How does the competition for the selection of a management company take place: the procedure and rules for choosing under the current Housing Code. Deputy Alexander Grigoriev, or some features of political agitation with the help of housing and communal services Competition rules

Housing

The best choice is inaction

The Temptations and Dangers of Managing Multi-Family Residential Buildings

As you know, the owners of apartments in a large apartment building are now faced with a choice - should they create an HOA? Or choose a management company? Or maybe it’s better to do nothing at all, entrusting the solution of all housing maintenance problems to the municipality?

The truth about HOA

The option of creating an HOA, in my opinion, is the most inappropriate, because. its appeal is based solely on a few ingrained myths.

The partnership of owners is supposedly the most profitable form of managing a house. Propaganda for the creation of homeowners associations has been carried out by the authorities at all levels for many years and is aimed at shifting the burden of responsibility for the maintenance of housing onto the shoulders of the population. At the beginning of this propaganda campaign, the form of management with the help of management companies was not tested, so the HOA became the subject of praise. Homeowners' associations are created for 1-2 houses, because with more houses, they become unmanageable and lose their only advantage - the personal acquaintance of all members as the basis of trust in the organization. At the same time, such a small size of HOAs makes them economically unprofitable. The management costs, divided into a small number of apartments, turn out to be unreasonably high.

Homeowners' associations, as if, can work better than management companies, because. management is carried out by people who live in the house, "they themselves live here and will not do bad things to their house." In practice, this means that the leadership is carried out by amateurs. Many homeowners' associations understood this danger and, in fact, turned into professional management companies. Those who could not do this should seriously think about liquidating the HOA.

Homeowners' associations are allegedly more sensitive to the needs of residents. However, unlike management companies, the factor of personal preferences of the management of the HOA plays a significant role in the work. In the HOA, there are frequent cases when the head openly discriminates against individual tenants, whom for some reason he did not love. With management companies, for example, this simply cannot be, because. the parties are bound by the agreement. The truth about management companies

The process of choosing management companies is now actively going on in almost all houses in the city. Owners of apartments are invited to their place by several companies at once. It seems that the process is going on in conditions of fair competition, and the tenants only have to make a choice. In practice, everything is more difficult.

Agitation of management companies is carried out under an attractive slogan: "You yourself will determine where your money will go." Many tenants melt at the mere mention of it. But no one sees the most serious problem: such an approach, at least, means that the management company shifts responsibility for maintaining the house onto the shoulders of the tenants themselves. Imagine that you went to the post office to send a letter, and you are told: "Now you will determine how to deliver your letter." Before, you put a stamp on the envelope, threw the letter in the mailbox and no more problems - you were sure that the letter would be delivered even if the train on which it was going to be transported was canceled. Will you consider it a virtue that you will have to solve all the issues related to the delivery of a letter on your own? Hardly. Then why does everyone consider it attractive to independently solve the issues of managing a residential building?! Isn't it a great conquest that after paying the due amount of utility bills, no one thinks about why there is hot water in the tap, the lights are on and gas is flowing?

Previously, apartment owners paid the housing maintenance organization for maintaining a certain condition of the house, established in sanitary and other norms and rules: engineering systems are in good order, the yard is clean, the roof does not leak, etc. Now, instead of maintaining housing in proper condition, it is proposed to pay for certain types of work. The difference is cardinal! According to the draft contracts offered by management companies, residents (customers) are forced to negotiate with the management company (contractor) on the performance of work for the money already paid. From the management of the management company it is impossible to get an intelligible answer to the question of what will happen if the apartment owners consider the estimate proposed by the management company to be too high, because they have nowhere to go - the money has already been paid.

Homeowners are very positive about the availability of separate personal accounts for each house. It is not clear why, but the residents of each house believe that the neighboring houses lived off their payments. Many republics within the former USSR also thought so... However, a "common pot" for payments for home repairs is economically justified and simply necessary! Indeed, if tomorrow, due to some emergency, your house needs repairs (a tree has fallen and damaged the roof), then you will have to wait until the necessary amount is accumulated on the personal account of the house. The "common cauldron" allows us to somehow resolve these issues, although it also has flaws. But the rejection of it imposes great risks on the owners of apartments. There are no other ways, for example, special forms of insurance, yet. And most importantly, if the guardians for personal accounts counted the amounts that they protect from encroachment, they would shed tears ...

