The lawyer named the grounds for reviewing utility bills.

There are several reasons for contacting a management company or a homeowners' association (HOA) to challenge individual lines in utility bills. Sofya Lukinova, head of the legal department of VMT Consult, told Izvestia on March 26.

"Firstly, services may be included in the receipt without legitimate grounds — for example, if the work was not actually performed or the tenants did not approve it at the general meeting of the owners. Secondly, the management organization is obliged to notify residents of the tariff increase at least one month before the receipt date. The third reason is errors in calculations, for example, incorrect meter readings sent by the owner," the expert said.

Lukinova clarified that in order to challenge the payment, the tenant needs to make a written request to the Criminal Code with a request to review the amount due to disputed positions. The law obliges the company to respond within a month. Collective treatment of residents of one house may be more effective.

If the management company has not responded or provided an unsatisfactory response, the next step is to file a complaint with the State Housing Inspectorate, including through the Public Services portal. If you have problems with the quality of services, you can also contact Rospotrebnadzor. As a last resort, if the previous authorities did not help, residents have the right to file an application with the prosecutor's office.

Home rule: residents of the premium residential complex have achieved a criminal case against the Criminal Code

And the Prosecutor General's Office told about almost 100 thousand substantiated complaints about the work of management companies in a year.

On March 22, Vladimir Koshelev, First deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services, proposed creating a public rating of the Management Company in the housing and communal services sector. The parliamentarian noted that there are several problems in the management of apartment buildings. In particular, residents do not know how to compare the work of management companies, they have few tools to quickly change an unscrupulous organization, there is a gap between payment and quality of services, and there is no healthy competition.

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