Reasons and rules for dividing a personal account

Division of a personal account in a municipal apartment according to the law

Citizens living under a social contract in housing, the legal owner of which is the settlement administration, are subject to certain restrictions. Registered residents who are adults and have legal capacity may apply for a separate payment receipt. It will be necessary to terminate the existing social contract and enter into two separate agreements with the parties to the dispute. The latest edition of the RF Housing Code (2005) does not address this issue, referring it to the competence of the state owner.

Residents registered in a municipal apartment cannot resolve the situation on their own. In any case, coordination with the Housing Committee of the administration will be required. A typical situation: ex-spouses continue to live in a social facility after a divorce. People’s desire for independence is understandable, but the division of communal responsibilities does not always receive consent; the municipality is reluctant to split up responsibility and renegotiate rental agreements.

If it is not possible to conclude independent rental agreements, a standard application for the division of utility responsibilities is sent to the Housing Department of the Administration. According to Art. 69 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, all residents bear equal responsibility for utility bills. Often registered citizens do not live at the place of registration; the rest have to pay for their living space in full. The family may break up or families of two generations of relatives who want to pay separately may form.

The application shall contain the following information:

• the applicant’s role in paying utility bills;
• individual share payment amount;
• the amount of mandatory contributions for major repairs.

If payments are made directly to service provider companies, then new relationships with them will need to be agreed upon. Since permission from the administration is required, two opposite situations may arise as a result of the application:

• division is prohibited with the wording of inexpediency;
• the procedure is permitted, according to the former provisions of the RF Housing Code.

In case of an unmotivated refusal, the interested person has the right to go to court to resolve the conflict with the administration. The court may not accept the case if it concerns related disputes. Having become strangers, former spouses have a greater chance of having the claim accepted for consideration. The claim will be the renegotiation of independent contracts for social housing.

How to file a claim for division of a personal account

To correctly draw up an agreement and split the bill, you need to contact a notary. If it was not possible to achieve a peace agreement, then still go to him to file a lawsuit. But it doesn’t stop there. You need to be prepared for a large and lengthy bureaucratic process.

List of documents to be submitted to the court to resolve the problem of payment for services:

• claim, on behalf of each of the participants in the process. These include: residents of the apartment, organizations servicing the house; if a rental agreement has been concluded, the landlord must write a separate claim;
• provide a receipt for payment of state duty. For the procedure you need to pay a state fee of about 250 rubles;

• 
  a copied lease agreement or other document that confirms your right to ownership of a share in the premises under discussion;

• certificate of registration of each person according to the given address;
• a certificate that will determine the debt for the provision of services from housing and communal services. You will have to receive it even if there are no debts;
• receipt for payment of utilities and other services.

The last five documents must have as many copies as there are members of the process. To draw up a statement of claim, you can use a standard template.

Confusion of concepts

Before starting the procedure, you should understand the basic concepts of utility payments for a municipal apartment:

1. Changing the conditions and rules of residence leads to the re-conclusion of the current contract. You cannot make changes or draw up a protocol of new rules; you will need to terminate the current document early and sign a new agreement between the parties.
2. The role of the court is to make a ruling for the management company. The document must contain instructions on the re-conclusion of documents for the parties to the dispute.
3. The existing rent debt is divided equally, regardless of the arguments of the parties.
4. Utility payments are divided in accordance with the share in the transformation of the personal account. Additionally, the management company charges each tenant with contributions for capital and current repairs of the premises.
5. Judicial practice on disputes of this type is contradictory. The outcome of the consideration depends on the arguments provided by the parties and the position of the administration representative. It is not profitable for the municipality to issue new documents instead of the old one, so you should not count on an easy solution to the dispute.

The division of accounts is made not by the number of rooms, but by the total living space. Having a room or one-room property, you can separate payment responsibilities and receive two independent payment receipts. The services of a lawyer in housing disputes will significantly increase the chances of a positive outcome of the case. The specialist will study the situation and take competent measures to protect the interests of his client.

Dividing a personal account in an apartment with shared ownership

A personal account (hereinafter referred to as “PA”) is opened for the entire premises as a whole, no matter whether we are talking about privatized living space or housing provided for use on the basis of a social tenancy agreement. Monthly receipts for utilities are generated on the basis of the LS. This document contains the following information:

After receiving certificates from Rosreestr, owners can contact the HOA or Management Company with a statement of intent to receive a divided LAN for each of the owners of the premises. To do this, an application is submitted to the HOA or management company for the allocation of an individual property on the basis of existing certificates of ownership of part of the living space and an agreement concluded between the owners. The agreement is concluded in advance in writing and certified by a notary. There are no specific requirements for this document; its preparation is determined by the general conditions for such documents in accordance with civil law. The agreement itself explains the procedure for payment, the amount of payment and the time frame for payment of utility bills by each of the owners. The number of copies of the completed agreement must be equivalent to the number of participants who concluded it, plus additional copies are produced for organizations providing public services, depending on their total number.

