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- Collect and not give up: housing and communal services debts are planned to be written off online across the country
Collect and not give up: housing and communal services debts are planned to be written off online across the country
The Ministry of Construction will prepare a bill on online debt collection in housing and communal services across Russia, Izvestia found out. It will be submitted to parliament in case of a successful experiment, which is currently taking place in 19 regions of the country. Thus, it will be more convenient for Russians to pay off the debt before submitting an application to the court. At the same time, the State Duma believes that the initiative will not help completely solve the problem of debts, the amount of which has reached 1-1.5 trillion rubles today. To do this, you first need to establish a transparent procedure for calculating payments so that Russians understand what they are paying for. Why such debts have accumulated and whether the future bill will help reduce them is in the Izvestia article.
How it will work in practice
The authorities have been trying for a long time to find a way that will allow Russians to pay their housing and communal services debts faster and more stably: for light, water and heat. As of January 1, 2026, 97.9% of bills have been paid in the country for utilities provided, the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation told Izvestia. However, despite the impressive figures, the total amount of debts still amounts to 1-1.5 trillion rubles, Sergei Pakhomov, head of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing, told Izvestia. According to him, these are very significant funds that the industry does not receive, which is why bona fide taxpayers suffer as a result: debts for housing and communal services delay the modernization of communal infrastructure and major repairs.
To solve the problem, from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, the Ministry of Construction launched an experiment on online debt collection for housing and communal services. It involves 19 regions with a "high level of digital maturity." If the results of the experiment are recognized as successful, a corresponding bill will be initiated, establishing a digital system for paying debts for housing and communal services, the Ministry of Construction told Izvestia.
"If the results of the experiment are recognized as successful, as well as the adoption of the relevant draft law, the information interaction of state digital systems can help reduce the total amount of accounts receivable for utilities and fuel and energy resources," the press service of the department said.
The bill also plans to extend the system of online debt cancellation for housing and communal services to all regions of Russia, the Ministry of Construction said. At the same time, the timing of the initiative's submission to the State Duma is still unknown.
Today, public utilities, when faced with debts for housing and communal services, do not know who exactly to sue, since data on apartment owners is closed in the Federal Register for security reasons. To find out the debtor's name, companies first had to go to court, which in turn sent paper requests to the police and other agencies, waited weeks for answers, and only then did the real trial begin. Because of this bureaucracy, the process was delayed for many months, and debts continued to accumulate.
The current experiment should turn everything into a clear digital pipeline that works almost without human intervention. The GIS housing and communal services system is at the center of the new scheme. When debt is detected, it automatically contacts the databases of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Rosreestr, instantly finds the apartment owner and checks his passport data and residence permit. Next, the robot sends a notification about the debt to the "State Services". If a person ignores the message, the system generates a package of documents and sends it electronically directly to the justice of the peace.
Such a system significantly expands the information of citizens about their debts for housing and communal services, as well as about the stages of their collection, according to the Ministry of Construction. Thus, it will be more convenient for Russians to pay off the debt before submitting an application to the court.
Does the initiative have any drawbacks
In the State Duma, the initiative of the Ministry of Construction was received without enthusiasm. The introduction of an online debt collection system is not enough to comprehensively solve the problem of communal debts, says Sergey Pakhomov, head of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services. According to the parliamentarian, the root of the problem is that Russians often do not understand what specific expenses they have been charged for.
— Often people do not understand and disagree with the figure in the receipt [for housing and communal services], especially when it increases dramatically, — says the deputy. — The lack of interaction between resource supply or management organizations (RSO and UO) and citizens leads to a misunderstanding of what exactly they should pay for. Such work should be carried out constantly, especially since the current legislation of both the RSO and the UO obliges this.
According to Pakhomov, that is why resource supply and management organizations should not formally, but constantly work with residents: explain the structure of charges in a timely manner, show the amount of resources consumed, conduct reconciliations, report the reasons for recalculations and inform about completed and planned housework. Only with this approach will a person have confidence in fees and willingness to pay for services without disputes and protracted proceedings. At the same time, the owners themselves should be involved in this work — to provide timely testimony, participate in reconciliation and not stand aside if there are questions about accruals.
First, it is necessary to establish a consistent procedure for calculating payments — clear and transparent, and then we can talk about the debt collection system, the deputy believes. According to him, the online mechanism can, in principle, only concern proper and indisputable debts, since errors are possible in accruals, followed by lengthy proceedings. So far, the deputies have no information about how positively the ongoing experiment is perceived by residents of 19 regions and whether it gives high results.
— When the experiment takes place, some justifications and data will be presented, we will study them, and after that there will be a discussion. If the government introduces such a bill, then we will discuss it," says Pakhomov.
He did not rule out that in the future the online debt collection system could become a convenient tool for citizens. The expert community is confident that the idea of the Ministry of Construction will lead to a reduction in the burden on conscientious consumers and reduce the cost of paying state duty. The volume of work on the search for the debtor will decrease for the courts, an expert from the Popular Front said in a conversation with Izvestia. Analytics", Lyudmila Zhgun, a member of the regional headquarters of the Popular Front in the Altai Territory. But it is very important here that all regions are technically ready for the introduction of an online system.
The implementation of the system in all regions of Russia will not be instantaneous and will require at least a year of preparation. First, deep technical integration of the three giant systems is needed.: GIS Housing and communal services, GAS "Justice" and "Gosuslug". Secondly, the project will require a complete reconfiguration of the magistrate's software, which was written for Western architecture. To do this, the courts must switch completely to Russian software: mass purchase and installation will take a long time. Thus, upgrading equipment at 10,000 judicial sites from Kaliningrad to Chukotka is a huge logistical and budgetary task.
Will debts in housing and communal services grow again
Despite the initiatives of the Ministry of Construction to reduce housing and communal services debts, the risks of their increase remain. According to the Housing Code, if a person is overdue for utilities for more than 30 days, then penalties (fines) are charged to him. The amount depends on the amount of debt and the level of the Central Bank's key rate. Due to the high interest rate in recent years, the Russian government has given debtors a "discount": when calculating penalties, it does not use the current Central Bank rate, but the one that was in February 2022 - 9.5%. This offer is valid until 2027. At the current rate of 15%, the family's debt for communal services will increase by 36% in one year, which will eventually increase the debts of Russians, Yuri Afonin, deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, explained to Izvestia.
According to him, in recent years, many Russian families have found themselves in a difficult situation and millions of people have to choose whether to pay for communal services or, for example, to take their child to school. In this regard, the Communists have developed a bill envisaging the abolition of penalties for late payment of housing and communal services and capital repairs in 2027 for those who had previously managed to pay off all debts. The initiative has already been submitted to Parliament.
However, the State Duma is keeping the issue under control and, if necessary, is ready to discuss this problem with the government and extend the "discount," Sergei Pakhomov said.
— If we see that by the end of the year the Central Bank's rate is high, which will entail an additional burden for those who have not paid the fine, then we, together with our colleagues from the government, will sit down and decide on an extension. I am sure that this will be accepted," the parliamentarian said.
He added that the previous initiative on the "discount" came from the State Duma, so if necessary, the deputies are ready to re-make a similar proposal.
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