Current issues of housing and communal services

Deputies in the course of the plenary session considered amendments to the Housing Code proposed by the Government. They concern maintenance and repair fees for elevators. According to the current edition of the Housing Code, the maintenance fee for the elevator should be charged based on the area of ​​the apartment.

Currently, the maintenance fee for elevators is based on the number of people registered in the apartment. This is done on the basis of the position of the Ministry of Economic Development, adopted in 2007.

Lawmakers unanimously supported the changes proposed by the government, and the law-in-draft was adopted in the first reading.

Another question examined at the plenary session concerned the housing sector, namely, the recovery of debts on public services from consumers who pay in bad faith.

Due to the complexity of the debt collection procedure, the government proposes to increase the limitation period to 5 years for those who do not pay for utility services. Today this is 3 years.

Not all participants in the discussion agreed that this provision of the law should be changed. The prosecutor’s office gave negative opinion on the law-in-draft, since, in the opinion of the department, the term of 3 years is sufficient to collect all the necessary documents.

However, the profile committee did not agree with this opinion and outlined its own position.

As a result, the majority of deputies of the bill passed in first reading.