The LDPR proposed a ban on disconnecting citizens from services without a court decision

The LDPR party proposes to ban representatives of public utilities from arbitrarily disconnecting citizens from services without a court decision. As Izvestia found out on October 22, such a bill was prepared for submission to the State Duma (State Duma) by the LDPR faction led by Leonid Slutsky.

"The draft federal law On Amendments to Article 157 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation has been developed in order to improve the legal mechanism for suspending and restricting the provision of public services and to increase the protection of citizens from possible abuses by utilities. The current legislation grants utility service providers the right to suspend or restrict their provision if consumers are in arrears," Izvestia said in an explanatory note to the bill.

The document says that the bill retains these powers, but introduces an additional mechanism for protecting citizens, providing that the suspension or restriction of public services is allowed only on the basis of a court decision that has entered into force, which allows to prevent abuse and take into account the social vulnerability of certain categories of citizens.

In addition, it is emphasized that the proposed amendments provide that the suspension and restriction of the provision of public services for heating, gas, electricity, cold water and sanitation to owners and users of premises in apartment buildings and residential buildings are allowed only on the basis of a court decision that has entered into force.

"We are convinced that it is impossible to turn off housing and communal services for debt. Especially if a person finds himself in a difficult life situation. No matter how you treat a debtor, it is inhumane to leave him, for example, without heat in our cold climate. Moreover, all the so-called sewer blockages cause more damage to respectable taxpayers than to the debtors themselves. In short, the effectiveness of measures to turn off sanitation, heating and other things is a very controversial issue," Leonid Slutsky explained to Izvestia.

According to him, management companies and resource supply organizations have enough tools to collect debts in other ways, but they rarely use them.

Outside the zone of approach: collectors were forbidden to collect debts on housing and communal services

What rights do citizens have in case of debt

On October 10, Alexander Aksenenko, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing, announced changes to the payment date for housing and communal services, which will take effect on March 1, 2026. According to him, the deadline will be postponed from the 10th to the 15th of each month.

Andrey Moiseev, Associate Professor of the Department of Civil Law Sciences at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, explained on October 12 that such a system, in his opinion, could save bona fide taxpayers from fines and reduce the number of arrears.

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