Minus the control over the overhaul: The Moscow City Duma restricted the rights of municipal deputies

Irina Mishina

In the payment for the apartment, the column "major repairs" and "maintenance of residential premises" are the most expensive and costly articles. It is from the deductions of citizens that funds go to the Capital Repair Fund, from where they are allocated for work in a particular house. As for the funds for cosmetic repairs of the house, citizens' money settles in the housing and communal services department and is then transferred to various kinds of "Housing owners".

And then, during the renovation, miracles begin to happen, which are akin to a horror movie.

Through holes in the wall and leak in the ceiling

From typical stories in social networks of people who have survived major repairs:

- "At the end of January, old paint began to be knocked down in the entrance. Six months later, in August, they began to lay tiles. Now, in September, not all the seams of the tile are worn out yet. Although the mailboxes were lying on the floor for about a month, we received the rent bills regularly. The shutdown of both cold and hot water (and even all at the same time) occurred in March, almost all of April, in May".

But that's not all. During the overhaul, the apartments themselves are often damaged. And this is also confirmed by numerous reports of victims of the overhaul in social networks.

"I was compensated for materials for the restoration of repairs in the kitchen and the sealing of a through hole in the wall in the bathroom. We restored, however, on our own — because we "appreciated" the quality level of the general contractor's work".

It also comes to lawsuits in court. So, the Supreme Court ordered those responsible for the damage from the overhaul to pay compensation to a woman whose apartment was flooded twice during the repair of the roof in a high-rise building.

"The flooding of apartments in apartment buildings during major repairs by the Capital Repair Fund or after it happens quite often. As a rule, leaks in this case are associated with the incompetence or negligence of the workers of the Capital Repair Fund and the contractors involved by it. The most common reason for the bay due to the fault of the FKR is a roof leak during the overhaul. In addition, it is not uncommon for apartment owners to suffer damage as a result of poorly executed capital repairs", - explains Manuk Vartanyan, a lawyer at Dvitex.

But it also happens worse: during the overhaul, the ceiling collapsed on a resident of an apartment building. It happened in the room where the child was sleeping. By a lucky chance, no one was injured.

Are municipal deputies an extra link?

Previously, according to the law, control over the progress of repair work was entrusted to municipal deputies. However, the Moscow City Duma recently deprived them of this right. Control over the progress of repair work was replaced by "signing".

Lobbying for this amendment to the law, EP deputy Yelena Nikolayeva said: "Colleagues from the Capital Repair Fund understand what I'm talking about. Specific deputies behave in a way that is not absolutely necessary. The acceptance certificate must be signed not by a deputy, but by a local government body".

But the fact is that it was specific municipal deputies, to whom residents affected by the overhaul addressed, helped solve many problems through the Capital Repair Fund.

Yevgenia Remizova, municipal deputy: "I was convinced: if the tenants do not control the overhaul, after 5-7 years the house will fall into disrepair again. I am a municipal deputy of one of the districts of Moscow. Among other things, I help residents solve issues with the overhaul of residential buildings. For example, if the repair was delayed, and the entrance turned into catacombs. Or if the quality of the repair is questionable: the walls are painted crookedly in the entrance, and the roof, despite the repair, is clearly about to collapse. If I am asked for help, I find out which company is doing repairs, and I demand that it be carried out carefully, conscientiously and on time. And in the end I help the tenants to accept the work".

Now everything will be different.

"The act of acceptance of repairs in the house should now be signed not by a deputy, but by the head of the municipal district, that is, a representative of United Russia, who will sign, as you understand, everything. If earlier opposition deputies went to the place and sided with the residents, now there will be no problems with contractors. Collective "approval" and no responsibility. When accepting the overhaul, it is worth waiting for cardinal differences not in favor of residents. Previously, deputies intervened, outraged by cases when people lived by substituting basins for a leak in the ceiling, but from the point of view of United Russia deputies, they behaved in an "obscene way". Now deputies will not be given the opportunity to request documents for capital repairs. At least, the law will prohibit it", - said the Moscow City Duma deputy, member of the Committee on Economic and Social Policy Yelena Shuvalova.

Payment to nowhere?

In general, it is surprising that residents are forced to endure all the horrors of major repairs at their own expense. Because savings – both in the Capital Repair Fund and in numerous "Housing companies" - occur on everything: on skilled workers, who are replaced by not hardworking migrants, at the expense of materials. Often there is a suspicion that repairs in the house are essentially money laundering. Not so long ago, for example, in front of our shocked residents of the district, Zhilishchnik carefully repaired a five-story building for demolition. How can this be explained logically?

"Control over the overhaul was initially assigned by law to municipal deputies. Moscow Mayor Sobyanin has constantly curtailed these powers technically. When the act on capital repairs is being signed, the deputy can write his "Special opinion". In principle, it was easy to bypass the deputy and so. As for cosmetic repairs, funds for it are taken from citizens' payments for the current maintenance of premises, but not everything reaches the "Housing Owner", much settles in city structures. Usually some part is allocated for cosmetic repairs. Formally, everything should be listed in the "Housing", but along the way it is lost, most likely, settling in the bowels of the housing and communal services department.  In fact, they start working normally everywhere only after complaints", - Andrey Larichev, a municipal deputy of the Fili-Davydkovo district, explained to NI.

According to my sad experience of a person experiencing cosmetic repairs in the house, I can say: this process is not only protracted, but also unpredictable. Initially, the repair start date was set for August. Residents obediently freed all common areas from bicycles, scooters and strollers. They have been living with them in apartments for more than six months, because the renovation actually began only at the end of January. Before that, casual workers from time to time came into the houses to slowly paint the ceiling in parts or putty the walls. All their building materials, all the dirt, they left behind not cleaned.

In some places, it all resembled a performance: initially, residents were asked to draw up defective statements. The residents themselves carried out painstaking work to identify the damage, compiled floor-by-floor defective statements, which were transferred to the Board. But in the end, no one took all this into account.

"And who should actually make comments if the money has already been transferred to the contractor who is doing repairs? However, there are rare examples of how the Council of the House is created, and its members achieve results during repairs with superhuman efforts", - said MHD deputy Yelena Shuvalova.

A natural question arises: why does the money that the tenants pay go into the void? Why do they settle on accounts unknown to them and, as a result, people and their chosen ones are deprived of the right even to control what they have paid for? Isn't it easier to put everything off on a personal account, and then hire a reliable contractor and thus get guaranteed high-quality or at least life-safe repairs in the house?