The decision to choose a management company in practice is made, as a rule, by pensioners. They have free time, they are used to trusting the authorities, who say: "Don't be late! Tomorrow will be too late"! But these people, as a rule, are incompetent, they can be easily deceived and forced to make the "right" choice in favor of the management company, which uses professional agitators for these purposes.

The draft contracts proposed by the companies have many flaws and pitfalls, up to limiting the liability of the management company to the amount of funds collected from the house. Draft contracts are sometimes difficult even for a lawyer to understand, they are so superficial and do not contain real obligations. The attitude of management companies towards them can be judged even by the fact that the owners are rushing to make a choice right at a meeting in the courtyard of the house, saying that changes to the contract can be agreed upon and then in working order.

The very attempt of management companies to conclude contracts with each house on individual terms is suspicious. So one house will have a better deal than the other? Even the most qualified manager will get confused in 70 contracts with different conditions, namely, this is the volume of housing stock in the management of an average company. Only standard service conditions for all houses can be economically calculated and implemented.

The authorities provide tacit support to individual companies. However, after the choice made by the tenants, all responsibility lies with the tenants themselves and there will be no one to complain about. The conclusion from all of the above suggests itself: there is no need to create an HOA, or choose a management company now. We, homeowners, do not yet have the experience, knowledge, or information to make the right choice. Our business is to pay and use communal benefits, and not to check calculations and adjust contracts. Surely, in the future, homeowners will learn all this, the terms of standard contracts will be settled, management companies will stop treating tenants as when selling Herbalife. In the future we will choose, but not now...

Let the municipality make the first choice: it has both specialists and opportunities. We chose the government to solve our problems and bear responsibility for it.

Alexander Grigoriev(TIN: 720304084519) is going to deceive his voters for the second time as a deputy of the Duma of Tyumen, and the owner of the Management Company "Universal". On June 3, the entrepreneur passed the primaries organized by the party's city organization "United Russia". He is going to run in 21 single-mandate constituencies of the city of Tyumen. Earlier, Grigoriev had already been elected a deputy of the Tyumen Duma in the fifth convocation of the city assembly in the same district. However, it is unlikely that Grigoriev's deputyship brought real benefit to the townspeople who voted for him.

Alexander Grigoriev

Campaign grid of Alexander Grigoriev

In this matter, one should take into account the professional specifics of the activities of Alexander Voldemarovich Grigoriev, which fits perfectly into the campaigning process. The thing is that Grigoriev is a 100% owner of an ordinary city management company. And this means that he has a ready-made campaign grid at hand. Moreover, Grigoryev has worked in the housing and communal services sector for almost his entire adult life, and he is well versed in the intricacies of managing apartment buildings and the specifics of relationships with people. Alexander Grigoriev became the director and owner of Universal Management Company eight years ago, having gone from an ordinary plumber to the commercial director of the company in 2003. Having headed LLC MC Universal in 2010, he was almost immediately elected to the Tyumen Duma with the help of gullible voters and administrative resources.

To begin with, about the administrative resource. In any city or region, the housing and communal services industry is considered a strategic direction in the economy and people's livelihoods. What is very important for power. Therefore, any enterprise operating in this area is an important tool for the authorities not only in economic matters, but also politically important. It is no coincidence that Alexander Grigoriev, in addition to being the owner of the company, is also a member of the United Russia party, and in general a “valuable person for the city”. His value is partly due to the fact that he has a reliable propaganda tool in his hands, which he has successfully used already once, and is going to use again. And in this case, the party in power will get its own person in the City Duma, and will increase the percentage of its “success” in the elections, which will then make it possible to report to the party authorities. And in order for this to happen, both the ruling party and Grigoriev himself are going to use ordinary citizens whose homes are served by the company.

