Together with the experts of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services, we talk about various types of public services. The fourth issue of "Communal Awareness" is devoted to major repairs
The house you live in can be 40 years old, but you have not paid for its major repairs yet.
The subject of major repairs is one of the most vulnerable topics in the housing and communal services sector. At first, people get tired of waiting for it trying to find out why the dates of the repairs are being transferred from year to year. Then, for a year or even more, the tenants suffer from constant mud in the entrance, noise, outages of water and gas.
“In Belarus, people have been making deductions for major repairs only since 1999. Previously, they didn’t have to do it, with the exception of the former Housing Construction Co-operatives where the residents themselves made their decision to accumulate some funds in a special account,” - Andrei Romashko, Head of the Housing Management Department of the Ministry of Communal Services, told the "KP". We have been paying for major repairs for only 16 years, but not for forty or more years when the house was built!
By major repairs we shouldn’t mean the house will be almost rebuilt, that they will carry out the repairs in the entrance, replace the wiring in the apartments. It is a service for the restoration of structural elements and in-house networks of an apartment building that were lost in the process of operation.
- Major repairs presuppose the repair of the roof, the facade, the foundation, the engineering networks, etc. And it doesn’t mean that all this must be done at once. If there is a need to repair only the roof or replace the engineering system, this will be done. But as for the foundation or the façade of the building, no work will be done. .
"Will the windows be replaced?"
Windows have not been replaced since 2013. About 70% of the windows have already been replaced by the tenants themselves. Well, if I replace windows, the cost of an apartment on the market increases. Why should the state make such gifts? Moreover, over 92% of housing is now privately owned. And people must repair their own housing independently.
It is in the spring and autumn that people usually decide whether to make major repairs or not.
The Housing Code does not specify in how many years after the construction the house is in need of major repairs. . This may occur in 30 years, and in 50 years. The decision for carrying out major repairs is made on the grounds of the unsatisfactory technical condition of the building.
"The decision about the necessity for major repairs is taken during the annual spring and autumn inspections," says Andrei Romashko. “Experts of the Housing Maintenance Service, Housing Maintenance and Communal Service inspect the house and compare it with the rest of the housing fund. The district administration forms two repair schedules - for a year and for five years. That is, the final decision is taken by the local authorities.
Once a decision is made, the Housing Maintenance Service develops design and estimate documentation in which all stages of major repairs are scheduled. Then the Housing Maintenance Service concludes a contract with residents to carry out major repairs. This contract is a binding document. The deadlines of all the stages of the repairs are indicated in the contract, which means that the tenants are protected by this document – they can come to the Housing Maintenance and Communal Service and say that the quality of major repairs does not suit them, or that the terms of the work are delayed, etc.
The repairs can be delayed because some of the tenants have gone away.
- It is clear that a 5-storey house and a 12-storey house will be renovated at different times. But the timing can be prolonged not only due to uneven funding. For example, the staff of the operating organization or repairmen must be provided access to the apartments of the dwelling house. No repair work is carried out in your flat but it is impossible to gain access to engineering networks without getting into your apartment. There can also be cases when during the major repairs it turns out that an apartment is empty because its occupants have moved out, and it’s impossible to get in touch with them. Experts of the operating organization or repairmen are obliged to waste time on long searching for them, and the deadlines of the repairs are delayed, which causes inconvenience to other people.
- Once we got a complaint from one of the clients who said that he had been paying for the repairs in due time, but the repairs were not over yet, whereas the major repairs of the neighboring house had already been completed. In his opinion, it was quite unjust.
- The practice that exists today is: we make deductions for major repairs, and this money goes for the repairs of the housing stock this year, that is, for the repairs of other houses. The funds are not accumulated anywhere, and therefore are not depreciated. And when major repairs are carried out in your house, they will be paid by tenants of other houses in the area. Of course, the source of funding consists not only of the deductions made by citizens, but also of the budgetary funds that are allocated every year.
- What is the cost of the house major repairs?
- It depends on the amount of work to be done. But there is an average indicator too. To get 1 square meter of housing repaired, you need about 1.5 million rubles. The tariff is just over 800 rubles. As an example, let us take an apartment of 50 square meters. It appears that every month the tenants of this apartment pay 50 thousand ruble pay for major repairs, or 600 thousand rubles a year. For 15 years the sum reaches 9 million rubles. For this amount of money not more than 9-10 square meters of the total area of the living quarters can be repaired. If we are to rely only on the money of citizens, we need four more times for 15 years so that we can eventually do something.
