Why even the only apartment heat meter in the MKD is a calculated one. How heating is calculated in an apartment building - rules and calculation formulas How to correctly calculate heating in an apartment building
Heat / Heat meters and accounting
The apartment is equipped with a heat meter, the same metering devices seem to be in all other residential and non-residential premises of the high-rise building. However, the public utilities transfer the house to pay according to the “average”, they do not accept meter readings.
Cause? - Well, for example, in several apartments, heat meters have not been verified. Is it legal?
Until now, the courts believed that “yes”, this is exactly the requirement of the current legislation. However, the situation looks too unfair. Why is the amount of heating payments for all residents of the house dependent on how the owner of one apartment maintains his heat meter? It shouldn't be like that!
Which was confirmed on July 10, 2018 by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. He satisfied the complaint of the owner of an apartment equipped with a serviceable heat meter, the testimony of which the public utilities refuse to accept for calculating the payment for heating.
How is the heating fee calculated?
The payment for heating, as a rule, is the most "expensive" line in the bills for housing and communal services that the owner of an apartment in a high-rise building receives. At the same time, unlike payment for water or electricity, it is impossible to save money on heating today.
The fact is that in the vast majority of cases, payment for heat in an apartment building is charged
- or, based on the readings of a common house heat meter (the total consumption is then divided between apartments in proportion to their area).
- or, if there is no general house heat meter, based on the heat consumption standards for this type of apartment building.
Learn more about how heating charges are calculated.
But what about heat meters in apartments? After all, it would seem, what is easier? A heat meter is installed in the apartment, you set the desired temperature of the batteries with the help of the regulator, you fix the heat consumption with the help of the meter ... But this does not work in Russia today.
The fact is that the current legislation allows the calculation of payment for heat according to the readings of apartment meters only if all (i.e. 100%) residential and non-residential premises of an apartment building are equipped with meters (this norm is spelled out in the Rules for the provision of public services, 42.1).
Such houses today in Russian cities are a few percent of the total. But even here, there are problems with paying for heat by the meter.
What happens if part of the heat meters in a high-rise building fails?
The greatest irritation among apartment owners is caused by situations when in a house where all apartments seem to be equipped with heat meters, for some reason several metering devices are not suitable for use.
For example, when the owners of several apartments do not have time to conduct a mandatory verification of their heat meters. Or, when the developer installed meters in all apartments, but the owners of several premises did not put metering devices into operation.
Result: the whole house has heat meters in the apartments, but the heating fee is calculated on an “average”, that is, based on the readings of the common house meter and in proportion to the area of the apartments.
This state of affairs revolts people, someone is ready to sue. But the courts, guided by the same paragraph 42.1 of the "Rules for the provision of public services", refuse the owners. Here, for example, is one of the latest cases of this kind.
Sergey Deminets, a resident of the Moscow region, became the first who, having gone all this way through the authorities, got to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (CC RF). And, as it is not surprising, the highest court of Russia took his side.
The refusal to charge a fee for heating an apartment equipped with a serviceable heat meter, based on his (meter) testimony, was recognized by the Constitutional Court as inconsistent with the Russian constitution.
Payment for heating according to the apartment meter: the case came to the Constitutional Court
As follows from the materials of the court, Sergei Deminets lives in an apartment building in the Moscow region. When commissioning, his house was equipped with a collective heat energy meter, and all residential and non-residential premises were equipped with individual (apartment) metering devices. Thus, the residents of the house, in full accordance with the current legislation, had the right to pay for heat based on the readings of their apartment meters.
However, over time, some apartment owners dismantled their individual meters. In this regard, by the beginning of the heating season in 2016, the management company recalculated for heating. Apartment owners began to pay for heat according to the indications of the general house meter, the cost of heat energy consumed in the house was distributed between apartments in proportion to their area.
In the apartment of Sergei Deminets, the meters were in good order. However, the communal services refused to accept their testimonies for calculating the payment for heating. Deminets's utility bills have increased markedly. The owner of the apartment tried to get the right to pay the meter in court. However, the courts refused to satisfy his demands. Ultimately, Sergei Deminets appealed to the Constitutional Court.
In his complaint, Deminets pointed out that the refusal to calculate the payment for heating by the meter due to the fact that, supposedly, metering devices do not work in all apartments, violates the requirements of the Russian Constitution. According to Deminets, thus, the legitimate rights and interests of all home owners are made dependent on unscrupulous homeowners who did not ensure the health of heat meters in their apartments.