This is the same propaganda network. As a rule, it consists of ordinary employees of the "manager" - locksmiths, plumbers, foremen of operational sites. But the most valuable thing is the activists of house councils, the elders in the entrances and just active residents who expect to receive some preferences from the management company for their activity. At the same time, they are leaders of public opinion in their house, entrance, or landing. Preferences, as a rule, relate to issues of building management, repairs in entrances, etc. But it also happens that some particularly active citizen will have a loggia glazed for free, or the plumbing will be repaired.

“And some, especially trusted persons, have the authority to sign acceptance certificates for some home improvement work (for example, roof repairs). In this case, funds collected from residents are debited from the account of the house, and a special trustee receives a bonus from the management company. Only the rest do not know about it, say, if the work was not completed in full, or not completed at all, ”the Charter said. no interlocutor from among the owners of the house, which serves the management company "Universal" Alexander Grigoriev.

Some of these people are engaged in campaigning on a professional basis. Since the management companies in the conditions of constant competition for the right to manage the housing stock simply hire "special people" for money to campaign in their favor. All of them form the backbone of Alexander Grigoriev's campaign network.

"Fruits of Promotion"

Considering that the company currently manages 169 apartment buildings with a total area of ​​67,557,705 square meters, one can imagine what a huge campaign force this is. However, any campaign has the opposite effect. Especially when you consider that most of the management companies in Tyumen, included in the list of the ten largest, can hardly be called conscientious companies providing housing and communal services. Management Company "Universal" takes the 8th place in this rating. Social media users are extremely negative about her. Maintenance of houses is accompanied by huge additional extortions in the form of illegal charges, a large number of accidents, and poor-quality work of employees. In 2016, Universal Management Company LLC topped the list of 20 debtors for consumed heat to the heat supply organization Teplo Tyumen. In 2017, the debt amounted to 58 million 013 thousand 979 rubles. In 2017, 14 apartment buildings refused the services of the company. Here are just a few reviews of consumers of the services of the Management Company "Universal", and by the way, voters of the city:

Owner Ilya: “In January 2018, a line appeared in the receipt for common house needs of 2000 rubles, supposedly a debt for 2015. How can there be a debt if I paid monthly for water for general needs of 17,18,12 and 5 cubic meters. No repairs are carried out, the basement is leaking, the cold water and hot water risers are constantly breaking down, flooding the lower floors.

GZhI closes his eyes as usual, (write we will answer). How much can you steal. Entrance and staircase in a terrible state. Olympiyskaya st., 12a.

Owner Lyubov: “February 12, 2018 at 13:10 Quality of service: “30 Years of Pobeda Street 115 And for water supply for general house needs, payment is regularly taken in January as much as 375 rubles, and in the corridors and garbage chutes they only hang posters so that they would look after the sanitary condition, and cleaning is not done for months. It doesn’t even sweep, let alone wash.”

Owner Alexander: “The company is very bad. I've been calling the department for accrual of housing and communal services for a whole week. Nobody picks up the phone. I decide to apply to the housing inspection of the Tyumen region, ”the homeowners report on the website of Universal Management Company LLC.

Meanwhile, the revenue of Alexander Grigoriev's company for the last reporting year alone amounted to 339 million rubles. Its cost is 9 million 400 thousand rubles with an authorized capital of 10 thousand. So it turns out that the candidate for the Duma of Tyumen, and the owner of the management company "Universal" Alexander Grigoriev is robbing consumers of the company's services, and is going to deceive his voters, as he already did during his first deputy term.

Having failed to fulfill its obligations for the capital and current repairs of dilapidated housing, the state decided to transfer the crumbling housing stock to the responsibility of homeowners. In the early 1990s, tenants eagerly began to privatize housing, as owning real estate promises great life and legal prospects. You can register or not register certain relatives in your housing, you can give housing on the security of a loan or sell it, helping out substantial funds. You can bequeath it to whomever you want, you can finally ensure a dignified old age and fading away, being alone.

