What information is the management company not obliged to provide to the owners?

Laws regulating the timing of responses of management companies to requests from owners in 2021

The procedure for considering appeals from citizens in the Russian Federation is established by Federal Law No. 59-FZ dated May 2, 2006 “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation.” Owners can file a complaint with the court if the management organization has not given a written response to their appeals. Previously, the courts found them guilty under this law and the defendants had to go all the way to the Supreme Court in their defense. In 2021, the RF Armed Forces adopted a number of regulations that recognized that educational institutions are not subject to No. 59-FZ. The RF Armed Forces canceled the fines under Art. 5.59 Code of Administrative Offences, Resolutions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 88-AD19-1 dated 02/14/2019, No. 48-AD19-2 dated 02/15/2019, No. 88-AD19-2 dated 02/15/2019.

The main laws that you should pay attention to when considering the procedure for citizens to contact a management company are the Housing Code of the Russian Federation and the Rules for the implementation of activities for the management of apartment buildings. They were approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated May 15, 2013 No. 416, in accordance with Part 1 of Article 161 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. The rules provide for citizens the opportunity to send various forms of appeal to the management organization:

send a letter by regular mail or e-mail, or through a form on the company’s official website, bring it to the reception office of the management office in person or pass it through an employee, submit a request through the Housing and Communal Services GIS;
convey your wishes orally to an employee of the management organization.

Appeals may be related to the management organization’s compliance with licensing and other requirements for managing apartment buildings. The list of licensing requirements is provided for in paragraph 3 of the Regulations on licensing activities for the management of apartment buildings, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated October 28, 2014 No. 1110.

Non-licensing requirements are listed in Section VII of the Rules for the Management of Apartment Buildings and in paragraph 34 of Section VIII.

On the procedure for considering citizens' appeals by management organizations

Legal relations related to the exercise of the right to appeal to state bodies and local government bodies and other organizations are regulated by Federal Law No. 59-FZ dated May 2, 2006 “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 59-FZ).

In Part 1 of Art. 12 of Law No. 59-FZ establishes a 30-day period for consideration of a written appeal received by a state body, local government body or official in accordance with their competence.

At the same time, the management organization is not a state body or local government body, a state or municipal institution, or another organization entrusted with the implementation of publicly significant functions.

According to the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, set out in resolutions No. 48-AD19-2, No. 88-AD19-2 dated February 15, 2019, companies managing apartment buildings are ordinary legal entities created for profit and do not perform publicly significant functions.

Thus, legal relations that arise between the owners of residential premises in apartment buildings and management companies are of a civil nature and are not subject to the requirements of Law No. 59-FZ, including the requirement to consider applications within 30 days.

At the same time, management organizations have the status of executors of public services, whose duties, incl. types of consumer appeals and deadlines for their consideration are determined by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated May 6, 2011 No. 354 “On the provision of utility services to owners and users of premises in apartment buildings and residential buildings.”

When sending applications to management organizations, it is necessary to be guided by the provisions of the said Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation. For example, the management organization is obliged to keep records of complaints (applications, appeals, demands and claims) of consumers regarding the quality of provision of public services, recording the timing and results of their consideration and execution, as well as within 3 working days from the date of receipt of the complaint (applications, demands and claims ) send a response to the consumer regarding its satisfaction or refusal to satisfy it, indicating the reasons for the refusal (subparagraph “k”, paragraph 31 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation).

Prosecutor of the Ozersky District, Adviser of Justice D.A. Medvedev

Deadline for the Criminal Code to respond to citizens’ appeals

The management organization must respond to all requests from owners, and in the same way in which the request was submitted, unless otherwise specified. You must respond within the time limits specified in the regulations of the Russian Federation:

Housing Code of the Russian Federation;
Rules for the provision of utility services to owners and users of premises in apartment buildings and residential buildings, approved. RF PP dated 05/06/2011 N 354;
Rules for the implementation of activities for the management of apartment buildings, approved. RF PP dated May 15, 2013 N 416;
Rules for maintaining common property in an apartment building, approved. RF PP dated August 13, 2006 N 491;
Law of the Russian Federation of 02/07/1992 N 2300-1 “On the protection of consumer rights”.

