Is it easy to be TSN

Homeowners' associations: how easy it is to manage your home yourself, or How to force a management company to provide quality utilities

On the official website for posting information about the bidding, notices of bidding for the right to conclude a management agreement for several apartment buildings on the street have been published. Nizhny Novgorod, Serov, Mayakovsky, Dzerzhinsky, Bazhenov. This is due to the fact that in these houses the owners of the premises were not able to independently choose the method of management and management organization, and now these houses have been put up for auction when nothing depends on the residents. The current situation has once again raised the issue of the activity of residents, who either become responsible owners, taking part in the management of their common property, or hand over everything to the management organization that wins the auction, simply paying from their own pockets for other people’s decisions.

There are several options for managing an apartment building, ranging from choosing a house and a management organization at a general meeting of the Council, ending with the creation of a Homeowners Association (HOA), in which the owners themselves are involved in the maintenance and management of the house in the form of a legal entity.

The first burst of activity occurred in 2018, at the time of the redistribution of the housing stock management market. Having bankrupted the largest management company, Teplocentral-ZhKH, a group of people decided to take over its houses, but the residents living in some of them did not agree with this. Someone decided to choose other Zhukovsky management companies, and someone created TSN. Despite a fairly simple and transparent algorithm of actions according to the law, in practice this turned out to be difficult, because the State Housing Inspection from a supervisory body turned into a filter for access to the management of certain companies. Some had to spend many months trying to transfer to the management company chosen at the general meeting of owners. With TSN, with a seemingly even more obvious choice of owners, not everything went smoothly either; some managed to jump on the bandwagon before dividing the housing stock of a bankrupt management company; others spent years seeking their right to independence. But the activity of the residents has borne fruit, albeit not as quickly as we would like and as required by law. ZhV talked with representatives of several TSNs about how difficult it was to achieve independence, whether it is worth fighting for it and why participation in the management of their home is so important for residents.

General meeting of owners of house 6 on the street. Gagarin on the creation of TSN took place back in October 2018. At the beginning of March 2019, TSN received a certificate from the tax inspectorate. And then for three years the residents of this house sought independence from the Naukograd management company, to which they were transferred by order of the administration. The first package of documents for inclusion of the house in the TSN license “Gagarin, 6” was submitted at the beginning of April 2019, then in September, then in December. And TSN received refusals indicating comments, but the correction of some comments gave rise to new ones. In April 2020, the State Housing Authority responded that a new application was needed to make changes to the register of licenses. In August 2020, new applications and a package of documents were once again submitted and officially registered. At the same time, in July, the next general meeting of the owners of the premises in this building was held and decisions were made to refuse services and terminate the management agreement with the Naukograd Management Company from 01.08.2020 and once again approved the management method - TSN. And already in October 2020, TSN received... a refusal to change the register of licenses, and on the same grounds as the very first time. The circle is closed. TSN challenged the refusal, the court of first instance agreed with the arguments of TSN “Gagarin, 6” and satisfied the demands to declare the decision of the GZHI illegal and oblige the department to cancel it.

Galina Radjabova,
Chairman of the Board of TSN "Gagarin, 6"

You won the court of first instance, did the State Housing Inspectorate file an appeal or did the decision come into force?

Everything turned out to be even more interesting, GZHI did not challenge the court’s decision, this was done by the Naukograd Management Company, which in 2019 acquired us by order of the administration, so on June 9 we will face a court of second instance, but we are completely confident that we are right and consider the right to independently manage our house to be undeniable. Moreover, the management company, in all likelihood, mentally said goodbye to our house, since it is in no hurry to carry out the current work, simply collecting utility bills. In this sense, delaying the moment the decision enters into legal force is quite logical.

For three years you have been seeking independence, basically all this was on you, knowing how long this road would be, would you seek recognition of TSN?

Of course, I would still start doing this, because I think that first of all we need it ourselves. Owners of apartment buildings know from their own experience that for the management company their house is just one of many, and the TSN board views the house as common property, the same as our apartments, which makes management and maintenance more efficient and efficient. And the residents of the house see this attitude; trust and unity of goals are at the forefront. And then we live in this house and immediately see all the points that require routine repairs, excluding the link that requires a lot of time. Perhaps the same attitude can be achieved in cooperation with small management companies that manage several buildings, and employees are within walking distance of these properties. But I am convinced of one thing - this is possible if those who live in the city work in the management company, and in addition to business, there will be a personal relationship when houses are taken “not on a whim,” but under reasonable management in the interests of residents.

