In order for people to live in clean and renovated houses, enjoy walking alongside the house, you need to maintain the functioning of a whole system of utilities, organize the use of common property correctly, take care of the comfort of residents and landscaping of the courtyard. Who should do this? Obviously, residents of an apartment building (MKD) need to do important work to organize such a body, which will be in their interests to take good care of common property in a timely manner and to maintain cleanliness and order in the house. The whole range of home maintenance work is referred to as the MKD Office.
How exactly can MKD management be implemented?
About what methods of management of MCD exist at present, many have heard. But to understand the details often time is simply not enough, although this knowledge is very useful.
In the RF LC, the methods for controlling MKD are set out very readily for understanding (Part 2 of Article 161). However, not all of them are applicable to any home. If there are less than thirty apartments in the MKD, housing legislation offers direct management as a way to manage the MKD. In this case, contracts with suppliers, repairmen, cleaners and other workers are concluded by the apartment owners, who will answer the inspection organizations and pay fines in case of detection of problems in the field of fire safety, accidents, untimely garbage collection. Management, as a rule, is carried out by an initiative group of tenants or a chosen representative free of charge. But the implementation of activities for the maintenance and operation of MKD is a big work, therefore direct management as a way to manage MKD is reasonable to install in small houses. Each resident has his own vision of the picture of an ideal house and entrance, so the number of residents directly affects the ability to reach a compromise and affects the likelihood of conflicts and misunderstandings.
The second option for managing MKD, indicated in the Housing Code, is the management of a certain type of legal entities. In particular, such a person may be a partnership of homeowners (HOAs), a housing cooperative (LCD) or another specialized consumer cooperative (PC). With this method of management, apartment owners authorize a legal entity to sign contracts for routine repairs and for all aspects of the operation of house property, as well as for water supply, sanitation, heating and other services.
The third option involves the conclusion of an agreement with a managing organization that will perform the entire range of services for MKD and at the same time be responsible for possible violations of the requirements of Russian legislation to inspection authorities.
Who makes the choice of the control method of MCD?
The owners of apartments can not only dispose of their square meters, but must also keep the common property in good condition. Therefore, the LCD of the Russian Federation contains a directive to homeowners to determine how their home will be managed. Before making a choice of the MCD management method, apartment owners should study in detail their specifics, which one is best suited for the house, taking into account its age, condition and other features, as well as correlate with the willingness of the owners to manage their own house and pay utility bills on time.
The final choice is made at the general meeting of owners, which can be held in person or organized without the personal presence of all residents. In order for the decision of the meeting to be valid, residents must vote for it, who together have 50 or more percent of the vote. The choice of the way to manage the MKD by the general meeting must be strictly accepted by each tenant in the MKD, even despite the possible omission of the meeting itself. When the meeting is held in absentia, participation is considered to be the timely transfer by the owner of his decision in writing. The result of such a meeting of apartment owners is recorded in the protocol for selecting the MCD management method, which is posted in the entrances in such a way that each apartment owner is familiar with it. The public offering is made by the initiator of the meeting within ten days after the decision. In the same way, by organizing a general meeting, the possibility of changing the way the MKD is managed is realized.
All of the above applies to houses that are already inhabited. But the situation is different with the newly built houses. It often happens that in a new building, not all tenants have a right of ownership, for example, they are long-suffering equity holders. Due to the fact that such citizens, according to housing legislation, do not have the right to vote on the issue of determining the form of house management, it becomes impossible to choose a way to manage this house.
What will happen if the control method for MCD is not selected?
The Housing Code limits the time period when owners have the opportunity to ponder and organize the process of creating an HOA or choosing a management organization.
If the residents did not begin to puzzle themselves with the choice of the management method or could not do it for objective reasons, as well as in the case when the decision to choose the management method of the MKD has not yet been implemented, the local government performs the necessary procedures for organizing a competition to determine the managing organization. Here, none of the tenants has the right to refuse, and each owner is obliged to follow the provisions of the management agreement concluded with the chosen managing organization, regardless of whether this agreement suits him or not. But there is always a procedural opportunity to correct the current state of affairs and hold a general meeting before the contract expires, at which to discuss the issue of changing the management method of the MKD or the managing organization.
What includes the maintenance of premises in the MKD?
All services and work related to the concept of “maintenance of premises in the MKD” are determined by housing legislation. This concept includes a wide range of services for organizing the supply of water, electricity, gas, thermal energy, registration of citizens living in the house, accounting services, technical operation, and sanitary maintenance.
Technical operation, in turn, includes maintenance of the building's engineering systems and repair work. Sanitary maintenance includes the whole range of measures to maintain cleanliness and order in the house and in the adjoining territory, for example, cleaning, disinfection, deratization, disinsection.
What does HOA do?
Such a way of managing MCD as HOA appears where some tenants would like to be able to control the spending of funds on servicing their home. HOA leadership does not arise from scratch, but is always created from the most active and interested residents. And although such initiative citizens do not always have full legal knowledge and knowledge in the field of public utilities, an important factor in successful work is the desire to make their home better. The HOA board has to carry out contractual work on cleaning, garbage removal, maintenance of utilities and other aspects of the maintenance of the house and the adjoining territory. Maintaining order and following sanitary and fire safety standards is also an important function of HOAs. The financial side of the management assumes the presence of an accountant in the HOA to keep track of the funds that are transferred by tenants to pay for utilities, as well as the money that is spent on the needs of the house. Additional income HOA can be obtained from the lease of any part of the common property.
