Financial information about residents offered to be farmed out to management companies
Personal data of homeowners are at risk of becoming public — or rather, management companies (MCs) in the housing and communal services sector. The Federation Council proposed to create a service in Russia for obtaining a simplified access to information from the Unified State Register of Real Estate (EGRN) for the collection of debts for a communal apartment. Pavel Sklyanchuk, an expert of the Popular Front in the field of housing and communal services, a member of the Public Council of the federal project «School of a Literate Consumer», spoke about the features of the new service and potential risks for MK consumers.
— As I understand it, we are talking about establishing an interdepartmental exchange between the Rosreestr database and the GIS housing and communal services. This would enable organizations in the housing and communal services sector to work with personal data of citizens for the proper calculation of payments and collection of debts. Since March of this year, it has become impossible to obtain an extract from the USRN without the consent of citizens. This creates difficulties, increases costs, but in general is not fatal. For example, a situation may arise when the owner of the apartment has changed, and receipts continue to come to the previous owner. Or the regional operator of municipal solid waste (MSW) sends a receipt only by the apartment number, and theoretically the owner may not pay for the utility service. When filing a lawsuit in court, a citizen's identifier will be required, and the defendant can challenge the legality of obtaining personal data. But these are all rather edge cases.
— Debts for housing and communal services do not have a statute of limitations: if they are more than 500 thousand rubles, then the debtor may be restricted from traveling abroad. Debt collection occurs only through the decision of the justice of the peace. Meanwhile, there is no automatic write-off. Suppose you have a debt due to disagreement with the quality of housing services, but monthly receipts continue to arrive, then the management company is not entitled to redirect money for current payments to pay off the debt.
— Indeed, the UK are the operators of personal data. However, no one has a centralized database of residents. For a long time they kept house books and carried out migration registration. Thank God it was cancelled. And if personal data leaks from banks or marketplaces can concern thousands and even millions of people, then a data leak of a hundred or two residents of a particular house does not seem so critical. At the same time, such information can fall into the hands of «black realtors» who track down and prepare raider seizures of apartments, for example, single pensioners. Therefore, it is very socially significant and correct that the Ministry of Construction proposes to replace personal data with depersonalized single personal accounts that will be placed in the GIS housing and communal services.
— Fifty fifty. These may be non-centralized leaks, but, as practice shows, it is not difficult to bribe an employee of the Criminal Code in order to obtain secret information about the owner of an apartment. Look: the media often knows in detail which celebrity lives in which house, what debts he has for a “communal apartment”, etc.
— The advantage is that security is increased personal data of consumers of housing and communal services. The downside is that if you decide to initiate a general meeting of tenants, you will have to suffer — the register of owners of the management company may be incomplete or outdated.
— Theoretically, they can even grow. The change in legislation took place only in March, and it will be possible to assess their impact on the amount of debt only by the end of the year. In general, the situation is, of course, critical: the current size of the population's debts for housing and communal services was recently announced by the Ministry of Construction — 777 billion rubles. The figure is beautiful, but the situation is terrible if people cannot cope with the monthly expenses for the “communal apartment”.