Will the fee for major repairs be canceled in 2021, how can you avoid paying the bill for major repairs

When did such a responsibility first appear?

The creation and formation of special capital repair funds became known for the first time in 2012, with the introduction of appropriate amendments to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, and two years later the burden of making such contributions fell on the shoulders of apartment owners in apartment buildings.

There is no legislative regulation of the amount of such payments - such a function is assigned to regional government bodies.

This gave rise to instability in the ratio of the volume of payments, which are calculated based on the total area of ​​​​the premises owned by a person, and another intensification of the wave of dissatisfaction with the decision taken by the authorities.

Lately, you can often hear the question: have the fees for major repairs been abolished? Cancellation of the contribution for major repairs, to what extent is this possible?

For whom are benefits provided?

Persons for whom benefits are provided for payment for major repairs can significantly reduce the payment on the receipt.

Additionally, it should be said that other citizens may be included in the generally accepted number of beneficiaries at the discretion of local authorities.

As for Federal significance, the privilege is available to the following persons:

• low-income families, where the level of official income for each family member is at or below the subsistence level;
• large families with three or more dependent minor children;
• families with a dependent child with limited capabilities (disability);
• labor veterans, blockade survivors, as well as WWII veterans;
• a number of citizens who work in the public sector, including those living in rural areas;
• liquidators of the consequences of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant;
• victims of political repression;
• persons with disabilities of the first and second groups.

These categories of citizens have the right to qualify for a discount when paying a receipt for major repairs of the apartment building in which they live.

Either they are simply registered or are the owners. All other residents of such buildings are forced to pay this payment in full.

Why might payments be cancelled?

The cancellation of payments for major repairs, the most obvious reason why this can be done is the dissatisfaction of citizens. The introduction of amendments to housing legislation does not take into account the property status of certain categories of the population, which puts them in an even more difficult situation.

In addition, some legal theorists refer to the fact that such an innovation itself violates the norms of Russian housing legislation and the basic law of the state.

But you should not expect that major repairs will be canceled only on the basis of applications for refusal to pay from the indignant mass of the population and motivated statements of several specialists - much more compelling reasons are needed to cancel the introduced legal norms through a decision of an authorized court.

Separate account

• wait for the first receipt for major repairs;
• make 100% payment for it;
• make sure there are no debts for other utilities;
• collect a complete package of documents.

Registration and receipt

The cost of major repairs is calculated based on the current condition of the common property and depends on the service life of the most important elements. In the case when the repair costs are too high and the apartment owners are unable to raise such an amount on their own, a common boiler is more attractive.

To apply for a refund of benefits, you need to collect a complete set of documents and then submit them to the MFC or the social security authorities at your place of residence. Refunds are made by mail or to a card. Refunds must be processed every month. To submit an application for receiving funds, you can not only submit it in person, but also submit it electronically using the functionality of the State Services portal. To receive money, you must cover all debts and pay penalties. Important: cash compensation is only due to those who pay on time and do not accumulate debts.

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What is the situation at the moment?

What is happening now, has the overhaul been canceled or not? Mandatory contributions from owners of residential premises in apartment buildings have not been cancelled.

And this, despite numerous indignations of the population and appeals to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Constitutional Court

The initiative group, which applied for amendments to the controversial regulatory legal act to abolish the mandatory contributions for major repairs, did not receive satisfaction of the stated claim.

According to statements from authorized persons, such innovations are based on the powers of the owner (Article 30 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation) - he has an obligation to properly monitor his own property and keep it safe and sound.

Common household property, for the overhaul of which funds are collected without fail, in accordance with the requirements of modern legislation (Articles 36, 36.1, 39 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation), is also included in the ownership of residents in amounts proportional to the areas of their residential premises.

The size of the contribution depends on the area of ​​the apartment - a certain amount is calculated, multiplied by one square meter.

The overhaul has not been cancelled; there are only certain categories of citizens who are exempt from paying such contributions.

How can elderly people return their monthly payments for major repairs?

● a copy of the document confirming the ownership of housing, or a copy of the title document if the ownership is not registered in the Unified State Register of Rights to Real Estate and Transactions with It;

What documents will be needed to apply for benefits for major repairs?

As a result, the innovation will affect an additional almost 200 thousand people and will require budget expenditures of about 300 million rubles annually. In total, about 4 billion rubles are allocated from the federal budget for these purposes every year.

1. Check whether the building is included in the capital repair program.
2. See if all utility bills have been paid off. If there is a debt, it must be paid urgently.
3. Wait for the first receipt for major repairs. It must be paid in full.
4. Collect documents and their copies.
5. Take all the papers to the appropriate institution and write a statement there.