As a result, part of the owners, who consume excessive heat, enrich themselves at the expense of their neighbors. Deminets believes that in this way losses are inflicted on conscientious and law-abiding owners of premises, who “are deprived of the opportunity to independently determine the method of fair distribution of utility bills.”
The ban on the calculation of payment for heat according to a serviceable apartment meter is not legal!
The court upheld this position. As stated in the message of the Constitutional Court, "certain provisions of the Rules [for the provision of public services] actually led to the encouragement of dishonest behavior of some consumers." Due to one or a few users who do not maintain the meter in good condition, all other residents of the house are forced to pay utility bills, regardless of their actual heat consumption.
This, the court says, violates the constitutional principles of equality, legal certainty, fairness and proportionality, as well as the balance of public and private interests. Accordingly, the contested norms, in their interconnection and in the meaning attached to them by law enforcement practice, do not comply with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
Until these changes are made, the payment for heating in apartment buildings with heat meters, where their safety is not ensured in individual rooms, must be calculated according to the model established by paragraph 4 of clause 42.1 of the Rules for the provision of utility services. That is, based on the readings of individual (apartment) heat meters.
At the same time, for specific premises in which heat meters are faulty or lost, instead of their readings, it is necessary to take into account the consumption standard for heating utility services.
As for the case of Sergei Deminets, the Constitutional Court demanded a review of his case.
Decision of the Constitutional Court on apartment heat meters: consequences
What's next? It can be expected that due to the decision in the “Deminets case”, the courts will be forced to satisfy other similar requirements. Thus, at least in houses where heat meters were once installed by the developer in all apartments, it will become easier to pay only for the real consumption of heat energy.
As for the solution of the issue with apartment meters in general, here it is worth waiting for the corresponding amendments to the "Rules for the provision of public services". Their Ministry of Construction and Housing has been promising for several years. In the latest version of the document, officials are ready to allow payment for heat by the meter if at least 50% of residential and non-residential premises of an apartment building are equipped with metering devices.
The fact that the government decree on this matter is almost ready for the deputy. Minister Andrey Chibis announced no later than at the end of May 2018. But when it will be signed, one can only guess. The position of the Constitutional Court, in theory, should speed up the process of making these decisions.
In light of the regular increase in the cost of utilities, consumers are increasingly asking questions about how to pay less for electricity, gas, water and, of course, heating, the price of which bites the most. And if the owners of private households are faced with a quite simple and realistic task to accomplish - to increase the efficiency of heat preservation of their homes, put a good boiler and change battered batteries to new ones, with regulators, then the owners of apartments in high-rise buildings can only rely on the sanity of the service provider and it is logical reasonable rates. Many uninitiated people are interested in the quite reasonable question of why we pay for heating in the summer. In today's article, we will try to answer it, and also look into such nuances as the cost of apartment heating services and possible ways to reduce it.
Reasonable question
So, let's first find out why we pay for heating in the summer, although the batteries in the apartments become cold as early as mid-May, if not earlier. This "injustice" worries a large number of people. It is especially relevant for those who have just begun to comprehend the basics of the science of paying for utilities, because older people know that in this way the amount in payments that come to the population monthly is reduced.
According to a decree adopted at the state level, at the end of each winter season, the services responsible for supplying heat to apartments calculate and adjust the cost of the services they provide. The tariffs for heating, which the owners of personal accounts will see in receipts, depend on many factors, but the cost of the energy carrier is fundamental. It also includes a fee for the service of communications, their current repair and modernization, payment of wages, taxes. The final price as a result is broken down not by the number of months that actually make up the heating season, but by the entire calendar year. Thus, the financial burden on apartment owners is reduced.
Solution from above
This is a nationwide practice that can be changed at the discretion of local authorities, when a different payment schedule is adopted by a collective decision, and people contribute funds for using the service, albeit in a larger amount, but not throughout the year. Then the tenants of the apartments do not have a question about why we pay for heating in the summer, but this does not mean at all that during the warm season in the “Heating” column they will have zeros.
The service provider may charge a certain amount, which will be calculated not for direct heat supply, but, for example, for mains maintenance. Of course, the cost of heating in the summer will then be much lower than others, but in the winter they will have to seriously fork out.
How is the rate calculated?