But the clothes of rights are sewn on the lining of duties. In addition to the right to sell housing, you now have an inalienable obligation to keep it safe and sound, protecting the rights of other tenants. You can make redevelopment taking into account the norms of the law and the wishes of your neighbors. But as a homeowner, you can have a stable rental income from it.

These are the benefits of owning a home. There are also encumbrances. You have to pay real estate tax, which will increase every year, as is customary in the civilized world. And, in the end, you must manage the property that is outside your apartment, but without which there is no your comfort and well-being - that is, common house communications, technical rooms, walls and roof of the house, as well as the local area. If you don't take it upon yourself, someone else will take care of it, and yet trust in state and business structures close to them is steadily declining. Wealthy people, if they buy real estate, then outside Russia, in those countries where the legislation is on guard of the owner.

It is necessary to convey these facts to the consciousness of the owners of the premises. It is necessary, in any way, to encourage residents of municipal and departmental apartments to privatize housing. It is necessary to form a condominium, a closed habitat, where only the tenants manage, and no municipal structures. It is necessary to instill in people the psychology of the owner, to show that their responsibility is limited not by the front door of the apartment, but by the front door of the house.

This is easiest to do in an old house (1960-1970s), inhabited by people of the same social stratum, preferably if the apartments in the house are not sold to strangers, and the residents have personally known each other for decades. We need a charismatic person (the initiator of the meeting, who then will definitely become the chairman of the HOA), preferably released. This may be a pensioner of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the KGB or a professional builder. Personal qualities are of paramount importance.

1. Convey to the minds of people that as soon as you privatize the local area, then there will be no parking lots, barbecues, saunas or skyscrapers on it (without the consent of the residents). If the state needs to withdraw this land for its own needs (construction of the summit facilities in Vladivostok in 2012 or in Sochi for the 2014 Olympics), then the land will be purchased at the market value, and not at the cadastral value!
2. You yourself will be able to plan the use of common house premises and the adjacent territory to suit your needs.
3. You can make legal parking of personal vehicles right under the windows. You will provide land for garages, which then no one will touch!
4. You will be able to place outdoor advertising on the walls of the house, rent out the basements of shops (if any), attics, technical rooms. The income from these transactions will first be used for major repairs (dampness and fungus in the entrance will be destroyed, annoying elevator cabins will be replaced, the issue of the ever-leaking roof, with gusts of supply pipes and disconnection of hot water for an indefinite period will be resolved forever), perhaps the land will be leased (at market value) for small businesses, and the income will go to subsidies to residents for paying utility bills. Perhaps the rent will be canceled forever!
5. Tell people that the HOA will expand, taking control of neighboring houses, and the sooner management experience is gained, the easier it will be for the residents of this house to solve their problems, at least at the expense of newly attached houses. Make it clear that what is done voluntarily today will be enforced tomorrow.
6. Convince people that the larger the structure, the lower the unit cost of personnel. The more members of the HOA, the more contributions there will be, the stronger economically the HOA will be, the more global tasks it will be able to solve. Who did not have time - he was late and will always trail in the tail!

At least at the first stage, the impeccable honesty of the people elected to the board and the audit commission of the HOA is needed. Look for people who have personal and business connections with the City Administration, grow your own staff. The longer and more successfully your HOA chairman works, the more experience he will have. Try to orient him towards eternal work in this capacity, make it clear that the reward for his work will be worthy.

The main thing to remember is that the HOA is not a momentary conjuncture, it is forever. As experience shows, the existing HOAs are not being liquidated, which means that the future belongs to them!

An attempt to organize a partnership of property owners (TSN, formerly HOA) for a Yekaterinburg woman, Victoria Dubova, ended in criminal prosecution.

It's all about signatures

We already wrote about a nine-story building on Cherepanova Street, 12 in the Zarechny microdistrict ("RG-Nedelya" dated 09/07/2016). Recall what the point is. Some of the owners expressed their lack of confidence in the Verkh-Isetskaya management company, which replaced the risers in the house in 2012, but did not inform people that they would have to pay for it out of their own pocket. In 2015, the residents challenged the minutes of the meeting, according to which they allegedly gave the go-ahead for an interest-free loan of 6 million rubles from the management company, and in 2016, the asset of the house decided to refuse her services altogether.

