The State Duma is considering another bill concerning the payments of citizens for housing and communal services. Which, by and large, can ease the fate of many of our fellow citizens who have debts for utilities.
WILL THE LAW HELP PEOPLE?
A group of deputies proposed to increase the maximum payment limit for utilities, at which financial organizations will not be able to identify citizens, from 15 to 60 thousand rubles. At first glance, this is an empty formality that does not have much significance. However, by and large, we are talking about the rare case when our valiant parliamentarians sided with citizens exhausted by the constant increase in utility tariffs. In fact, this law pushes back the right to make claims to a citizen for debts for an apartment and housing and communal services from 15 to 60 thousand rubles of the cost of these services.
We hasten to assure fans of horror stories that ordinary citizens are neither hot nor cold from information about the increase in the limit. In simple terms, now, if the price of your utilities does not exceed 15 thousand, you can pay them anonymously. If it exceeds, then with a passport. That’s the whole identification. And if the limit is increased, then there is no need to worry about identification at all. Another thing is that the owners of palaces and mansions have communal apartments … For elite square meters, the fee is 100 thousand rubles or more per month. But this is not our problem, let’s not count other people’s money. Let’s better think about our own.
As you probably already guessed, the utilities strongly demand the immediate abolition of all these “limits” and access to information about all citizens who have debts to them. To “work” with them in detail. They can probably be understood. The debt of Russians for housing and communal services in the first quarter of 2023 reached almost 900 billion rubles. Naturally, the utilities really want to collect the debt in its entirety and immediately, therefore they ask to disclose the personal data of citizens who are debtors. But since March 2023, housing and communal services operators have lost access to the Unified State Register of Real Estate (EGRN) with data on property owners.
At the same time, without data from the Unified State Register, utilities simply cannot collect debts through the court. The number of court disputes among housing and communal services operators reaches several thousand applications per month, and due to the lack of access to information about the owner of the property, the number of court penalties decreased, on average, from 4,000 to 400 monthly.
THREATS AND RISKS
We would like to emphasize that, of course, you need to pay for the apartment. There are difficult life situations when a person simply does not have such an opportunity. This means that we need to negotiate, find a compromise, and mobilize all our reserves. Because utility debt is a real threat to your well-being.
Penalty fee is compensation for late payment. If the delay is from 31 to 90 days, the penalty is 1/300 of the key rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation of the amount owed for each day of delay. If the delay is 91 days or more – 1/130 of the bet.
The utility provider has the right to limit or terminate its supply if the debt accumulates in two months. However, according to the law, it is impossible to stop the supply of heating and cold water.
If the debtor does not repay the debt, the supplier goes to court and asks for a court order or to collect the debt. And then bailiffs open enforcement proceedings. They have the right to seize the debtor’s accounts or collect a debt in the amount of up to 50% of the salary. If the amount of debt exceeds 30 thousand rubles, travel abroad may be restricted.
Eviction from an apartment is an extreme measure, and it is possible only in court. An apartment tenant can be evicted from an apartment under a social rental agreement if he does not pay for the apartment for six months or longer.
Housing legislation does not provide for the eviction of the owner for arrears in payment for housing and communal services. But when opening enforcement proceedings, the bailiff can sell the house at auction, repay the debt from the proceeds and return the remaining money to the owner. But only if it is not the only housing of the debtor.
Under no circumstances will they evict: pensioners, relatives of those killed in the performance of official duties, people with disabilities of groups 1 and 2, as well as orphans provided with housing at the expense of the state.
Valentina Samokhina.
Photo: Pixabay.com
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