Of course, not everyone can immediately create a TSN, because this is a constant job and someone must take responsibility for the fate of the entire house. But organizing a House Council and taking seriously the choice of a management company, which must understand its function as a hired executor carrying out the decisions of the owners, is simply a necessity dictated by life itself.

Nevertheless, the prevailing point of view is that everything has long been decided for us, nothing can be changed. Your example proves the opposite. And I would like to hear from you why it is so important to participate in managing your home?

Well, for example, you come to a store, choose a certain product and pay. How would you feel if, after paying for the goods, you received something different from what you chose or not received at all? It’s the same with the management of a house: you pay for the service, the relationship between the management company and the owners is clearly stated in the legislation, but in practice it turns out that if the residents are not interested in what happens to their common property, then the management company acts based on its own interests, there is no transparency. In theory, plans for current repairs should be approved at a general meeting of owners, they are the ones who decide which work is a priority and which can wait, the management company is only a hired executor of the will of the residents, who receives money for this work. And we know that in most cases, owners learn about ongoing work only after the fact or even retroactively. Until there is an understanding that we must become responsible owners, and the hired management company must be transparent and open, it is at least naive to believe that everything will work out on its own.

Oleg Nenashev,
TSN Sovetskaya, 6 and Mayakovskogo, 9, organized in 2018. After which these houses switched to the “lazy” TSN format, concluding an agreement with the management company for certain types of work

You have an interesting form of management - “lazy TSN”, why?

We decided for ourselves to choose this form of management, also under the pressure of circumstances, as you remember during the bankruptcy of Teplocentral-ZhKH, the main headache of the residents was not to become serfs under the next management company, we solved the problem of being under the control of the “manager” that we ourselves had chosen. And TSN is perfect for this, because it is protection against raider takeover. However, managing your home independently is a responsible and difficult task, so for now we decided to resort to the services of a management company. Moreover, we can choose which works we do ourselves, and which we involve a management company for. And the management contract can be terminated at any time, since the house is already under our license, with the management company a regular contract for the provision of services. Which in turn disciplines the management company and forces it to improve the quality of services.

You have been working in this format since the spring of 2019, to what extent, in your opinion, has this approach justified itself?

Based on my two years of experience, I can say that the format of work of TSN and Management Company in conjunction is the most rational of all possible in terms of servicing apartment buildings. As part of the work of the Association of Chairmen of Councils of Apartment Buildings, the experience of servicing several TSNs by service companies was studied. It is clear that these pioneers have had some rough edges along the way, but overall it has been a positive experience.

Yes, TSN is an effective form of independent management of common property. However, at the moment, when houses form TSN spontaneously, in emergency circumstances, while there is no general understanding of the need to float freely, the board is often formed from active residents who do not yet have sufficient experience in such activities, the symbiosis of TSN, which is the governing body, and the management company, which is responsible for maintenance and service, is not only effective, in my opinion, it is the most viable and effective form of management.

Well, you must agree that not everyone can muster the courage to organize TSN, how should we proceed then?

I’ll tell you more, still not all Zhukovsky houses have a House Council that would coordinate communication between the owners and the management company. We must start at least with its creation. But the main thing is to come to the understanding that we pay for utilities, including the maintenance of housing stock, and in market conditions we have the right to find the ideal price-quality ratio. It is important to remember that paying for utilities is not a quitrent, but a purchase of a service that must meet quality standards. And each house has its own standards, depending on the age, condition and activity of the residents. Therefore, in my opinion, you need to choose a management company that wants and can take an individual approach to each house, and does not treat you as a faceless unit in the general deck of the housing stock. The interaction between the owners and the management company should be equal; this is a dialogue between partners, the customer and the contractor, and in this case, the customer for the management company is the owners who pay for the services, and not the administrative resource. The activities of the management organization must be open and transparent for the owners, because otherwise it is not an honest and reasonable business, but a game of thimbles.