The pace of major repairs is increasing. Residents should not be offended by the fact that they once had to replace the windows, but now they do not. The task of the state is to ensure the safe living of citizens. It is necessary to increase the number of renovated houses, because the housing stock is aging. Gradually we have come to the stage when the state repairs only what a person can not technically do – for instance, to replace the riser.
CUT IT OUT AND KEEP IT
What, during the major repairs, is paid by: ...
... the state:
replacement of pipes (except those that are in the apartment) of water-, heat supply, sewerage;
replacement of batteries (for standard ones; and if you want others - pay your own money and check it with The Housing Maintenance and Communal Service);
replacement of the gas pipe up to the shut-off valve;
repair of the roof, facade, foundation, balcony;
repair of engineering networks, heat supply system;
replacement of elevators;
replacement of indoor electrical wiring and electrical equipment (except for the apartment).
... the tenants:
installation of meters for water, gas, heat;
replacement of any pipes after the first shut-off valve (i.e. the first crane in the apartment, except for heating);
gas, electronic sanitary equipment in the apartment;
restoration of the lining of the niche in the bathroom - if the repairmen replaced the pipe;
replacement of windows.
BE AWARE OF!
The owners of the apartment have
…the following rights:
to get acquainted with the design and estimate documentation - for this you need to contact the Housing Maintenance and Communal Service;
to require the restoration of the apartment interior decoration, property that was damaged during the work and for reasons beyond the control of the tenants (the roof leaked, the walls were frozen, etc.);
to refuse from certain types of work before their beginning;
to demand the elimination of defects and deficiencies caused during the major repairs and during the warranty period.
…the following duties:
to provide access to the apartment for the pre-repair inspection and implementation of all work;
to provide documents confirming the alteration or redevelopment of the apartment, if you did them;
to take the necessary measures to protect the property and move it from the work area;
in case of replacement of gas equipment (plate or meter), to conclude a contract for the maintenance of gas equipment and the supply of natural gas.
BY THE WAY
If, according to schedule, the house is to be subject to major repairs, put off the repair in your apartment.
There is a perpetual dilemma: the major repairs in the house you live in are to be carried out in a year whereas your apartment needs repairing quite urgently. Will it be reasonable to wait until they start repairing the house?
- As a rule, the owners are obliged to renovate their apartments every 5 years. Of course, if the house is in the current schedule of major overhaul, then, perhaps, it is not worthwhile to close the riser niches with complex materials, like tiles. Most likely, the wall will have to be dismantled at the owner’s expenses.. But no one can prevent you from whitewashing the ceiling, papering the walls, replacing the floor covering, moving the sockets.
NO QUESTIONS REMAIN WITHOUT ANSWERS
- There two apartments on one landing. According to technical passports, the height of the ceiling of one of them is 2.80 meters whereas the height of the other one is 2.73 meters. But the tariff for heating depends on the total metric area of the apartment. How can the error be rectified?
- The procedure for calculating the payment for the heat supply in residential premises is defined in clause 39 of the Regulations on the procedure for calculating and paying fees for housing and communal services and fees for the use of living quarters of the state housing fund approved by Resolution No. 571 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of June 12, 2014. According to the Regulations, the payment for heat supply services is based on the total metric area of the living quarters and the tariff set for 1 calorie of thermal energy. Thus, the metric area of housing does not affect the cost of heating services.
- How can residents of the house № 67 in Y. Kolas Street get rid of the maintenance of the areas of the hardware store, which is located on the ground floor? According to the rent bill, the area of the house is 8 000 square meters, and the maintenance of additional areas is 1,200 square meters. In this case, residents do not have access to the basement.
- The procedure for calculating payment for housing and communal services for residential and non-residential premises is approved by the abovementioned Regulations. Thus, all services for non-residential premises are accrued on the basis of tariffs established in accordance with the legislation for legal entities and entrepreneurs operating non-residential premises. The payment for maintenance of non-residential premises is made by paying actual costs. Thus, tenants do not bear the cost of paying for non-residential premises owned or leased by both legal entities and entrepreneurs. At the same time, they, as participants in joint household ownership, have a duty to maintain the common property of a residential building (lobby, corridor, gallery, staircase and landings, elevator halls and other premises).
Questions to experts of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services can be sent to dom@phkp.by