They tried to do everything according to the law: they held a meeting, according to estimates, it turned out that 57 percent were for partnership. Victoria Dubova, who was elected chairman of the TSN, with a calm soul handed over the documents to the tax office for registration. It was on May 18, and already on the 25th a criminal case was opened under Part 3 of Art. 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: provision of knowingly false information. Victoria was accused of tricking her into getting signatures on some ballots.

On December 29, the Magistrate of the Verkh-Isetsky Judicial District, Shchelkonogov, delivered a verdict that shocked all the chairmen of the TSN in Yekaterinburg with whom we had a chance to communicate: Dubova was found guilty of a crime and fined 10,000 rubles. After shoveling through the 20-page conclusion, you realize that the matter is only four signatures: one woman voted for her mother and neighbor, having previously learned their opinion, the other signed with the condition: "If the majority is in favor, then so am I." The third claimed that she filled out some papers at the request of Dubova, although eyewitnesses say that the ballots were given to her mother, not to her.

"I don't read papers"

How can you shift all the responsibility to the chairman, because she did not conduct the meeting alone! And she did not participate in the counting of votes - this was done by the counting commission! In addition, 3-4 canceled ballots are negligible and do not affect the result, - Igor, the head of another TSN, is indignant.

It turns out that it doesn't matter how many signatures are declared invalid to initiate a criminal case, you can earn a criminal record even for one. The court believes that the initiator of the meeting, bypassing many apartments, may forget some important details, but the owners - no.

True, they do not always realize where and for what they put ticks, they confuse notices with ballots, the whole family votes on one sheet. “I don’t remember what I signed”, “To be honest, I don’t care”, “I never read papers” - you listen and it becomes scary how low the level of legal literacy of the population is. We could verify this personally already at another process, a civil one, where the protocol of the general meeting of the residents of the house on Cherepanova, 12 dated May 2016 was disputed.

The lawsuit on behalf of three dissatisfied owners was filed by a lawyer of Verkh-Isetskaya Management Company - by proxy. The company not only invited witnesses, but also ordered a handwriting examination in a private company, and was also ready to pay for another one - for 23 apartments. According to the calculations of the Criminal Code, only 48.4 percent of the votes were cast for TSN.

They compared the signatures on the ballots with the statements to the management company and realized that some of them did not match. I myself repeatedly handed over papers to the Criminal Code on behalf of grandmothers-neighbors, and no one asked me for a passport. This is not a state institution, - Ekaterina Burneiko, a resident of the house, is surprised.

According to the recall of the State Housing Inspection (GZhI), there were no comments on the voting procedure. Residents know about the court, if they wanted to declare a violation of their rights, they would have done it long ago, - says lawyer Lyubov Nikolaeva, who defends the interests of TSN. - We are not against examination, but not private, but state, when signature samples are taken directly in court. None of the declared 23 people appeared in court.

The witnesses who came, it must be admitted, also did not inspire absolute confidence. Those who are in conflict with "Verkh-Isetskaya" about debts or are dissatisfied with it, testified in favor of Dubova. According to others who once quarreled with Vika or agreed on a restructuring with the Criminal Code, they did not bring voting sheets at all or the signatures on the ballots were not put by their hand. However, everyone is warned about criminal liability for false testimony, and we have no reason, for example, to suspect the spouses of violent fantasy, who said that the day before they were subjected to moral pressure in the Criminal Code, they called Dubova a fraudster.

