Do apartment owners have to pay for general building needs?

Maintaining housing in an apartment building is accompanied by many costs, one of which is the need to pay for general house needs. The law does not provide for the possibility of abandoning the single payment tax completely, but it establishes boundaries and norms that do not allow a disproportionate increase in such payment.

What do ODNs include?

Should apartment owners in an apartment building pay for general building needs to a management company or resource supply organization? The answer is unequivocal - yes.

The legislation of the Russian Federation provides for a rule according to which tenants are obliged to pay not only for water, electricity, gas, heating and other current housing and communal services (even if they do not live themselves, but rent them out to tenants), but also make payments for ODN.

To understand how legally the management company included ODN in the single payment document (UPD), you need to know what exactly is included in them.

The following costs are included in the ODN payment:

• on the current power supply of areas and territories that are the common property of the residents of the house;
• on water supply.

The above estimate includes:

1. Lighting for basements and attics.
2. Electricity consumed to ensure the operation of water supply pumps.
3. Electricity consumed by the operation of intercoms and alarms.
4. Loss of electricity due to the internal equipment of an apartment building.
5. Electricity required for the operation of the elevator.
6. Water consumption required for:
   1. washing communications;
   2. cleaning floors on staircases and garbage chutes;
   3. watering house vegetation, front garden (lawn, flowers).
7. Water losses due to:
   1. internal networks at home;
   2. discharges of water in risers during repairs of batteries or heating;
   3. pressure testing of the heating system;
   4. preparation for the new heating season.

Owners of both residential and non-residential premises can pay for general house needs in the following ways:

• online, via the Internet (via your personal account, upon receipt of an electronic EPD);
• directly to the resource supplying organization;
• through unified settlement centers, post offices, Sberbank;
• transfer of funds to the management company.

Paying for utilities via the Internet is now quite simple thanks to the development of electronic payment systems and Internet banking.

If I don’t pay for one, what will happen?

Today, representatives of resource supply or management organizations are taking measures to disconnect utility services for which there is a debt.

However, in accordance with judicial practice on this issue, the authority clearly indicates the illegality of such activities, since the introduction of a restriction on the supply of a resource can only be in case of non-payment.

If the owners regularly pay for utilities, but do not cover the general needs of the house, this cannot serve as a basis for disconnection from the central resource networks.

In this aspect, it is also important to understand how the specified payments should be calculated in order to prevent excess ODN. The legislative act that came into force in 2017 regulated the following procedure for calculating charges for single taxation:

• calculation according to standards;
• ODN based on use (relevant only after installing an electric meter for general household needs).

The first of the described options is applied according to the general rule (when there are no common house metering devices), however, with some reservations, in particular: if the calculation according to the standards exceeds the indicators determined by the regional tariff service, then only the amount regulated by the specified service is paid, and the remaining debt is already a problem for the management company.

Owners are still required to pay for common household needs, otherwise they may be subject to fines, penalties, the appointment of a lawsuit, and prosecution in the case.

General household needs - how not to pay legally?

It is not possible to refuse to pay for one-time tax service completely, at the legal level, since this is an obligation, not a power. However, it is possible to refrain from paying above the norm, more than required.

For example, installing an electric meter for general house needs will help resolve the issue of exceeding the standards for electricity consumption in an apartment building.

If accounts for ODN contain unreasonably large charges, you should contact the service provider or management company for reconciliation. To do this, you must follow the following algorithm:

• prepare payment documents confirming earlier amounts of accruals for ODN, familiarize yourself with the tariffs and standards established for the region of residence of the owner of the living space;
• arrive at an authorized organization or company;
• write a statement requesting a reconciliation;
• provide prepared documents and request from the company the initial data on which it made the calculation;
• wait for the reconciliation report and recalculation of accruals to be generated.

If the resource supply or management company refuses to carry out a reconciliation or issue a certificate without explaining the reasons, the owner has the right to go to court. However, it is necessary to follow the pre-trial procedure for resolving the dispute, which will confirm the attempt of the citizen who received a large amount for one-time traffic violation to resolve the situation.

Evidence of the pre-trial settlement procedure may be (if the authorized body did not respond or left the claim without progress):

• the owner’s application for reconciliation, sent to the company by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt;
• claim for the company’s inaction on the request for reconciliation, recalculation (with the secretary’s stamp on the incoming message).

General house needs are one of the mandatory charges associated with ensuring the uninterrupted operation of utility systems or a comfortable existence in common areas within the boundaries of an apartment building.