The amount that is written in the column "payable" consists of two components. First of all, this is the direct cost of the service for providing heat to each individual apartment, but the receipt also includes compensation from residents for the fact that the management company heats common areas, and not just square meters that fall under private ownership. What does it mean? The fact that the tariffs for heating include the supply of heat to the entrance, flights of stairs, corridors, basements. By the way, apartment residents have to pay with their hard-earned money not only directly for hot batteries, but also for other components that make up the cost of heating, which we have already mentioned a little higher.
This is the main answer to the question of why we pay for heating all year round. Indeed, if the payment were calculated only at the time of actual use of the service, it would be too high, especially considering the current price for this utility service.
Since July 2017, the national tariff has increased by an average of 4%. At the moment, it is not the same in different regions, although there are no significant differences. So, in the capital it is 1747 rubles / Gcal, in St. Petersburg - 1678 rubles, Tula - 1782 rubles, Pskov - 1720 rubles, Kazan - 1647 rubles, Perm - 1820 rubles, Saratov - 1819 rubles, Novosibirsk - 1394 rubles, Chelyabinsk - 1211 rubles.
constant variable
Payment for heating in summer and winter is usually the same and is calculated according to the main formula, which looks like this:
- Payment \u003d consumption standard x total area of \u200b\u200bhousing x tariff.
The consumption standard is also calculated by the service provider once a year. Let's note one more nuance. In the case when an individual heating meter is not installed in an apartment or house, the tariff is recalculated upward according to a coefficient of 1.6. That is, in fact, the amount in the payment increases by 60% due to the lack of a device that reads the amount of thermal energy that the residential building uses.
An important nuance in the matter of pricing is the duration of the heating season. Many Russians are concerned about the question of whether it is legal to pay for heating in the summer if the batteries were turned off in the middle of spring due to favorable weather conditions. In theory, the heat communal service should recalculate and take into account the actual overpayment for the next period, thereby reducing the next payment, but, alas, it is almost impossible to control this in practice.
As practice shows, utility services occur annually. At the moment, the authorities do not foresee sharp jumps in heating prices, according to government officials, this difference should not exceed the inflation rate included in the budget.
However, in any case, the population is faced with a rather acute need to optimize the use of energy resources. It can help to save money. It is installed on an individual basis by special services after agreement with the service provider. However, this issue has its own pitfalls.
Don't be fooled!
One of the main misconceptions among those who have just set out to install such a device in their housing is that they will have to pay only for the amount of thermal energy that actually gets into the apartment. However, heating bills during the summer may still be included in the total utility bill. Another question is that the amount will appear there is insignificant, since it will be a payment for heating the entrance and some other price components.
There is also a significant difference in where exactly the counter is located. It can be shared or residential. for heating in the first case? The person responsible for carrying out the calculations calculates how much the heating of the entire house cost during the reporting period, and, dividing this number by the number of apartments (taking into account the square meters of each of them), will distribute the entire amount among their owners.
How to reduce heat consumption?
If your house has an individual heating system, then it is important to learn how to save on heating, because how much you have to pay for this service depends largely on you. First of all, it is necessary to minimize the possible ways of heat dissipation to the street:
- put good windows;
- replace entrance doors or eliminate gaps in the opening;
- insulate walls and ceilings.
It is very important to be able to use modern technologies correctly. A occupant-sensing thermostat instructs the system to increase or decrease the heat in the room as needed. You can also do this manually by installing control valves on batteries.
Use less = pay less?
These recommendations will be useful not only for "individuals", they are also good for those who use central heating. Qualitatively insulated walls and windows will better keep the normal temperature in the apartment, especially considering the fact that not all boiler rooms meet the standards.
So, according to the standards, in winter the temperature in the living room should be within 20-23 degrees, in the kitchen and in the toilet - 19-21 degrees, and in the bathroom - at least 24 degrees. In fact, we have 16-18 degrees, which, according to the law, are possible only in lobbies, entrances and inter-apartment corridors. So it turns out that by warming up or using you will not save money, but you will be able to create a more favorable microclimate in your house, but the question of why we pay for heating in the summer will remain open (given the level of services provided).
Investment for the future
When the house has an autonomous heating system, or at least a meter, it is more beneficial for apartment owners in terms of cost savings. So the communal in any case will be cheaper to manage. But it is even more profitable to have counters right in the apartment. Before installing this appliance, you need to find out how the system is organized in your home. Pipes can be looped and run along the perimeter of the apartment from one room to another, but there are buildings where heating risers are installed. Then the counter will need to be placed on each of them, and this will turn out to be an impressive amount. However, such an acquisition in any case will pay off pretty quickly.