Residents do not agree

The Verkh-Isetsky District Court refused to conduct a forensic examination, however, on February 13, Judge Ardasheva invalidated the minutes of the general meeting. Victoria intends to appeal this, as well as the verdict in the criminal case. The girl admits that she is very tired of proving the legitimacy of TSN and her innocence, but still hopes for justice. In general, this seemingly fragile young mother has a very strong character. Perhaps she made a mistake somewhere from the point of view of lawyers, somewhere she underestimated the complexity of working with neighbors, but we did not see the criminal in her. The Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, adopting Order No. 937 on December 25, 2015 "On the requirements for the minutes of general meetings in apartment buildings", tried to protect citizens from raiding in the housing and communal services, but it turned out that the state machine hit them themselves. Because the residents do not have such a staff of lawyers as in the Criminal Code, such funds for experts, there is, after all, no complete unanimity. It is especially difficult for houses like the one on Cherepanova, 12: 670 apartments, over 1000 residents. Judging by a small verbal skirmish in front of the court, TSN is mainly opposed by older people. They are not always happy with the Criminal Code, but they believe that changes will only make things worse. For a younger generation.

The fact that Vika is supported by a very narrow circle is not true. I, as the eldest, handed out ballots in the entrance, this guy filled it out right in front of me, and now he assures that he didn’t do it?! - Tatyana Porseva is at a loss. - Are we ready to repeat the voting? We hope this is not required.

For those who are just thinking about creating a TSN, we advise you to carefully weigh your strengths, finances and the level of trust of the owners. There is no guarantee that the neighbors, whom you always politely greeted, will not lose their memory and conscience tomorrow, dear grandmothers will not change their mind, because they were promised to fix the tap. Capture every legally significant moment on a photo and video so that people do not have the opportunity to retract their words later. And most importantly - do not forget about the legal education of residents.

Do not expect concessions and do not treat TSN as a trial balloon: it will work out - good, it will not work out - well, okay. Housing and communal services is a business, and those who are already there will defend their market share in every possible way, treat those who are trying to create TSN as competitors. And consequently, to use all possibilities: legal, financial, influence on tenants. The business environment is very tough by nature, no one will give up a penny just like that.

Direct speech

Elena Malakhova, General Director of Verkh-Isetskaya Management Company:

I started working for the company in 2011, when the state of networks in Zarechny was close to emergency. Such large houses, as on Cherepanova, 12, do not fall into any major overhaul program - according to the year of construction. In addition, the law provides for at least three types of work. For 19 entrances, the amount is huge - this has never happened in Yekaterinburg!

Began to study the experience of colleagues. They found a way: to send for repairs the difference between what citizens pay for heat according to the standards, and the readings of the common house meter. Most houses agreed. Thus was born the formulation of an interest-free loan from the UK. According to the Housing Code, owners who disagreed with the repair had the opportunity to protest everything in court within six months. Nobody applied. And then it started: "We thought it was free." Show me the store where I can get pipes for free! In 2014, some owners demanded their money back for saving heat. And we've already paid off with the contractor! Plus, the laws have changed, the Criminal Code has lost the right to charge contributions for major repairs. Therefore, we put these amounts as reimbursement for the repair of common property. Agreed on the wording with GZhI.

When we talked to the tenants, the majority was against the HOA. According to statements - 300-400 people, more came to the meetings. After the court proceedings are over, we will initiate an extraordinary general meeting at 12 Cherepanova Street, where the owners will elect a competent council of the house, which, together with the specialists of the Criminal Code, will work in the interests of the residents. There is a task to enter the elevator replacement program, to deal with interpanel seams. We have no right to dictate to people who to vote for. If they again elect Dubova as chairman of the council of the house - no question, we will cooperate, because constructive work on servicing an apartment building does not imply emotions.

Meanwhile

As RG was told in the Office of the Prosecutor General's Office for the Ural Federal District, an audit was carried out in the wake of our publication in September. The actions of the management company "Verkh-Isetskaya" (setting the amounts for the replacement of risers as debts) were recognized as legal. But on February 6, 2017, four decisions to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings were canceled. Recall that a year ago, Victoria Dubova complained about what she believed to be illegal actions of the Criminal Code: hacking e-mail, posting leaflets against TSN and disseminating information discrediting her honor and dignity. The police did not see any signs of a crime at the time. Now there is a new check.