Not only persons whose place of residence is a new building are exempt from contributions. If you turn to Part 8 of Article 170 of the RF Housing Code, you can see: owners have the right to stop collecting funds if the fund has reached the minimum size. However, residents who have debts must pay them off even after collections are suspended.

Who should not pay for major repairs in 2021

The issue of providing compensation for major repairs is within the competence of the social protection authorities. The application is registered on the day of receipt, subject to the transfer of a complete package of accompanying documents. The decision to issue or refuse compensation payments is made within 5-15 business days, depending on the region.

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According to the law, regional authorities will have the right to completely exempt single pensioners over 80 years old from paying for major repairs. In addition, the document provides a 50% discount for single citizens over 70 years of age, disabled people of groups I and II and disabled children.

A law obliging Russians to pay for major repairs of apartment buildings was adopted in December 2012. Muscovites began paying for major renovations of their homes on July 1, 2015. The minimum contribution in the capital is 15 rubles per square meter.

• Tenants, unless otherwise specified in the rental agreement, have the right not to pay these payments, since this is the responsibility of the owner.
• If the house in which a citizen lives is dilapidated and is subject to demolition or relocation, the regional operator has no right to send receipts to residents of such houses.
• Residents of the municipal real estate fund are exempt from paying the contribution, i.e. those who have not completed privatization or returned the apartment to state ownership, or citizens whose house is subject to seizure from private property in favor of the state.
• Federal law allows you to suspend the accrual of funds when the amount required for major home repairs has been collected in full.
• The amount charged to apartment residents can be reduced by renting out non-residential premises on the first, ground and semi-basement floors.
• Residents of an apartment building can carry out major repairs on their own, without the involvement of special construction teams.

Federal Law No. 217 makes it clear that all capital repair work on the common property of the house now falls on the shoulders of the residents. The Housing and Communal Services Fund, at its own expense, will only help to move from dilapidated and dilapidated housing.

What will the contributions for major repairs be used for?

The current law on capital repairs of apartment buildings establishes the obligation for the constituent entity of the Russian Federation to determine the minimum amount charged to citizens. The authorities independently determine the rate by which the amount for major repairs is calculated.

According to Valery Nikolov, General Director of the Fund for the Overhaul of Common Property of Apartment Buildings in the Moscow Region, in 2021, the overhaul program included 2,199 apartment buildings, which will improve the living conditions of more than 150 thousand families. And in the period 2020-2022, it is planned to repair over 9 thousand houses for a total amount of more than 60 billion rubles.

The press service recalled that in accordance with the Decree of the Governor of the Moscow Region, a moratorium on collecting fees for major repairs from property owners was introduced in the Moscow region for a period of 3 months, from April 1 to June 30.

“As a measure of social support for the population in the conditions of the introduced high-alert regime in the Moscow region, the calculation and collection of monthly contributions under the line “major repairs” for April, May and June were not carried out. In payment documents for July 2021, the accrual of contributions for major repairs will be resumed without additional charges for the period of the three-month moratorium. In addition, in accordance with the Government Resolution, penalties for late payment of contributions for major repairs will not be assessed until January 1, 2021,” Velikhovsky added.

A package of documents with the corresponding application attached is submitted to the social protection authorities.

Categories of persons exempt from payment

The initial interpretation of legal norms did not provide for any relief even for less protected categories of citizens, which was one of the points that outraged the population.

Later, the government considered the possibility of reducing fees for certain categories of citizens, but the fee for major repairs was not cancelled.

The result was the introduction of preferential treatment (Article 159 of the RF Housing Code) for :

• single citizens over 80 years of age - full compensation when paying the fee, but not its cancellation;
• for single citizens over 70 years of age – a 50 percent discount;
• also the possibility of introducing preferential treatment for disabled people of groups 1 and 2, disabled children and citizens with such children.

Tenants and citizens living in buildings with fewer than three apartments are also exempt.

What does a major overhaul include?

“Major renovation” is a very vague concept. At the same time, any apartment owner will be interested in what specific activities the contributions provided to them will be used for.

So, the full list of works includes:

• Repair of building facades;
• Repair of basements and communications located in them;
• Roof repair;
• Repair of the foundation of an apartment building;
• Repair, replacement of elevators and equipping them with new mechanisms, repair of elevator shafts and machine rooms;
• Repair of communication networks (heating, water, gas, sewerage, etc.).

Thus, payments for major repairs affect the qualitative improvement of a significant part of the housing stock.

