Expert Sklyanchuk: “The housing management scheme remains very opaque, pricing is biased”
The costs of Russians for housing and communal services in different regions of the country have been revealed. Depending on the territorial affiliation, the amounts in receipts differ by 3-4 times, analysts from one of the large financial groups came to this conclusion. In this case, we are talking about apartments of the same footage. Residents of the Far Eastern and Northwestern federal districts pay the most, and the cities of the North Caucasus pay the least.
For a typical apartment with an area of 52 square meters, the average family of three pays completely differently in different parts of our vast Motherland. The amount differs significantly and depends on the location of the property. The study showed that, for example, in Naryan-Mar, residents of such an apartment have to pay 9.4 thousand rubles monthly for housing and communal services, and in Makhachkala — 2.8 thousand, which is almost 3.5 times less.
The question arises: where do such differences come from and how legal is it, given that tariffs in Russia are tightly regulated and under state control. First of all, it is worth noting that according to the current rules for calculating housing and communal services tariffs, they should not exceed 22% of family income. If a household earns less, regional authorities are obliged to provide compensation. But here it all depends on the region — for example, in Moscow, benefits are provided if the payment for housing and communal services reaches 10% of a person’s income.
It is important to understand that almost a quarter of residents of apartment buildings benefit from various subsidies, compensations and discounts, says Artem Deev, head of the analytical department at AMarkets. Benefits are also set by the regional authorities, and they can also single out certain groups of the population that, in the opinion of the authorities, need more help: for example, large families, disabled people, veterans, single pensioners… And due to this, the average payment rate for the region may differ from the neighboring one.
“You need to understand that the cost of the resources themselves may differ from region to region,” continues the expert. — For example, in Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk and other cities with large hydroelectric power stations, electricity is cheaper than in the regions where it is supplied. And there are also “energy-deficient” regions, such as the Irkutsk region — where there is a lot of industry and little own generating capacity, energy is more expensive there.»
In addition, almost everyone has now switched to metered payments. Therefore, the debt burden due to malicious defaulters is “spread out” on those who pay “according to the tariff” and do not take meter readings — this can also affect the average cost of services. Plus, utility networks in different regions are worn out differently, and management companies also pass on the costs of their reconstruction and repair to citizens.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to assess the level of justification of such varied tariffs, emphasizes the Popular Front expert. Analytics» Pavel Sklyanchuk. Of course, the existing opacity and complexity of payments for housing services, that is, for the activities of the management company, suggests that there are devils in troubled waters.
“It seems to me that if you take almost any house, then somewhere you can find additions, and somewhere an unfair redistribution of funds from one owner to another, although this is prohibited by law. Meanwhile, the management company, which services several houses at once, is trying to somehow balance so as not to run into a fine from the housing inspection,” he continues.
If we talk about the annual indexation of tariffs, let us remind you that in July 2024, the national average total payment will increase by 9.8%. If we take the average size of the receipt as a monthly payment in the region of 5-7 thousand rubles, then in the middle of summer it will increase, respectively, by five hundred to seven hundred rubles, recalls Sklyanchuk. Well, the management company will also add something of its own. Some management contracts stipulate this separately.
“Against the backdrop of inflation that has not yet subsided, this will be very sensitive for citizens. In general, the housing management scheme remains very opaque, and pricing is biased. Yes, so far the level of collection of payments for housing and communal services remains high, but all this raises many questions among people,” the expert concludes.