Who digs a hole of debt

Why management companies beat out money from tenants, but do not pay suppliers themselves

The Russian government has announced its intention to eradicate the practice when management companies (MCs) in the housing and communal services sector collect money from people, but they themselves are in no hurry to pay with resource-supplying organizations for heat, gas, and water. Having accumulated debts, management companies often go bankrupt, and residents and resource providers are left without funds and with big problems.

On Monday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting on the readiness of the regions for the autumn-winter period. He announced the need to adopt a law that would provide for the possibility of direct transfer of all funds from consumers to resource-supplying organizations so that management companies no longer “play games” with citizens' money. In addition, the government instructed Rosfinmonitoring to check the activities of management companies that have debts to resource providers.

Studying the topic raised at the government meeting, we turned to the unified heat supply organization of the capital - the Moscow United Energy Company (MOEK), in whose press service they referred to the recently published anti-rating of debtor management companies. Among the 32 defendants in this list, two companies stand apart, whose debts exceed 500 million rubles. At first glance, it is completely incomprehensible how such a debt could be formed. In theory, the management companies are intermediaries who transfer the money received from the residents under their care to resource providers like MOEK, Vodokanal, etc.

You can blame the tenants for everything. Like, they do not pay their bills, and management companies, accordingly, accumulate debts to resource providers. But according to Irina Ilyina, director of the Institute for Regional Studies and Urban Planning, most residents regularly pay their utility bills. “I have not seen a single district of Moscow where the level of non-payment of housing and communal services by residents would be more than 10 percent,” the expert says.

We tried to figure out where, then, such debts from management companies and what threatens Muscovites.

For the purity of the experiment, we took one of the leaders of the anti-rating, the management company Dom-Master LLC. The debt of this management company is over five hundred million, despite the fact that it serves more than 350 houses located, if not on the "golden mile", then certainly on the "gilded kilometers" of the city center. Pokrovka, Maroseyka, Staraya Basmannaya and adjacent lanes, which are part of the Dom-Master service area, are the dream of any realtor. That is, the management company should not have problems with the solvency of residents here. Where does the debt come from?

The question is very difficult. Expert Irina Ilyina agrees with this. “Here you need to look very carefully. It can be assumed that in the elite areas there is a large proportion of residents who are away for a long time. But it seems to me that it is necessary to deal with the companies themselves here. Non-payments to suppliers are often an excuse for CMs to hide their problems. Sometimes companies work worse than ZhEKi from the past. Slow people, irrational spending of funds.

We asked our questions to the management company "Dom-Master" and received an official response, which states that "LLC Management Company" Dom-Master "does not recognize the debt for thermal energy in the amount declared by PJSC MIPC, and considers it virtual." Further, Dom-Master on two pages lists claims against a single supplier and its own claims against MOEK, which are still being considered in courts. Also in the response of the management company there are claims to the residents: “Currently, the amount of debt of the population and tenants for consumed housing and communal services is almost 200 million rubles.”

"On their own behalf" the company's leaders "... would like to add that our company, being an object of risky business in the housing and communal services sector, has the right to count on the support of government agencies in creating a business climate for us that ensures our stable development."

So, Dom-Master has problems with the business climate. In theory, this should not affect the climate in the apartments of citizens in any way.

Expert Irina Ilyina, on the contrary, argues that “the debts of the Criminal Code actually concern the residents directly. You, firstly, can disable something. And I know there are examples in a number of regions. Well, and secondly, this may affect the cost of services that you pay to the management company. After all, there are expenses of residents, and there are common house expenses. Management companies simply do not save or simply attribute, and sometimes they carry out other manipulations.

In any case, the tenants must be right. After all, it is always they who pay the money - and they may also be the victims.

In the meantime, it turns out that for every inhabitant of houses managed by Dom-Master, there are 20 thousand rubles of debt for heat. Moreover, the residents themselves do not even know about it, because the overwhelming majority of them pay the bills issued regularly.

Ruslan Khisanov,
for "New"