I don't want to and won't?
In today's article, we discussed whether we have to pay for heating in the summer. Yes, such a fee is quite reasonable, because it helps to reduce the burden of material costs placed on our own wallets. However, in some cases it is possible to agree with the service provider not to break down the annual cost of heating into 12 months and to pay for it only after the fact. To do this, it is necessary to renegotiate the contract with the utility, in which the subscriber and the supplier will agree on a new schedule and amount of the monthly payment.
According to some experts, installing an individual heat meter in an apartment will help save money spent on paying for heating. But many people often question whether this is actually beneficial. Also important is the fact of the installation itself, which consists in observing the formal and technical aspects of this issue.
The Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation wants to give residents of apartment buildings across the country the right to choose how they pay for heating. Today, the amount is calculated based on the indicators of an individual meter, provided that there are such in each apartment of the building. At the end of each month, the tariff is recalculated, and more often not in favor of the consumer, taking into account the fact that the common house heat meter has “turned up”. The system is proposed to be changed.
Consumers are going to be allowed to pay for heating solely on the basis of the intra-apartment meter in order to reduce costs. The problem is that technically their installation is impossible in typical houses of the past decades. There is a risk of failure of the entire heating system.
The Ministry of Construction wants to change the situation in order to encourage people to save. And to give the right to citizens to pay only on the basis of individual consumption plus for heating common areas. Indeed, in this way it is possible to reduce the payment by several thousand rubles a month, but only if we are talking about houses built in the 21st century, and not in the past decades.
The Ministry of Construction has prepared a draft resolution that will allow residents to choose whether to pay for heat according to the general standard or their own consumption. Experts were sharply divided on whether the new formula would work in practice. Some say that the project is beneficial for residents. Others believe that putting meters on heat is expensive and pointless.
What does the law on individual heat meters say
The law allows you to install heat meters in your own apartment. But the problem is that the amount of payments after that may not change. Reporting is regulated differently in different regions. But, as a rule, they are not allowed to pay for their own device if the neighbors do not have them. Therefore, such absurd, at first glance, situations arise when people generally remove radiators in an apartment, but they still receive bills.
Legislators and supply organizations previously proceeded from the logic that heat is one for the whole house. And even if the batteries are completely turned off in some apartment, it will be heated by neighboring rooms, as well as by unified communications, that is, neighbors will actually pay for heating such an apartment. The project of the Ministry of Construction exempts from this mutual responsibility, since it gives citizens the right to choose, explains Alexander Kozlov, expert of the Public Chamber on local self-government and housing and communal services.
The Ministry of Construction has written a formula for individual heat consumption. In fact, this is a fallback payment option for those who have already installed or are going to install a heating meter in their apartment. The formula is complex, it takes into account, among other things, the heating of entrances and other common premises, that is, it will not be possible to completely isolate oneself from neighbors. And if the house does not save heat (open common doors, windows, do not pay for major repairs), then the amount on the meter can still be impressive.
Judging by the logic of the decree, it primarily concerns residents of new buildings, in which appliances are often already installed or where they can be easily installed without changing heating communications.
The opinion of experts in the field of housing and communal services regarding an individual heat meter
The Decree applies primarily to houses with horizontal wiring, where it is technically possible to install individual metering devices. Therefore, we are talking, I think, mainly about new houses, where there is a technical possibility to take instrument readings apartment by apartment.
Residents of old houses will also be allowed to pay by appliances, but adjusted for regional laws. Therefore, the effect of the innovation may not be immediately noticeable. For example, in Moscow payments for heat are calculated according to average readings for the whole year. And it turns out that in winter, at the peak of the heating season, people pay about the same as in spring and autumn. And they pay even in the summer, when heat is not supplied to the batteries at all.
Because of this, it is almost impossible to understand in which month it was possible to save on heat, and in which not. Therefore, it is logical to expect that along with the new consumption formula, a new way of calculating will appear, when people will transmit readings and pay for them in real time, like for water, gas and electricity.
The presence of a meter still allows each family to think about how much they pay, because they will be able to see these readings. That is, it stimulates every resident and the managing organization itself to energy-efficient consumption.
Ways to implement the initiative of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation in relation to payment for heat
To implement the initiative of the Ministry of Construction, it will be necessary to install a meter in each heating pipe, and they are not cheap (according to unofficial data, from 7 thousand to 17 thousand rubles a piece), said Sergey Filimonov, vice president of the All-Russian Industry Association of Employers in the Life Support Sphere. The expert added that this installation would affect the funds of the owner of the premises, the consumer and the tenant.
