In order to increase the efficiency and transparency of the work of management companies (MC), the Ministry of Construction creates special accounts in which funds will accumulate to pay for utilities. newspaper reports “News” with a link to the document. The Ministry is dealing with this issue on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.
“Now the money goes to the accounts of the management company, to a common pool and becomes the property of the organization. Residents of the house can check their use only once a year, when the expenditure report and future expenditure plan are approved, ”said Vladimir Koshelev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Community Services.
From the document will be introduced “obligatory accumulation by persons who manage apartment buildings of consumer payments in a special bank account for payments for social resources.”
According to Koshelev, if the management company does not work in good faith, residents do not understand what their money is spent on, for example, when they can go to the needs of other houses. He noted that the MCs reported on the work done after the event, and that the creation of special accounts would increase control over the spending of funds.
Direct contracts with RSO
In response, Alexander Evseev, member of the Public Council of the Ministry of Construction, reminded that by the decision of the meeting of property owners, they can switch to direct payments to resource supply organizations (RSO) for housing and communal services, but “usually they do not pay additional RSO, so it is quite justified to introduce special accounts,” he said.
As Narodny Front analyst Pavel Sklyanchuk points out, management companies do not always pay RSOs on time and in full, which “have no other mechanism of action than judicial debt collection,” which often leads to the bankruptcy of the management company, he notes. As Sklyanchuk noted, only conscientious management companies entered into direct contracts with the RSO, so the problem of “freezing” funds remained. The specialist believes that it is necessary to show information about the status of special accounts in the State Information System for Housing and Community Services (GIS Housing and Community Services), which will allow residents to monitor the expenditure of funds.
In addition, Tatyana Vepretskaya, director of the non-profit partnership NP National Housing Congress, notes that sometimes management companies use the funds received not to clean entrances, maintain elevators or make existing repairs, but to pay borrowers for housing and communal services. She believes this problem should be solved by introducing private accounts, she.
The role of private accounts is unclear
Also, at the Russian Water Supply and Sanitation Association, Izvestia was told that it does not matter how and where CU payments for RSO will be collected – the fact of timely payment is important to them. The association notes that making such accounts available without tenants’ consent may be conceptually new to the industry. They noted that it is necessary to think about how to organize access to citizens’ funds.
In turn, Andrei Shirokov, chairman of the Committee on Entrepreneurship in the Housing and Utilities Sector of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, noted that residents often receive payment receipts through the MFC, and the role of special accounts in this context is not entirely clear.
Sklyanchuk, an analyst at the Popular Front, also noted that private accounts will not solve taxpayers’ problems, and that the Criminal Code often fails to pay RSOs because of debtors.
In addition, Alexander Evseev, member of the Public Council of the Ministry of Construction, states that if the principle of private accounts is extended to pay for housing and communal services, this will bring further disadvantages, as the Criminal Code will have additional costs for paperwork.
Valery Kovalev, general director of PJSC GIT holding, believes that the management company should be excluded from the plan to work with RNO money, since the management company did not receive anything for this. He said the RNO should raise the funds themselves.
Escrow accounts for real estate buyers
Escrow accounts in real estate work on a similar principle. In 2019, to avoid deceiving stockholders and to increase the overall security of transactions, escrow was introduced, which are special accounts in which real estate buyers’ money is stored and the seller or developer can receive it only after fulfilling their obligations. Banks act as intermediaries in transactions.
The mechanism is built in such a way that the funds for the purchased apartment are credited to the account after registration of the contract for participation in joint construction and frozen there until the moment when the ownership of the first apartment in the completed building is registered. In the event that the developer has problems with the completion of the construction of the house, the buyer can always count on the repayment of the amount paid. This option made it impossible for a shareholder, who had paid the developer the full cost of the flat, to remain without money and flat in the event of a construction freeze.
Source: Gazeta
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