According to the housing legislation of the Russian Federation, each citizen receiving housing and communal services must pay their cost no later than the 10th day of the month following the expired, unless otherwise specified by an agreement concluded with the management company or the HOA. If payment is not made on time, you are at risk of charging a late fee for utility bills.
Given that everything around is getting more expensive every day, with such an unpleasant phenomenon as fines, penalties and fines, one has to face more and more often. Therefore, it is worth asking how to correctly calculate the amount of late fees, and maybe even completely avoid this unpleasant phenomenon.
You have to pay for everything
As you know, the relationship of utilities and consumers of services has been a byword at all times. An increase in debt for utility bills can sometimes lead organizations to bankruptcy. This issue is especially relevant today, in the face of a total increase in prices for everything. That is why enterprises providing utility services to the population are trying in every possible way to spur their customers, make them pay on time, and even better - ahead of schedule. One of these tools is the payment of late fees.
Pressing issue
According to independent experts, only a little more than 6% of irresponsible consumers have communal debt. However, even this seemingly insignificant number of them does not pay considerable amounts to service providers. Moreover, only about half of the debtors do not really have the financial ability to pay bills on time, while the second part of the malicious defaulters is quite capable of “pulling” the utility load, but for various reasons it does not.
Someone deliberately does not pay for light, gas and sewage, counting on some kind of ghostly “maybe”, someone brings elementary forgetfulness. It is on such clients suffering from "financial sclerosis" that penalties have the best effect. The late fees are most often such that, having substantially overpaid once, in the future, “forgetters” begin to carefully monitor the timeliness of payment.
Do not pay? You need to blame!
In the general case, the deadline for paying utility bills is the 10th day of the month following the estimated one, however, sometimes in some agreements of some HOAs there may be another date. Nevertheless, if by the time “X” your receipts remained unpaid, then from the next day a penalty will automatically be charged. Therefore, the amount of late fees in the end turns out to be the greater, the longer you evade full repayment of the debt. In principle, there is no need to calculate the amount of the fine yourself, you will still receive a receipt in which the penalty will be indicated, but knowing the principle of charging it, you can double-check the result. If you disagree with something, you can challenge the actions of the management company in court and provide your calculation, as well as evidence that you had a good reason for the delay in payment.
How else to work on the debtor
In addition to late fees, utilities can also apply other measures of influence. If you do not pay your bills for at least three months, get ready for the fact that you will be "cut off" the light, water and gas, in general, all that you do not pay.
After six months, the supplier company has the right to appeal to the court for a forced collection of debt. In this case, the decision will most likely not be in your favor, and you will have to meet with bailiffs who will try to seize your property and bank accounts.
If the main debt and penalties for late payments of utility bills exceed the threshold of 10 thousand rubles, the payer will have problems traveling abroad, and he will not be able to sell real estate burdened with debts.
Well, the most extreme measure of influence for malicious defaulters is forced eviction. If the debtor lives in municipal housing, then by decision of the court he may be obliged to vacate the living space, providing in return another, at the rate of 6 m 2 per person.
How are late fees charged for utility bills?
Those who are unconscious of their financial obligations to the management company need to know that interest is charged for each day of non-payment of due payment.
To calculate late fees, you need to know 3 indicators:
- amount of debt;
- number of days of delay, including repayment date;
- refinancing rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (it is also the discount rate) at the time of calculation.
To date, the size of the penalty has been determined as one three-hundredth of the Central Bank discount rate for each day of delay in payment. In order to understand how to calculate late fees, you need to enter all of the above components into the formula:
P = Sz x D x Cp / 300
- P - the size of the penalty (interest);
- Sz - the total amount of debt for this type of payment;
- D - count - in days of late payments;
- - Central Bank refinancing rate in shares (i.e., the interest rate must be divided by 100%); at the present moment it is 8.25%, which means that the coefficient used for the calculation is as follows: 8.25% / 100% = 0.0825.
Attention! If the discount
rate (refinancing rate) has changed during the term of the debt, the calculation should be carried out separately for each period - before and after the change.
Financial "key"
Before calculating late fees, it is still worthwhile to clearly distinguish between the two Central Bank rates — the accounting and the key. If the first is used to calculate a variety of fines and penalties, the second serves to stabilize the banking system as a whole. Starting in 2016, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation plans to balance these two concepts, and until then they have completely different meanings.
It was the unstable indicators of the key rate that gave rise to some excitement - they said that it was precisely because of this that the amount of fines for those who could not pay for the light, garbage and water in a timely manner increased significantly. However, such conversations have no basis. But this does not mean at all that "forgetfulness" can breathe calmly.
What will “please” the current year
According to statements by Russian officials, in 2015, the calculation of late fees will be made in a new way. The Housing Code of the Russian Federation will be amended regarding the Central Bank refinancing rate. Now, not one three hundredth but one hundred and seventy of its value will be used to calculate the penalty. Thus, the amount of fines and penalties will be almost doubled, and those who neglect to pay timely utility bills will additionally pay more than 17% per annum of the debt, which is quite comparable to the average bank loan.
However, there is a positive point in the new amendments to the law - now deviators are given as much as 3 months to voluntarily pay the debt. Penalties will be made not from the first, but from the 91st day of late payment.
How to avoid late fees for utility bills
The first and most logical answer suggests itself - to pay bills on time. But sometimes there are situations when it is not possible to do this. If you are unable to cope with the communal burden due to the fact that you have been lowered your salary or you have completely lost your job, you can apply for a subsidy. And if such compensation is not prescribed to you by law, you can conclude an individual contract or an additional agreement with the service provider that provides for restructuring or an individual schedule for debt repayment.
If you are going on a long business trip or just decided to spend the whole summer in the country, you can contact the management company with the appropriate statement, based on which you will be recalculated. If you do not want to devote the employees of the utility company to the fact that your apartment will be empty for a long time, then recalculation can also be done upon return. Naturally, in this case you will have to provide a bunch of documents confirming the fact of your absence. This can be travel documents, sick leave, a ticket to the sanatorium, and so on. It is worth remembering that you can recalculate only that part of utility bills that does not apply to common house services and heating, because these payments are charged regardless of your presence in the apartment.