But in this vein, a completely logical question arises: are residents of new buildings required to pay for major repairs? Legislation in this direction makes no exceptions: residents of buildings recently put into operation must accumulate funds in a fund account for future periods.

Regional programs may contain other clarifying conditions regarding only built houses. So, for example, in the Perm Territory, the obligation to pay contributions for major repairs in new buildings arises after 4 years 11 months after the house was put into operation and included in the regional capital repair program. Residents of the Sverdlovsk region who own an apartment in a new building are given a three-year deferment on paying fees for major repairs. In Moscow, owners of apartments in new buildings do not have such a benefit.

Where do funds go for major repairs of apartment buildings?

Funds accumulated by residents of houses can be used for:

• payment for services and work on major repairs of common property in an apartment building;
• development of project documentation;
• payment for construction control services;
• repayment of loans received and used to pay for major repairs, payment of interest for using such a loan;
• payment of expenses for obtaining guarantees and guarantees for the above loans;
• demolition or restoration of buildings recognized as unsafe.

All of these types of work must be carried out under the control of the residents of the house, who finance all of the listed activities through their contributions.

This control is expressed:

1. In choosing a company that will carry out certain types of work.
2. In checking estimates for repairs, reconstruction, and modernization.
3. Familiarize yourself with the action plan and demand compliance with the deadlines indicated therein.

If the residents of an apartment building have not expressed a desire to choose a construction or repair company, then the management company makes this choice for them.

Consequently, in matters of capital repairs, the fund and its manager only accumulate residents’ funds and manage them on their behalf, but do not dispose of them at their own discretion. Based on the results of the activities carried out, apartment owners should have access to a report on the work done, amounts spent and balances in the fund’s accounts.

It is worth noting several aspects that are especially important in the issue of carrying out major repairs at the expense of the residents of the house:

• repair work can be carried out at any time of the year. Including on an emergency basis - in case of emergency situations;
• the fund must have a capital improvement plan for at least a year;
• before implementing planned activities, a cost estimate is drawn up and the reality of repairs at the current moment is assessed;
• Fund balances are transferred to account for future periods.

If citizens have doubts about the intended use of the funds they contributed, they can always seek help from such authorities as:

• Municipal administrations, which are authorized to create a commission to investigate the incident;
• Rospotrebnadzor, which protects the rights of customers of work who are not satisfied with the result;
• Housing and Communal Services Department, which is able to provide qualified advice on major repairs;
• The prosecutor's office, which is considered as a last resort if there are suspicions of fraudulent transactions.

It is the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, and not the courts, that examines issues of violation of citizens' rights by non-profit organizations, which are the housing and communal services departments and the funds operating under them.

Have the fees for major repairs been waived?

But whether the fee for major repairs will be abolished completely is a big question. At the moment, government bodies do not intend to cancel the obligation of citizens to make mandatory contributions for capital repairs, since this does not in essence contradict certain norms of housing legislation and the content of the obligatory side of the right of ownership.

It is impossible to exclude the possibility of a situation in which payments for capital repairs of apartment buildings will be canceled - everything depends on the further behavior of society and the actions of the authorized bodies to monitor the reasonableness of the amounts of contributions and their implementation.

Law on overhaul of apartment buildings 2020

The majority of citizens were outraged by the latest “extortions”; people tried to evade contributions, swear, and write complaints. According to the law, not to pay for major repairs (this will be discussed below), but almost everyone can minimize the cost of contributions; for this you need to know some nuances.

Law on overhaul of apartment buildings 2020

What should you do if, after paying for all the necessary work, there is still money left in the fund? – there was no answer to this question. The new law finally eliminated this gap and decided: the funds that remained in the capital repair fund after paying for the demolition work should be distributed among the owners.

However, this normative act cannot cover all issues related to overhaul. Thus, issues related to the formation of the fund relate to Law 185 on capital repairs. The nuances of carrying out major repairs and the selection of personnel to carry out the work are not related to the maintenance of these acts. However, to do this, you can refer to Federal Law 44 and, by placing a tender, select the most profitable supplier of services and materials.

How to legally avoid non-payment

Even taking into account the fact that these fees are extremely necessary and residents must understand that, first of all, it is their responsibility to maintain the repairs of the building, there are very real ways to avoid this payment.

Additionally, it should be noted that waiving contributions for major repairs does not guarantee zero expenses; expenses will still be present.

Let's look at the main methods:

Any other methods of refusing to pay for major repairs may be considered illegal, which may subsequently lead to court proceedings where all residents will be charged not only with debt, but also with penalties for late payment.