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Regional officials will be held accountable for the imperfections of the Housing Code

While the State Duma is actively governing the Housing Code, the implementation of a number of key provisions of which is hampered by the abundance of semantic and legal “gaps” in it, federal government officials are no less actively engaged in searching for those responsible for the inevitable delay in the housing and communal services reform. Apparently, these will be appointed from among the same officials, but at the regional and municipal level. In any case, the head of the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the Ministry of Regional Development, Remir Mukumov, tried to blame his colleagues from city, regional and regional administrations yesterday. According to him, the results of a certain audit conducted by the federal ministry show that local authorities, if not outright sabotage, then in every possible way evade the implementation of federal housing legislation.

Let us recall that, in accordance with the new Housing Code, residents of apartment buildings had until March 1, 2006 to hold general meetings, create homeowners' associations (HOA) and choose a way to manage their home. Apartment owners were asked to either maintain their existing relationships with DEZ or enter into agreements with private management companies, while the most self-confident were asked to deal with the communal services themselves. To help citizens who did not have time to make a decision within the one-year period allotted by law, local authorities were supposed to have the right to then hold competitions for managing the house. However, due to the lack of explanatory work both among residents and among regional officials, few managed to create HOAs before March 2006. Suffice it to say that today, for more than 400 thousand apartment buildings in Russia, there are only about 26 thousand HOAs. This state of affairs has already forced the State Duma to extend the period of housing self-determination for citizens for another year, since local authorities were still not ready to hold so many competitions among management companies. In addition, the lower house began to urgently correct the most problematic areas of the code.

In turn, the Ministry of Regional Development, which is responsible for carrying out the reform, judging by Mr. Mukumov’s speech yesterday, intends to seek strict compliance with the requirements of the Housing Code in its current form. Referring to the results of his audit, the head of the housing and communal services department complained that in many regions the authorities deliberately mislead citizens by informing them that the right to organize a HOA will appear only in 2007. And where the authorities meekly recognize the right of citizens to dispose of property, municipalities try to impose a management company of their choice on the newly formed partnerships.

True, Remir Mukumov, who criticizes his regional colleagues for their lack of zeal, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, admitted that the Housing Code left unanswered many questions that inevitably arise from municipal officials, who are required “from above” to urgently implement the plan for organizing HOAs and transferring utilities farms on market tracks. In particular, until recently, the country did not have any clearly defined criteria for admitting private companies to manage apartment buildings. Problems related to mutual settlements between management companies and municipalities obligated to pay utility bills for social housing tenants are still unresolved. By law, the amount of rent must be determined by a meeting of apartment owners, at which municipal officials representing the interests of tenants are often in the minority. At the same time, the local budget will inevitably have to pay rent along with the apartment owners, regardless of what tariffs for house maintenance will be set - even thousands of rubles per square meter. Such uncertainty in a country where in most apartment buildings homeowners and tenants live side by side, is fraught with a lot of conflicts. This was recently warned by the head of the housing and communal services department of the Moscow government, Artur Keskinov, who stated that the capital does not intend to subsidize “luxury” from the city budget and will not pay inflated rates. The head of the department of the same name of the Ministry of Regional Development responded yesterday that in this case the owners must force the municipality to fork out through the court. Apparently, this issue will still be the subject of consideration, if not in the State Duma, then in court.

Finally, the question still remains open of how and at whose expense the major repairs of housing transferred from municipal funds to the new owners of apartment buildings will be carried out. The Housing Code imposes all costs on the owner, but does not explain what the financing mechanism will be for residents of old houses that have not been renovated for many years: a bank loan, a savings scheme or a budget subsidy. According to Remir Mukumov, the Ministry of Regional Development is now completing work on a program document that will resolve all these issues. He recalled that housing legislation allows the authorities to spend budget money on major repairs, and said that the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation for 2006 allocated 108 billion rubles for these purposes. “I think this amount will be enough to launch the process of major renovation of residential buildings throughout Russia,” said Mr. Mukumov, noting, however, that he could reveal the essence of the scheme proposed by the Ministry of Regional Development only after discussion with all interested ministries and departments.

Alexander GUDKOV