Can the management company refuse to maintain the house?

Answered by Elena Ryakhovskaya, lawyer of the legal service “Unified Center for Protection”:

According to the law, the management company services only apartment buildings (MKD) and provides...
This service includes cleaning of staircases, elevator maintenance, cleaning of the adjacent area to the apartment building, etc. This service cannot be provided to you because your house does not consist of apartments, so your house cannot be managed by the management company. Most likely, your spouse has entered into agreements with resource supply organizations. And the services that you specify are most likely provided to you.

Which payments to SNT are mandatory and which are not?

How to solve problems with the management company?

In order to solve the problem, you need to find out what kind of resource you are paying for and for what needs. You may be billed for street lighting.

If the resource supplying organizations, according to the standard, charge you a fee for the consumption of a resource that you do not consume and cannot be consumed, since the networks or pipes, for example, to provide the resource are not installed or connected, the contract can be terminated and the debt, which actually no.

As a rule, such issues are always resolved through a claim procedure. Resource supply organizations rarely bring such cases to court.

Grounds for termination of the contract

Speaking about how to terminate a contract with a management company, the articles of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation definitely come into force. But the Housing Code in this matter refers to a different set of articles - the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. This code describes the reasons why a document may be terminated or amended:

Voluntary agreement of both parties to change or terminate the document. This can be initiated by both residents and the management office.
If one of the parties wishes to terminate the contract due to its serious violation by the other, or due to another clause stated in the document.
If the factors from which the document was originally drawn up have been changed, provided that the contract does not stipulate otherwise.

If one or more points coincide, you can begin the procedure for canceling the contract. All procedures vary greatly in how they are carried out, it depends on who exactly wants to cancel the contract. The easiest way to act is in case of non-compliance or violation by one party of the clauses specified in the contract. However, if either party is dissatisfied with the activities and actions of the other, they may fight not to work with them.

Anatoly Pysin, General Director of the TsDN agency, answers:

Bonded, according to Art. 179 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a transaction is considered to be on very unfavorable terms for one party. The party that entered into such a deal was aware of the consequences and was forced to do so due to an extremely unfavorable combination of circumstances, which the other party took advantage of. The validity of the transaction is determined by the court. In this situation, its formal signs are not visible.

Of course, if the management company demands payment for gas and electricity allegedly used on a site to which they are not connected, this is illegal. But, most likely, we are talking about paying a share in the consumption of resources for general needs, for example, street lighting, roads and security in the village or SNT, which includes this site. The degree of development of the site of the author of the question does not in any way affect the regularity of these payments.

I know of a precedent when an owner who owned a plot with a house not connected to communications tried to challenge the accounts of his management company, but lost in court twice.

Why do I pay fees if SNT has no infrastructure?

Do I need to pay contributions to SNT if I own the land?

Peaceful way

Termination of the contract with the management company can be carried out more quickly. It is carried out after the expiration of the previous contract.

When concluding a contract, the term of its validity is selected, as well as the conditions that both parties must fulfill. And when this period passes, the parties have two options:

Apply for termination of work. Both the owners and the management company have the right to take the first step towards terminating the management agreement for the apartment building. There may be various reasons for this (irresponsible activity of one of the parties, untimely delivery of money, failure to provide a report to the owners, poor performance of the contract, etc.). The application can be submitted before the expiration date of the document or on that day.
Nothing to do. Thus, the conditions and terms of the previous document remain the same, and it is extended for the same period. But there is one drawback: the cost of the contract is determined by the cost of maintaining and maintaining the apartment building. And this cost is determined through joint discussion at a general meeting of residents. And if the owners decided to extend the contract, but did not establish a new value at the general meeting, then it is then established by the local government and transferred to the management organization. The remaining terms of the document remain the same.

Both parties like their joint work - renewal of the document, but are not satisfied - termination. The main thing is to make all decisions at the general meeting. To ensure that the maximum number of building residents can attend the meeting, notice must be given one week prior to the event. The notification can take different forms: a letter, a personal appeal, an announcement on a public stand.

