the year at 5 rubles per kilowatt, who is right and where to go?

18.1. To the prosecutor's office and housing inspectorate at the place of residence with a complaint about the actions of the ESC. (energy saving campaign)

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19. What to do in this situation: in our SNT, the owner’s meter broke (the meter is installed on a pole), his meter readings were inflated for 6 months, but he only discovered that the meter was broken now. Installed a new meter. For what period is electricity recalculation done? And How? Electricity networks belong to SNT. The owner lives at the dacha all year round.

19.1. Elena, you need to carry out an examination of the meter and recalculate based on its results.

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20. The question is, do penalties have a statute of limitations for debts on utility bills and electricity? And how was Petroelektrosbyt able to recalculate the debt from 2017, if the penalties are from 2012 and we don’t know about it?

20.1. Good evening. The statute of limitations is three years.

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20.2. Dear Irina! The statute of limitations (3 years) can be applied to the debtor both for the principal debt and for interest or penalties (penalties), on the basis of Articles 196, 199, 200, 207 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Article 207. Application of the limitation period to additional claims (as amended by Federal Law dated May 7, 2013 N 100-FZ) 1. With the expiration of the limitation period for the main claim, the limitation period for additional claims (interest, penalty, pledge, guarantee, etc.), including those arising after the expiration of the limitation period for the main claim. 2. If the deadline for presenting a writ of execution on the main claim is missed, the limitation period for additional claims is considered expired. Good luck to you.

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They did not transmit electricity meter readings for about three years, but they paid for all receipts.

The management company charges for ONE electricity according to the standard,

We were a month late in replacing the electric meter, and ended up billing the average,

I am a member (owner) of the TS and in the receipt for January in the calculation section

What should we do? In March 2020, wires from garbage chutes and stairwells were partially stolen in 2 entrances.

Being on shift for 90 days, they refuse to recalculate me. Contents MK-electricity, cold water supply.

We bought an apartment with a debt, the electricity was turned off for two years, should the management company make a recalculation?

We checked the meters and it turned out that our meter has 5 digits, but we transmitted 4 digits, i.e.

There was a surplus in my account for housing and communal services payments (a recalculation was made).

I sent the electricity meter readings to another number and ended up with a debt on how to recalculate and where to go.

Does a resource supplying organization have the right to recalculate electricity for the previous period if a preferential tariff is applied that is not published by the Ministry of Justice?

How common are errors in housing and communal services receipts?

Errors in receipts are quite common. In almost every house throughout Russia, at least once, an error was discovered in bringing unnatural amounts. There are several reasons for this discrepancy.

Firstly, not all management companies are honest and conscientious. This leads to unjustifiably inflated prices. It has been repeatedly noticed that management companies add extra columns, including in the cost of payment non-existent services or wages for specialists who do not take part in maintaining the house. There are also frequent cases of banal overpricing.

Secondly, the error may be caused by technical failures in the systems that generate the receipts. And the machines may not work correctly. Such errors affect the amount, sometimes even downward, but, unfortunately, this rarely happens.

Thirdly, there is no escape from the human factor. Calculations are performed by computer programs under the control of operator operators. The latter may get confused or distracted. Such carelessness inevitably leads to errors in the receipt.

Thus, an important task for each payer, before making payment on a receipt, is to carefully study its contents. To do this, it would be useful to figure out how to correctly read the given figures and calculations. The easiest way is to compare the new receipt with the receipt for the previous month if you are sure that the payment was made correctly. But what to do if there is an error in the housing and communal services receipt? Let's figure it out and look for answers together.

Receipt graph meaning

What to look for when looking for an error:

1. Column "Type of services". This column provides a list of types of work performed by the housing organization. This includes the maintenance and maintenance of engineering equipment and the building structure, cleaning of common areas and local areas, carrying out measures to combat insects and rodents, garbage removal, etc. If there is a garbage chute and an elevator, maintenance of these communications is also included in the “Type of services” column. Your task is to carefully review each line given and make sure that this service is provided in your home. If it is not fulfilled, you need to contact the housing organization to explain the reasons why the service is not provided and funds are collected for its implementation. For example, when disinfestation or cleaning of the local area is carried out by the residents themselves, there is no need to pay for it. More precisely, the management company has no right to demand it. At the same time, the cost and list of services, as well as changes made to the tariffs, must be agreed upon at a general meeting with the apartment owners. Without such a decision at the general meeting, the increase in tariffs is unauthorized.
2. "Maintenance". Services for repairing engineering equipment (plumbing and sewerage) are listed here; structural elements of the building (basement, walls, roof, etc.); gas equipment inside the house (including supply hoses to individual gas stoves and water heaters). The peculiarity of this column is that the final cost is the tariff multiplied by the total area of ​​the apartment. Important! The number of residents has no effect on the amount of payment for routine home repairs.
3. Column "Housing rental". Payment charges for the rental (use) of residential premises under a housing rental agreement. (Article 155 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation (clauses 3, 4)).
4. "Major renovation". Starting from 2020, all homeowners will pay for major repairs; this fee can be written down as a line on the payment slip or received as a separate payment. Its value depends on how many rubles per sq.m. will be determined by local authorities. Each region has its own tax.
5. "Heating". Payment for heating depends on the equipment of the house and the availability of individual and communal metering devices. The calculation is made either according to metering devices, or according to standards and the total area of ​​the premises. Of course, during the period of no heating, there should be no accruals in this column.
6. “Cold and hot water supply (CW and DHW)”, “Sewerage”, “Gas supply” and “Electricity”. The amounts here must correspond to metering devices, and in their absence, to the number of residents and established standards.
7. “Common house needs (CHN).” Here the expenses for common property in an apartment building will be indicated, the list of which is given in Article 36 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. These include: • corridors; • elevators, elevator and other shafts; • technical floors, attics and roofs; • stairs and inter-apartment landings, ODN expenses are calculated as the amount of services provided in the general house minus the total amount of resources consumed in all residential apartments and non-residential commercial premises of the house.

Rules and procedure for recalculation for utilities according to Resolution 354

1. The name of the organization the tenant is applying to.
2. Personal data.
3. Residential address.
4. Please recalculate indicating the type of service.
5. The period for which the payment must be recalculated.
6. Grounds for recalculation indicating attachments to the application.

Reasons

• The meters were not verified on time. In this case, payment is made at tariffs that are higher than payments based on metering indicators;
• the pipeline was inserted independently if the pipe diameter exceeds the established standards;
• There are no seals on the meter or its integrity is damaged.

The Government of the Russian Federation, on the basis of and in pursuance of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, regulatory decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, issues decrees and orders, ensures their implementation (Article 23 of the Federal Constitutional Law of December 17, 1997 N 2-FKZ “On Government of the Russian Federation").