A considerable part of our obligatory monthly expenses is paid for utilities, telephone, Internet, etc. The vast majority of citizens treat this quite conscientiously, and pay in strictly agreed time. But life is unpredictable. Sometimes you have to urgently go on vacation or a business trip, or a receipt for payment suddenly disappears in an unknown direction. After some time, the owner of the house raises a logical question: “But should I have something for the management company?”
How can I find out the arrears of rent on a personal account or address, and where should I apply in such a case? This is what we will discuss in the framework of this article.
The rent: what is included in this concept
Rates for rent in each region, and most often in each city, are very different from each other. Moreover, the amount may even depend on what house you live in, whether you have an elevator, concierge and other amenities.
In general, residents pay:
- maintenance of the apartment and the local area;
- maintenance of housing.
Payment for an apartment may include the following items:
- house maintenance;
- current repair of common areas;
- utilities services;
- contributions for the overhaul of the building.
In turn, companies providing utility services include the following items in payment:
- electric power;
- water and sewage;
- gas;
- heating;
- removal of municipal solid waste;
- cleaning of the surrounding area;
- telephone;
- radio point;
- elevator;
- concierge service.
All these payments are charged monthly; there is no way to refuse them. Of course, if your house does not have, for example, an elevator, then you will not be required to pay for it. In any other case, if the service is provided, you must pay for it. Payment does not depend on whether you live indoors or not.
ZhEK or RC
The oldest and most reliable way to find out about your debts is to go to the housing office or the management company.
It is worth noting that due to the fact that recently the world is becoming more and more computerized, the queues in these institutions have pretty much decreased. Despite the rampant computerization of all areas of our lives, many people still prefer to apply for an account statement. The fact is that ZhEK is the only place where not only your penny will be called up to the penny, but also where it came from.
To simplify the work, there is a public utilities hotline. Such a service will be provided to you at the EIRC, a single information and settlement center. This service collects information from utilities, generates payment documents for each individual apartment, and sends receipts by mail. Also in this organization you can get a certificate of the absence or presence of debts.
We use a personal account
In order to find out the arrears of rent on a personal account, you can use several methods:
- Contact an employee of the Russian Post. To get the information, you will only need to give the numbers of the account, the presence of the homeowner and the provision of any documents will most likely not be required.
- In the terminal of any bank providing a communal payment service.
- At a bank that accepts utility bills by personal account number.
- By calling the help desk of the company that provides you with utility services: provision of light, gas, water. True, here you will have to call each organization separately, since they do not have information about the financial calculations of their colleagues.
All of these methods have one drawback. Information may be submitted with slight deviations. For example, it often happens that the information about the daytime foam has not yet been added to the computer, and, having paid off the debt, it seems, you can stay a few more rubles or kopecks. To avoid such an incident, it is worthwhile to find out the rent arrears in the personal account again, two to three days after the payment.
By the address
If you decide to buy an apartment and want to make sure there are no debts, the easiest way is to ask the owners for a statement of the status of the account. But what to do if you purchase a home through an intermediary or doubt the veracity of the information provided. In this case, you can find out the rent at. There are several ways to do this:
- on the Internet services of public services;
- on the official websites of companies providing housing and communal services;
- by registering a personal account on the website of the management company;
- by contacting a branch of a bank working with a communal apartment;
- through ATMs of such financial institutions.
In addition, in large cities there are usually real estate centers where you can quickly and free of charge get information on any object by naming its address.
By phone
The easiest way to find out about debt is by dialing the phone number indicated on the receipt for the previous month. Also, in each receipt, the Housing and Utilities Hotline is usually indicated, but it is almost impossible to get through there. But if you still manage to do such a trick, information will be provided immediately.
Checking debts using the Internet
As you probably already understood, the easiest way to find out the arrears of rent is in your personal account using the Internet. Information on the availability of debts is provided by many online sites: from payment system sites, to official portals of services providing utility services.
The most popular among them are the sites of banks and management companies. The only negative is that banks do not inform about accrued fines, but offer to pay only the main debt.
It is very convenient to use the sites of company managers. Usually, by registering a “Personal Account”, you can not only find out about the presence of debt and its size, but also transfer the readings of metering devices.
What threatens those who do not pay "communal"
Timely payment for an apartment is a very important matter. It is usually necessary to deposit funds no later than the 10th or 15th day of the month following the calculated one.
If you have not paid for services consumed for more than three months, expect an initial warning from utilities. If you ignore the reminders, then after another three months you run the risk of appearing in court regarding the forced collection of debt.
Most often, public utilities do not wait so long. If you have the technical ability, your housing will simply be disconnected from the service. Simply put, you turn off the light, gas, block the water or cut off the heating. You can reconnect all communications only by completely paying off the debt, paying a fine and all the work to restore the system.
The most stringent measure to “knock out” debts from the population is still eviction. True, this is not so simple. In order to talk about the seizure of an apartment as a result of accumulated debt, at least three conditions must be met:
- debt is commensurate with the cost of housing;
- minors are not registered in the apartment;
- the owner of the premises has other housing suitable for living.
However, do not relax. If the eviction and sale of housing to pay off debt is a rather troublesome task, then the bailiffs will be able to describe the property and values without difficulty.
Purchase and sale of an apartment with debts
Now you know where to find out the arrears of rent, and you certainly will not fall into the trap of dishonest sellers. And what if you yourself decide to sell an apartment that is in arrears. Can this be done?
There is no direct rule of law prohibiting such an operation. But if you do not want trouble in the future, when selling, it is worth observing several conditions:
- no need to hide the presence of debt;
- accurately check the amount of debt and compare it with the cost of housing;
- offer the buyer to reduce the price by the amount of existing debt;
- when concluding a transaction, make a clause in the sales contract that you charge the buyer with the obligation to pay the debt and he agrees with this.
Including this clause in the contract will oblige the new owner to pay the debt for your “communal apartment” and deprive him of the right to invalidate the transaction on the basis that he did not know about the existence of financial obligations. If the contract does not expressly mention the transfer of debt, the amount is recoverable from the former owner even after the sale.