Filimonov also added that in early 2000, after conducting a study, the experts came to the conclusion that the installation of individual heat meters is not economically viable. There are very big difficulties in calculations. In this case, the initiative of the Ministry of Construction is not economically calculated. There is no legal basis for this. The rules for the provision of public services do not provide for individual metering devices, and there are no calculation methods for them.
Filimonov recalled that Sanpin rules apply in Russia. All technological equipment in the house is built in such a way that if heat is supplied, it is distributed through the sections of pipelines to each riser in order to create a temperature regime inside the room.
Benefits of installing an individual heat meter
According to expert estimates, heat meters allow you to save on average from 1.5 to 2 rubles per month. However, the same experts acknowledge that the savings are highly dependent on the quality of the home's insulation. Strictly speaking, the installation of meters can result in losses.
On average, one device, together with the work of masters, costs 20,000 rubles. Often they need several - one in each room. At the same time, their service life is on average 3 years. In the most successful scenario (if the house is well insulated, and only one heating pipe enters the apartment), the heat meter will pay off only after 10 months. If there are more rooms and they are heated independently of each other, then the cost of installing appliances often covers all the savings.
As for reducing the cost of housing and communal services for the population, this is unprofitable for supplying organizations, since the standards are higher than consumption by the meter, as practice shows. Heat suppliers will lose income. The temptation to raise tariffs will be great.
Recently, the media presented interesting news to the people's court, and dubbed it with the appropriate headlines: "The Constitutional Court allowed the citizens of the Russian Federation to pay for heat by meters", "The Constitutional Court allowed saving on heating."
Why did the Constitutional Court make such a decision?
The decision appeared not just like that, it was preceded by a long history. We will describe it briefly. So, one of the multi-storey new buildings was equipped with a collective heat metering device, and personalized meters were installed in all residential premises (apartments) and non-residential premises (common property).
Some residents of the multi-storey building decided to dismantle the devices themselves. In 2016, the management company recalculated payments for heat energy. After that, all property owners began to pay in accordance with the data of the general counter.
Sergey Demints, the owner of an apartment in this house, did not agree with this situation, since he did not dismantle individual metering devices. In his opinion, such a distribution is unfair, and unscrupulous owners enrich themselves at the expense of those owners in whose apartment individual devices are installed.
In search of justice, the plaintiff went to the Constitutional Court. He appealed that some provisions for the provision of public services to property owners have led to the encouragement of dishonest behavior of other owners.
According to the decision of the Constitutional Court, the existing rules must be amended at the federal level, since the current legislation violates the constitutional principles of equality of Russian citizens.
Expert opinion
First of all, Russians are interested in whether the case really deserves such high-profile epithets as those used, for example, by federal-level channels? And one more, no less urgent question, why until 2018, despite numerous appeals from people, the existing payment rules were not changed in any way, despite the fact that they contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation?
According to experts, earlier there were appeals with such a problem, but there were not so many concerned citizens. In addition, the accrual rules in accordance with the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, which were adopted back in 2005 and only in 2011 made some amendments, were beneficial to management companies.
The management companies kept the "difference in tariffs" for themselves - this is the difference between the accruals to property owners by square meters and the readings of collective heat devices, according to which, in fact, the payment for thermal energy of the resource supply company was made.
Many multi-storey buildings are not equipped with heat meters, which contributes to the ability of the heat supply organization to receive excess profits. It often happens that in accruals according to the "calculation" the volumes of accrued heat energy are higher than the amount actually consumed.
Why were such rules adopted at all?
The adoption of such norms is due to the fact that it is quite difficult to accurately calculate how much heat each apartment consumes. Heat transfer comes not only from radiators, but also from pipelines, which can be located in an adjacent room. Therefore, it was decided that the apartment building is a single heat engineering system. As a result, in a short time, the provisions contributed to the fact that the behavior of unscrupulous owners was encouraged.
The Constitutional Court did not recognize the controversial paragraph of the Rules as unconstitutional as a whole. And it was decided that it does not comply with the Constitution of Russia to the extent that these provisions - in the sense given in the current system of legislation, do not provide for the possibility of taking into account the readings of personalized devices when determining the amount of payment for housing and communal services.
Can citizens of the Russian Federation demand a recount?