The timing of the management company’s response to the owner’s request may vary - from immediate response to 45 days, depending on the type of request:

a complaint about the smell of gas in a house or local area requires urgent action to check the leak;
a telephone call to the emergency dispatch service of a management company or HOA requires an answer within 5 minutes or 10 minutes if the applicant cannot be reached earlier;
if the ADS received an application about damage to the internal cold water or hot water supply systems, drainage, heat and electricity supply, blockages in the drainage systems, garbage chutes inside the apartment building, the employee must, within 30 minutes from the moment of registration of the application, inform the applicant about the time frame for troubleshooting;
12 hours are required to respond to an application for drawing up a flood report;
within 1 working day, it is necessary to provide the owner with information about the ODPU, send a link to an electronic resource if he needs general information about the MA, services provided, major repairs, etc.;
24 hours in advance it is necessary to agree on the time for checking the quality of utilities;
within 2 working days, the management organization responds to the application to change the amount of housing maintenance fees;
within 3 working days, the management authority must provide information on the consumed utilities using standards, according to the ODPU, copies of acts of damage, violation of the quality of utilities or exceeding the established break in their supply, accept an application for recalculation of fees for services of inadequate quality, on the commissioning of the IPU, to respond to a complaint about the quality of services for the management of MSW;
10 working days - the period for consideration of an application for verification of the IPU, a request for a reduction in payment for the CG or for compensation for losses if the PU did not provide services in good faith;
45 working days after submitting the application in writing, the management organization must hold a general meeting of owners of residential premises.

Deadlines for responding to consumer requests

The previously cited regulations establish different deadlines for considering citizens’ appeals depending on the content of these appeals. And it should be noted that the deadlines established by these legal acts are much less than the notorious 30 days, which are often considered the approved response period.

The provider of housing and communal services is obliged to consider requests from owners and tenants of residential premises and other consumers of housing and communal services and send responses and fulfill the requirements for the following requests within the following deadlines:

1) a request for a list, volume, quality, frequency of services provided and (or) work performed for the maintenance of residential premises - no later than five working days from the date of application (paragraph “a”, paragraph 40 of Rules 491);

2) the requirement to verify the correctness of the calculation of the amount of payment, debt or overpayment for utilities, stated at a personal reception - immediately (paragraph “e”, paragraph 31 of Rules 354). Based on the results of the inspection, the Contractor is obliged to issue the applicant documents containing correctly accrued payments, certified at the request of the applicant with the signature of the manager and the seal of the Contractor;

3) an application for payment of a fine in favor of the consumer for violating the procedure for calculating fees for the maintenance of residential premises - no later than 30 days from the date of receipt of the application, the calculation must be checked and a response must be given about the decision made (Part 12 of Article 156 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation);

4) an application for payment of a fine in favor of the consumer for violating the procedure for calculating fees for utility services - no later than 30 days from the date of receipt of the application, the calculation must be checked and a response must be given to the applicant (Part 6 of Article 157 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation);

5) an application to check the condition of individual metering devices, as well as distributors - no more than ten working days from the date of receipt of the application (clause “e(2)”, clause 31 of Rules 354);

6) an application for familiarization with information about the readings of a common house meter - within one working day from the date of application (clause “e”, paragraph 31 of Rules 354);

7) request for information on the readings of common house metering devices for a period of no more than three years - no later than three working days from the date of receipt of the request (paragraph 4, clause 34 of Rules 416);

complaint about the quality of public services - within three working days from the date of receipt of the complaint (subparagraph “k”, paragraph 31 of Rules 354);

9) requests for information for the requested billing periods on the monthly volumes of consumption of utility resources according to the readings of common house metering devices; on the total volumes of utility resources consumed in residential and non-residential premises of the house; on the volumes of utility resources calculated using utility consumption standards - no later than three working days from the date of receipt of the request (paragraph 3, paragraph 34 of Rules 416, paragraph “r”, paragraph 31 of Rules 354);

10) request for a copy of the Act on damage to life, health and property of the owner/user of the apartment building, common property of the owners (description of the damage caused and the circumstances under which such damage was caused) - no later than three working days from the date of receipt of the request (para. .5 clause 34 of Rule 416);

11) request for a copy of the Certificate of violation of quality or exceeding the established duration of the break in the provision of services/performance of work on the maintenance of common property, drawn up in accordance with Rules 491 - no later than three working days from the date of receipt of the request (paragraph 6, clause 34 of Rules 416 );