Yulia Dymova, director of the Est-a-Tet secondary real estate sales office, answers:

You must understand that an agreement to purchase a plot of land is an agreement to acquire ownership rights. An agreement for the maintenance of a given land plot is a legal relationship that you have entered into with the relevant organization. The issue of termination of the second contract must be resolved first in a claim procedure, and then in court, providing appropriate argumentation.

The easiest way is to provide information that this transaction is enslaving, but the fact that this land is not used will look better and more significant, and the funds can be interpreted as unjustly obtained enrichment for this management company.

If the company is selected by the local government

After handing over the apartment building, residents are given some time to choose how to manage this house. And if the owners did not take the initiative in the allotted time and did not use this opportunity, the management company is selected through an open competition by the local government. In this case, the cancellation of the contract is more difficult.

It is important to know! In this case, the owners can terminate the contract only after one year of its validity. But the management office also has no advantages in the area of contract extension. Since 30 days before the expiration of the document, the local government authority convenes a general meeting of residents, at which the issue of changing or extending work with the management company is decided.

Thus, for not showing initiative when concluding an agreement with the management company, they receive some sanctions.

Elena Mishchenko, head of the city real estate department at NDV-Real Estate Supermarket, answers:

If you bought a plot and signed an agreement with the management company, then terminating it is virtually impossible. By analogy with an apartment: even if you have nothing there and do not live there, the total expenses of the village for garbage removal, electricity and other utility bills are divided equally among everyone.

If you are not satisfied with the tariffs, you can initiate a general meeting of owners in order to change the management company. But not paying won’t work either. You will be charged penalties, which you will still have to pay later.

Three critical nuances when purchasing a plot for individual housing construction

The site turned out to be a security zone - what to do?

Reasons and their formulation

If the management company does not have the necessary experience and if there is dissatisfaction with working with residents of the residential premises, as well as if there are reasons for terminating the agreement, you need to verify such facts.

There are two ways to ensure that there are sufficient reasons for severing legal relations at the initiative of the management company:

through contacting a specialist in housing law. He will be able to assess the current picture from the point of view of Russian legislation,
through familiarization with the practice of courts in similar cases. Thus, based on the results of studying the grounds for termination of the contract and the court decisions made, it will be easier for you to determine how your situation can be resolved in court, and how it is regulated by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the Housing Code of the Russian Federation.

Keep in mind! Most often, the Criminal Code wins in such proceedings.

The reasons for terminating agreements with tenants are as follows:

multiple debts of residents to pay for utilities,
debts of owners to pay for the maintenance of the house and common property in the apartment building,
interference of owners in the work of the management company, as a result of which the company cannot fulfill its obligations to preserve common property,
tenants insist on performing actions that are not included in the agreement,
the residents' actions violate the terms of the agreement, and their behavior is incorrect.

Watch the video. Is it possible to terminate the contract with the management company:

Termination of a contract through court

In addition to the peaceful conduct of the procedure, there are also issues that are resolved primarily in court. This procedure is carried out in the event of a serious violation by one of the parties. A serious breach of contract is one in which the other party suffers large losses and does not receive what he hoped for when concluding the contract.

Termination of the management agreement for apartment buildings usually occurs if the following conditions are not met:

Periodic delays in repair work and/or poor quality of services provided.
Systematic failure to provide reports on the work done to the owners of apartments in the building;
Uncoordinated carrying out of repair work and services related to common property.
Causing damage to the property of the house, inappropriate use of funds allocated by the owners of residential premises.

The Housing Code of the Russian Federation states that you can apply for termination of the contract in the event of any failure to fulfill its terms. But it doesn’t matter whether this violation is serious or not.

Form, content and rules of composition

There are 2 types of notifications:

to notify the meeting of apartment owners, the administration (if there are non-privatized apartments owned by the municipality) and the management company
Drawing up a notification
about termination of the contract

The first notice must indicate the agenda for the meeting:

make a decision to refuse the services of the current manager
choose a new manager

The following must be indicated:

contact details for meeting information
list of the initiative group involved in collecting evidence
place, date and time

Notice of termination is sent after the general meeting has adopted a corresponding decision. The document can be written by hand or typed on a computer by downloading a sample notice of termination of the apartment management agreement from the Internet.