How to split a personal account: step-by-step instructions

Those wishing to pay for a municipal apartment separately are advised to follow these steps:

• If possible, privatize living space. Having become shared owners, citizens will be able to open personal accounts according to their shares;
• If privatization is not possible, there is the possibility of contacting a management company or a unified settlement center (EIRC). Interested parties write an application requesting the division of payment documents. Partition is most often refused, which becomes the basis for judicial consideration of the dispute;
• a claim is filed in a civil court at the location of the object (registration of the defendant). If a dispute occurs with the management company, then the claim is filed at the location of the organization;
• the resulting decision becomes the basis for amending the current social tenancy agreement. The decision comes into force in a month, the document must be submitted to the housing department to terminate the previous agreement and conclude new agreements with different payment details;
• Each participant in the process receives the amount of regular payments assigned by the management company.

To obtain separate payment accounts, you must correctly justify your position. The success of the process depends on the substantiation of the claim. You should refer to the impossibility of joint payment and attach documentary evidence.

Division of personal accounts through the court

The procedure for dividing a personal account through the court is possible not only if there is a mutual agreement, but also at the request of one of the owners. For example, if one or more tenants systematically evade payment, the amount of debt can be regularly collected from them, or a claim can be filed to divide the personal account.

To file a claim for division of a personal account, receive a written refusal from the management company

.
Also, the basis for going to court will be the lack of response to the submitted application within a month
. Any of the owners can file a claim, or a class action lawsuit will be considered.

To consider the case, you will need to submit the following set of documents:

• statement of claim;
• copies of passports for each plaintiff;
• title documents for each share in a residential premises - an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, a certificate of title, a certificate of inheritance, etc.;
• agreement between owners on the division of personal accounts;
• technical plan for residential premises (if the agreement provides for the allocation of separate residential premises to each of the shareholders);
• an extract from the personal account (taken from the management company
  at the time of consideration of the claim);
• correspondence with the management company or resource supply organization about the out-of-court division of personal accounts;
• certificate of absence of debt;
• payment document confirming the transfer of state duty.

Download the statement of claim for division of a personal account (sample)

These categories of cases are considered in district courts at the location of the defendant, i.e. management company

. The claim can be filed by mail or in person at the court office. Each of the owners will be a participant in the process, declaring independent demands.

If an apartment is allocated to citizens on social rent terms, the personal account can be divided only in the event of termination of family relations. In such circumstances, the lessor is involved in the case.

A positive court decision will be the basis for the forced division of personal accounts. The judicial act will indicate what share of the total amount of consumed resource falls on each owner (as a rule, this part is proportional to the size of the share)

. A certified copy of the decision must be submitted to the management company or settlement center, and if the judicial act is not executed voluntarily, the writ of execution is sent to the FSSP service.

How does the actual division of a personal account take place based on a judicial act? An agreement will be concluded with each of the owners with the opening of separate personal accounts. In this case, indoor metering devices will be common property, and residents retain the obligation to timely replace the specified equipment, verify them and transfer data (if there is no automatic transfer of information)

. The owner has the right to independently decide which of them will be responsible for transmitting information to the management company, and how payments for the repair or replacement of metering devices will be collected.

From the moment the personal accounts are divided, each shareholder will receive a separate receipt. To calculate the amount of utility bills, the receipt indicates the proportional part of the payment for the total amount of resource consumed

.
The specified proportion will correspond to the agreement of the owners, set out in the agreement, or a judicial act
. After the division of personal accounts, if arrears arise for utility bills, collection will be carried out from each owner separately.

The division of personal accounts is one of the most controversial concepts in the modern housing sector.

This is due to the peculiarities of the legislation and controversial situations that arise in practice when the owners of one residential premises cannot agree on the procedure for incurring housing and utility costs or avoid paying assessed contributions .

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Statement of claim to court for division of personal account

An appeal to the court is written in any form, but the legal text must contain the necessary information. The claim may be returned for revision or left without progress if inconsistencies and errors are discovered. The application must contain the required details:

• name of the magistrate's court;
• personal data of the plaintiff: passport details, phone number;
• personal data of the defendant with whom the personal account should be shared;
• data of the organization involved in the dispute;
• the reason for the employer's request for division of payments;
• requirement: oblige the EIRC to divide payments determined by the court between the parties to the dispute.