If the owner decides whether he wants to become a member of the HOA or not, then, in turn, the HOA does not have the right to refuse admission to its ranks, even if suddenly other members of the HOA oppose it. Unwillingness to become a member of the HOA is sometimes associated with the need to pay for additional services - security in the parking lot and in the porch, flower beds in the yard, video cameras on the floors. Indeed, for HOA members, payment is mandatory if the HOA board has made such a decision. An output in this situation may be an individual agreement with the HOA, in which all fees will be approved in advance.
How does a management company work?
With the direct conclusion of an agreement between the owners and a specialized management company, it is expected to provide technical and sanitary services for the home, as well as high-level repair work, as professional and experienced specialists working in the management company will be able to correctly assess the need and complexity of the work, they will select the right materials, invite the right specialists. If the management company works with several houses, then a lower cost of work and services is also possible. However, communication with the management company is often difficult, and even a small incident like a burnt out bulb can be inconvenient for several days.
Contract with the management company: what is the most important?
The most important step in the process of establishing one of the ways of managing MKD is the development and conclusion of an agreement with the management company. The content of the contract will determine the future relationship between the tenants and the management company, including the possibility of termination of the contract in case of unfair performance of house maintenance functions. The contract text must indicate all house property, the types and frequency of work and services that the management company will be required to make, the size and timing of all payments that the owners will have to make. The contract can also prescribe the procedure for reporting to residents about the work done. If this is not done, then the report should be received by the owners once a year.
Why is the council of MCD collected?
Another responsibility of the tenants becomes the choice of a house council in the event that the option with a management company was chosen from the ways of managing the MCD. In fact, the main tasks of the council are to formulate proposals and control the work being done. At the meeting of owners, council members make proposals on what needs to be repaired, which maintenance work can be rescheduled for next year, and which require urgent measures, to whom and for what purpose it is possible to lease common property and other aspects of the maintenance of MKD and landscaping. The objectives of the council also include the study of contracts and agreements that they propose to conclude to the owners in order to protect the rights and interests of the residents of the house. Based on the results of the review, the council makes its conclusions and recommendations on all documents. We can say that the MKD Council organizes the discussion of important issues at meetings of owners, interacts with the managing organization and monitors the implementation of the terms of the management contract.
Pros and cons of different forms of MCD management
If we conduct a comparative description of the control methods of MCD, we can draw the following conclusions. The fundamental difference is that direct management involves solving all issues by the residents of the house. While two other ways of managing MKD allow you to transfer the burden of responsibility on the shoulders of the head of the HOA or the leadership of the managing organization. On the other hand, with independent management it is possible to operate with money more mobile and flexibly adjust the choice of work and services to the current situation. Residents directly managing the house can even significantly reduce their costs of repairing and maintaining the house, selecting contractors according to their wishes for the cost of work and services.
At the same time, a distinctive feature of the contract with the management company will be the receipt of professional services in accordance with the requirements of the law. When managing tenants or in the form of an HOA, people with special education and skills do not always participate in organizing house servicing, therefore, additional costs for training personnel in the field of housing and communal services and legislation may be required. Also, management organizations, as a rule, have specialized equipment available that allows them to provide many services at a higher level. In general, all methods of managing MCD have their own nuances that must be taken into account when making a choice.
Where to contact if there are problems with the management company?
In case of defects in house maintenance (for example, garbage was not removed from the container site on time, the entrance is not wet-cleaned, the elevator walls are painted and other violations), it is advisable to first contact the management company directly with a request to fix the problems. If the management company does not respond, then a complaint should be sent to the State Housing Inspectorate for verification.
However, there are alternative ways to influence the management company. So, in St. Petersburg, the portal Our St. Petersburg, created by the city government, has been operating for several years. On this site you can post a message about an existing problem by selecting the appropriate category and attaching supporting photos or documents. After registering on the site, the message is sent to the executor for training - to the management company and to the control of the district administration. At the same time, the period within which the contractor is obliged to provide an answer on the elimination of the problem is automatically set. Statistics of messages is an important indicator of the work of district administrations in the field of housing and communal services, so most messages are processed efficiently and on time.
On the problems associated with determining the management method of MCD, two categories are open on the portal for submitting messages: “Violations when choosing / changing the managing organization” and “Violations when creating an HOA”. Also, in the absence of information about the selected management company, you can send a message to the category "There is no information about the management company in the house."
The portal presents a huge selection of categories for posting messages about the unsatisfactory condition of common property in the house and courtyard. You can report about broken swings in the playground, and overcrowded urns, and about the dirty stairs. The most popular categories for home maintenance are “Unsatisfactory state of the front door” and “Lack or non-observance of the porch cleaning schedule”. The first receives messages about the need for urgent work on the current repair of the entrance, the second - information about the violation of the sanitary condition of the stairwells.
Awareness of the methods of managing MKD, their features, the procedure for choosing a management company and monitoring its work allows you to choose the most successful option for servicing your home. In order to understand the intricacies of housing legislation, you need to spend a fairly large amount of time, however, this work will pay off with well-groomed stairs and uninterruptedly working elevators.