The biggest problem that will appear soon is that many owners will "run" to install individual appliances, and then go to the management company with the requirement to calculate heat consumption from meters.
Since personalized devices are not available in all apartments, it will be legitimate to take into account the readings of such devices, because the provisions of the Rules are subject to application, but taking into account the clarifications of the Constitutional Court.
And his decision is such that if all the premises in the house (residential and non-residential) are equipped either during construction or after major repairs with personalized heat energy meters, then it does not matter whether the neighbor has a meter or not. Everyone pays according to the meter.
Only those citizens of the Russian Federation who challenged the accrual in court have the right to demand recalculation, and they were refused, referring to the standards that are now recognized as unconstitutional.
About savings with the help of individual heat meters
Is it possible to significantly save by installing a meter in the apartment? The answer to the question is positive. The pay difference will be significant. And no other utility service has such a big difference between charges and instrument readings.
It often happened that they "drowned" the street when the heat loss reached up to 60%. And the costs fell on the owners of apartments. Now heat losses are small, and the norms by which the consumption of thermal energy per m2 is calculated are still old. The difference sometimes differs by 10 times.
However, some experts believe that it will not be possible to save much. The fact is that there are common areas of the house, corridors, entrances, etc. They are also heated. And the landlord pays for everything.
And it may also be that an unscrupulous neighbor will cut off the heat supply to his battery and start to warm up from other apartments. Through the walls, the heat will go towards the low temperature regime, and it turns out that for one owner the device will show more consumption, and the one who decided to save in this way will pay less.
Payment for utilities, and especially heating, takes a huge share of the salary and pension of any citizen of the Russian Federation. Benefits, innovations, legislative acts do not reduce the problem at all. The recommended heat metering devices were supposed to reduce the amount of payments, but in reality this did not happen. The owners who installed the devices complain about wasted money.
Until July 10, 2018, 3 calculation formulas were used, the choice of which depended on the following factors:
- is there a meter in the residential area;
- payment system taking into account only the cold season;
- payment system with monthly payments for the whole year.
With a collective meter installed in a multi-storey building and individual type devices, the price of the service required a certain calculation formula. In reality, it looks like this: the derivative of the volume of all thermal energy that is supplied to the house is taken as a basis, and then it is distributed to the share of housing. The share was determined by the area occupied by the residential facility. The result obtained was multiplied by the tariff rate of the region and the calculation for paying for heating in the cold season is ready.
With monthly payments throughout the year, the calculation of the price is equal to the multiplication of the average monthly volume of heat consumed by the total area of the apartment and by the standard indicators.
If there is an individual type heat meter, the total amount of heat consumed according to the meter readings and the heat absorbed by common property is multiplied by the share of the apartment, and the result is multiplied by the tariff rate of the region.
And now the question is: how to pay for heat in apartment buildings, where individual heat meters are not installed in all apartments? The legislation interprets the answer as follows: the calculation is carried out according to formulas that do not involve the installation of meters in any apartment. It turns out that if you have a metering device, but your neighbor does not, you will pay the same, at general rates.
Justice will prevail
The Constitutional Court recognized the rules for charging fees as inconsistent with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. This applies to Article 157 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the points approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, which refer to the provision of public services to apartment owners and users of premises in apartment buildings.
The case before the Constitutional Court concerned the complaint of citizen S. Deminets. This resident of the Moscow region has real estate in an apartment building, in which public and private meters have already been installed. All devices were installed before the commissioning of the house, which is documented. However, some residents arbitrarily dismantled individual meters, so they began to pay at the general rate.
Before the start of the heating season in 2016, the management company recalculated the heating costs and divided the amount among all tenants, taking into account the area of each owner's apartment. It turned out that for residents who have metering devices, the amount for payment turned out to be much higher than they paid according to the meters. This made Mr. Deminets S. turn to the management company to solve the problem. The answer came immediately: heating costs are calculated taking into account the square meters of the occupied area, all according to the law.
The court also sided with the Management Company, finding no violations. However, the Constitutional Court decided that the established rules violate the rights of bona fide users. However, at the same time, the Constitutional Court also supported the requirements of the Criminal Code to pay for the service, regardless of the actual (shown by metering devices) consumption volumes.
As a result, the judges ordered the Government to amend the existing procedure for paying for housing and communal services, and also pointed out the need to recalculate the amounts of payments for heat to conscientious tenants - the recalculation will be carried out taking into account the readings of individual metering devices. From homeowners who dismantled the meters, payment will be taken according to established standards.