The plaintiff must indicate that the pre-trial settlement of the conflict has failed and judicial intervention is required. The presence of written refusals from official authorities will allow you to substantiate the appeal and confirm the grounds for splitting payments. The application and package of documents are submitted to the court office, and a receipt for repayment of the state fee is submitted. The number of copies of the application must correspond to the participants in the process to whom notification of the acceptance of the claim is sent.

How to properly divide a personal account for utility bills in an apartment

• based on metering devices that have the necessary certificates and are installed in compliance with legal regulations;
• according to standard indicators - if there are no metering devices in the apartment, accrual occurs according to standard indicators approved by legislative acts;
• according to the area of ​​the apartment - for heating.

How does the division of personal accounts take place?

Ownership and use of residential premises is possible on the terms of social rent, on the right of ownership or lease. A mandatory legal requirement for residents is timely and full payment for housing and communal services - electricity, water supply and sewerage, gas supply and heating. Accounting for the quantity and volume of consumed resources is carried out in the following ways:

• a special agreement is drawn up between the property owners, which indicates their shares in the apartment, since on the basis of this information the division of the account will be carried out;
• With this document you need to come to the management company or resource supply companies, where an application for account division is drawn up;
• These documents are accompanied by an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate and technical papers for the facility;
• All owners involved in this process must have passports with them.

Documents for the personal account section

To open a trial, you will need to provide the necessary documentation package:

• an extract from the residents' register taken from the housing and communal services department;
• the right to establish certificates of residence in a social facility;
• factual materials proving the fact: two different families pay a single receipt. This circumstance is contrary to the law, since it leads to disputes about payment for accommodation;
• extract from the technical passport of the BTI;
• payment confirmation of payment of the duty.

The responsible tenant has the right to file a claim and state the reason for entering into new agreements. A similar right is granted to other residents who are registered in the area. In addition to the required documents, the court may require additional justification for the position of the participants in the consideration. Having received a negative decision, the plaintiff has the right to appeal to a higher court.

When filing an appeal against the primary procedure, you are required to provide facts about the judge's inappropriate findings. Otherwise, the appeal will not be accepted for consideration. If we are talking about the interests of a minor, then it is possible to involve a representative of the guardianship authority in the process. Notification of interested parties (defendant and legal owner) must be made within the established time frame. If procedural requirements are violated, the defendant has the right to protest and appeal the claims before trial.

Separation of personal accounts according to the Housing Code article

Article 155 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation provides that payments for residential premises and utilities are paid on the basis of payment documents submitted no later than the first day of the month following the expiration of the month, unless a different period is established by the management agreement of the apartment building or by a decision of the general meeting of members of the homeowners association, housing cooperative or other specialized consumer cooperative.

Since there are several owners of housing, and they are in shared relationships, then, according to Article 249 of the Civil Code, they have the right to demand the conclusion of a special agreement with each shareholder. Moreover, this may not necessarily be a “personal” agreement. For example, four out of five participants in shared ownership may have one account, and the fifth may have their own account.

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Other Features

Based on a claim from the municipality and the presence of significant debts, the tenants of a social facility may be evicted from their occupied living space. Paying off the debt and then applying for a division of utility bills in a municipal apartment will help you avoid a critical situation. The responsible tenant often initiates the division of payments in a municipal apartment. The debt will be fairly distributed, responsibility will become a requirement for all residents of a municipal apartment.

The division of utility obligations can be carried out in civil proceedings during the divorce of a married couple. The question does not arise about the division of joint property, since the home is a municipal apartment. The court may reject the request or resolve the problem in one process if the situation is submitted for consideration.

Nuances for privatized housing

If the apartment is owned by citizens, then they can easily split the bills if all co-owners agree to this process. For this purpose, an application is generated and sent to the Criminal Code. Additionally, copies of registration certificates available to all citizens are attached to this document.

An application for division of a personal account is considered within one month. Usually a positive decision is always made, so then each co-owner receives a separate receipt.

Section of a personal account in a municipal apartment in practice

The division of payment obligations is disadvantageous to the administration, since a conscientious employer pays for himself and the evader of obligations. After the division, the defaulter will continue to evade and the eviction problem will need to be resolved, but two social agreements have already been signed. There will be legal difficulties with a municipal apartment, possible eviction if there are significant debts. As long as payments come from a bona fide tenant paying for all tenants, the municipality will be against splitting the personal account. A housing law lawyer will help resolve the problem.

Separation of personal accounts

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Algorithm of actions

Persons wishing to split personal accounts for utility bills must submit an application to the management company providing the service to the organization or housing office at their place of residence.

Dividing a personal account in a private house between the owners is possible by installing several metering devices.

The division between tenants is made on the basis of the lease agreement.

It must specify the conditions for paying for the rented premises and paying for housing and communal services. But for the most part, the tenant pays for electricity consumption.

Required documents

In most cases it is served: