Payments for utility services are calculated in accordance with the law. There are certain rules for those cases when the person registered in the apartment does not live in it for a long time.
This norm is regulated by Article 153 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. Charges are calculated in the receipt depending on the type of services and the terms of the agreement with the Management Company.
According to the law, payments must be accrued for everyone registered in the apartment. But also in the housing sector, situations are considered when payment for utility services, if a person is registered but does not live, can be partially represented in the receipt, only in several columns.
ATTENTION! You can achieve a reduction in utility bills even when the registered person has not lived in the apartment for even five days. But this rule only applies to payments for gas, water, and electricity. And you need to provide proof of residence elsewhere.
Fact of registration
When calculating utility bills, a variety of situations are considered, including non-standard ones. The residents registered in the apartment do not always live there as a whole. And in this case, the situation with the calculation of payment for utility bills may change.
Only the amounts for heating and rent will be included in the payment slip. It is worth notifying the accounting department, which charges utilities, about the situation in order to save on utility costs.
The amount in such columns of the receipt for utilities as gas, water, electricity, sewerage, garbage removal depends on the number of registered ones. Even if meters are installed in the house, with each new resident the consumption of natural resources will increase.
If payments for gas, water, and sewerage are calculated according to standard standards, the tariff only needs to be multiplied by the number of residents. But there are also services that do not depend on the number of registered or actually living in the apartment - these are heating and rent.
Lawyer, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Bar Association Globus Pravo Denis Volnov answers:
Theoretically, you can go to court to recognize citizens as having terminated the right to use residential premises and subsequently deregister them. In practice, with the proper approach of your opponents, it is very difficult to win such a case. The problem is that defendants in such cases take the position that they do not live in the apartment due to conflicts with the plaintiff. There are clarifications from the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on such grounds, and the courts reject the claim.
Your situation is further complicated by the fact that one of those registered is a minor. At the same time, you have the right to recover part of the utility bills, but for a maximum of the past three years (statute of limitations).
What kind of government support can you get if you don’t own a home?
Can I be denied registration in the apartment where my family lives?
Procedure
- The service company and housing office cannot know how much a person actually spends in an apartment, or whether everyone registered uses utilities. Therefore, it is in the interests of consumers themselves to resolve this issue.
- The next step is to write an application to the housing office and utility providers for recalculation. The application must be accompanied by the certificate mentioned above.
Proof of a long absence can also be a certificate of being on a business trip, a medical certificate of being in a hospital, tickets indicating the date of departure and date of arrival.
ATTENTION! It is necessary to obtain a certificate that the person pays utilities at another place of residence.
The rule for writing a verb with the particle “not”
Sometimes confusion arises when writing from “not” different parts of speech, when a noun or adjective is written together, but verbs and participles are written separately:
- Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Dunno on the Moon. BUT : I don’t know what to say. Not knowing where to look.
- A minor offense can ruin your reputation. BUT : Doesn't mean anything.
- The unforgotten feat of our grandfathers remains in our memory. BUT : Don't forget the old days. Without forgetting the past.
Therefore, first of all, let's determine the part of speech . In our case, it is a verb (means an action and answers the questions: “what to do?”, “What to do?”). Now let’s turn to the rules governing the writing of verbs with the particle “not”:
- The particle “not” with verbs and verb forms is written separately : do not read, do not know, do not understand, do not see.
- Verbs are not used without “not” : to hate, to be indignant, to dislike, to be unwell, to be unwell, not to see (light), not to drive (from the word seine, but not to drive in the meaning of leading), to be mute, to be constrained, to be sick, to be undead, numb and their word forms. In these words, the verb without “not” loses its meaning.
- Verbs with the prefix “under” are written together in the meaning of partial, incomplete action: underfinish, underweight, underestimate. Be careful with verbs starting with “do”; in such cases, both combined and separate spellings with “not” are possible. For example: Why not drink the cup to the bottom? “They didn’t eat enough, didn’t drink enough, and gave everything to the children.”
Thus, “ not to live ” is the only correct option in the Russian language; other ways of writing this phrase are incorrect.
Ignoring receipts
Utility organizations are sometimes forced to fight unscrupulous tenants who do not want to pay for utilities, although they are registered in the apartment. In this case, several effective methods are used.
- If one of your relatives does not want to participate in paying for utilities, the housing office or the Management Company where the utility bills are calculated can divide personal accounts between several people. In this case, the debt will remain with only one tenant.
- If the tenant is in debt, termination of registration will be an effective threat to him.
- A defaulter can also be sued for his utility debts.
Timely and full payment of provided utility services is mandatory under housing legislation. And therefore, it is necessary to take a wide variety of enforcement measures against debtors that will force them to pay off their debt.
The most extreme measure of coercion to pay for utilities is a statement of claim in court. This measure is often resorted to by apartment owners whose tenants have turned out to be unscrupulous and dishonest.
Homeowners are forced to pay utility bills on their own in order to avoid problems with the Management Company and other organizations. And it is through the court that they try to recover the money spent from their tenants.
Do you have to pay utility bills if you don’t live in an apartment?
Paying utility bills is the responsibility of every residential property owner from the moment the property is purchased. Even when no one lives in the apartment, but someone owns this premises, the service is provided, so it must be paid for.
Note! The owner has the obligation to pay utility bills, even if no one is registered in the apartment.
Payment for utility services is regulated by the Housing Code of the Russian Federation; by the way, section 7 of the code is allocated for this.
Let's look at the articles:
- Article 154 of the Housing Code concerns the structure of payment for housing and communal services;
- Article 155 of the Housing Code establishes the procedure and terms of payment, as well as the purpose of payment and its recipients;
- Article 157 of the Housing Code establishes the rules for calculating payments with and without metering devices.
Payments for housing and communal services increase if the number of individuals registered in the premises increases. But the rent and payment for heating remain the same, since they are charged per square footage.
Please note! If an individual is registered in a residential building, even if he does not live in it, payment for housing and communal services will be charged taking into account this person, except for heating and rent.
The owner of a residential premises may require all registered persons to pay for utilities in relation to the number registered at a given address.
You can influence them in three ways:
- separate personal accounts;
- write a statement of claim to the court;
- warn about possible eviction.
The court will be guided by part 2 of article 61 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. In such claims, the judge may rule on the loss of the registered person’s right to reside at a given address and compulsory compensation of the debt for housing and communal services.
To make such a decision, it is necessary to provide the original receipt for payment for housing and communal services, from which it is clear that the payment is made by the owner of the residential premises. Before starting litigation, it is necessary to obtain advice from a lawyer practicing in housing matters.
Attention! Our qualified lawyers will assist you free of charge and around the clock on any issues. Find out more here.
Recalculation
Recalculation is carried out only for certain utilities - those that are calculated according to the consumption rate per person. If a tenant does not consume water, gas, or use sewerage, he may not pay for such services.
In this case, the owner of the apartment must take a certificate from the place where he actually lives and pays for utilities. An application for recalculation is written, to which such a certificate is attached. It is also necessary to attach those receipts from the actual place of residence that were paid.
You also need a certificate of registration at a different address. Not many documents will be required, collecting them will not take much time, but as a result, you will not have to pay the same person twice for utilities at different addresses.
How does the presence of metering devices affect accruals?
A very good option to reduce utility bills is to equip your home with meters. In the case of not living in housing, the absence of resource consumption will be confirmed by meter readings.
But it should be borne in mind that you must pay for the actually consumed resources, the amount of which is recorded on the meters, even if no one is registered in the apartment.
Without installed meters, payment is calculated according to the average, determined in each region separately, taking into account all registered citizens, regardless of the fact of non-residence.
If there are no meters and you are not actually living in the apartment, you can count on recalculation of the total amounts. Before initiating a reduction of the presented amount, you should make sure that there are the necessary grounds for making recalculations. Such documentary evidence includes:
- An act of absence of the consumer at the place of registration, which is drawn up by an official of the management company and signed by neighbors acting as witnesses.
- Travel document for departure and arrival of the resident.
- A trip to a country medical facility.
- Certificate from the place of study, if it is located outside the locality of registration.
- Travel certificate in case of a long business trip.
Heating fee
The maintenance of housing is the responsibility of the owner, therefore he is obliged to pay for heating his apartment, even if no one lives there.
It is technically impossible to turn off the heating in one apartment, and even without maintaining the proper temperature, it will quickly become unusable. But at the housing office you can write a statement that the amount for cleaning the local area will not be charged at this address. This will already save some money.
You can reduce your heating bill if you install a heating meter and radiators in your apartment in which you can regulate the temperature.
Discount on utilities
You still have to pay utility bills, even if the apartment is empty, and no one uses water, heat or a garbage disposal in it. But savings of up to two thousand rubles per month are quite realistic.
For example, you can install meters for water supply. In this case, payment will be calculated in accordance with the actual volume of water used, and not according to the standard for the number of people registered in the apartment. All that remains is to check that there are no leaks - check all the taps and repair if necessary.
It’s more difficult with heat - only some new buildings or completely renovated houses have heating meters installed. In this case, you can set the minimum heating of the batteries in winter. But still, in most cases, paying for heating cannot be avoided.
You will still have to pay for maintenance of the local area and for garbage removal. But if the company that manages your home wants to make you a concession, write a statement stating that the apartment is empty and ask for preferential payment terms.
Check - your apartment may have a connected radio point and landline telephone service. In new buildings these services are no longer provided, but in older buildings they are available, although less and less often, since the majority are switching to mobile communications. Even if you haven’t had the appropriate outlets in your apartment for a long time, the main thing is to ensure that the services are formally disconnected so that you don’t have to pay for them every month.
Additional services
You can achieve complete gas shutoff by sealing the valves. But you can’t do this yourself; you need to contact the gas service (when sealing the gas). Representatives of the gas supply service will perform work only if the consumer has no debt for this service.
Each receipt contains a column indicating the fee for garbage removal. But if a person lives in another place and pays for such a service there, can confirm this with paid receipts, the payment at the place of registration can be canceled.