12) requests for any information posted by the management organization on signs, bulletin boards in an apartment building, on stands on the premises of the management organization (including: name (company name) of the management organization; license number, license validity period, information about the body that issued the said license ; address of the location of the management authority and its representative office; operating hours, information about days and hours of reception; address of the official website on the Internet (if available); address of the official website of the State Information System of Housing and Public Utilities; contact numbers of the management organization, its representative office, email address; emergency contact numbers dispatch service; contact numbers of emergency services of resource supplying organizations; notifications about upcoming work, other events that may lead to inconvenience for owners/tenants/users of the premises of the house; notifications about changes in the amount of payment for residential premises and (or) utilities; step-by-step instructions on the procedure installation of individual metering devices; information on the deadlines for paying fees for residential premises and (or) utilities, the consequences of late and (or) incomplete payment of such fees, on the mandatory and (or) recommended deadlines for transferring readings from individual metering devices to the utility service provider; information about the State Housing Supervision body (functions, name, address, contact phone number, last name, first name and patronymic (if any) of the head); information on the sizes of prices (tariffs) to be applied when determining the amount of payment for residential premises and (or) utilities, and on the details of regulatory legal acts, decisions of general meetings of owners (if any), by which they are established; information on standards for the consumption of utility services and standards for the consumption of utility resources for the purpose of maintaining common property; information on the value of the established social norm for the consumption of electrical energy (power) for groups of households and types of residential premises if such a decision is made in a constituent entity of the Russian Federation; information leaflet on the rules for the safe use of gas at home, information on the consumer’s obligation to conclude an agreement on the maintenance and repair of indoor gas equipment) - no later than the day following the day the request was received (paragraph 2, clause 34 of Rules 416);

13) request for a copy of the Inspection Report for the provision of utility services of inadequate quality and (or) with interruptions exceeding the established duration, provided for by Rules 354 - no later than three working days from the date of receipt of the request (paragraph 7, clause 34 of Rules 416);

14) the owner’s demands for a reduction in the cost of work performed (application for recalculation), for reimbursement of expenses to eliminate deficiencies in the work performed (service provided) on their own or by third parties, for the return of the amount of money paid for the work (service) and compensation for losses caused in connection with with refusal to fulfill the contract - within ten days from the date of receipt of the request (Article 31 of the Law of the Russian Federation of 02/07/1992 N 2300-1 “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”);

15) an application from the owner or another person, on whose initiative a general meeting of owners of premises in an apartment building is convened, to provide a register of owners of premises in an apartment building - the register is provided within 5 days from the date of receipt of the application (Part 3.1 of Article 45 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation);

16) the period for responding to other requests (applications) of owners or users of premises in apartment buildings is no more than 10 working days from the date of receipt of the corresponding request (application) (clause 36 of Rules 416);

17) a response to requests (applications) from persons who are not owners or users of premises in an apartment building is sent to the applicant within 30 calendar days from the date of registration of the request (application). The management office/homeowners association/housing cooperative may extend the period for consideration of a request (application) by no more than 30 calendar days if preparing a response requires obtaining information from other persons, notifying the applicant of the extension of the period for consideration. The notification is sent to the applicant before the expiration of the 30-day period for consideration of the request (clause 37 of Rules 416).

Violation of the law on consideration of citizens' appeals

If a response to the owner’s appeal is not received within the time period established by the regulations, he can file a lawsuit against the management organization. Although the resolutions of the RF Armed Forces declared illegal fines under Art. 5.59 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, a management company or a homeowners association can be held liable in accordance with other laws. So, if the MA did not respond to requests within 30 days or earlier, if provided, it violated licensing requirements and may receive a fine of up to 300,000 rubles. An official can be fined up to 100,000 rubles, and the manager can be disqualified for up to 3 years under Part 2 of Art. 14.1.3 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

Since legislation in the housing and communal services sector is becoming more stringent, it is not easy for management organizations to keep everything under control. Residents study the laws and know how to use them for their own purposes. Often management companies can suffer losses because of this. In order for the management company and residents to interact on mutually beneficial terms, an automated accounting system was created for the automated control system “Housing Standard”. A mobile application for residents allows them to comply with the requirements of PP 416 “On the procedure for carrying out activities for the management of apartment buildings” with minimal risks of fines. With its help, the management company can:

inform them in a timely manner and increase loyalty;
receive applications with a photo or audio commentary;
track the status of the application;
send out notifications about meetings, electronic voting.

19.12.2019