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Do you have to pay utility bills if you don’t live in an apartment?
Paying utility bills is the responsibility of every residential property owner from the moment the property is purchased. Even when no one lives in the apartment, but someone owns this premises, the service is provided, so it must be paid for.
Note! The owner has the obligation to pay utility bills, even if no one is registered in the apartment.
Payment for utility services is regulated by the Housing Code of the Russian Federation; by the way, section 7 of the code is allocated for this.
Let's look at the articles:
- Article 154 of the Housing Code concerns the structure of payment for housing and communal services;
- Article 155 of the Housing Code establishes the procedure and terms of payment, as well as the purpose of payment and its recipients;
- Article 157 of the Housing Code establishes the rules for calculating payments with and without metering devices.
Payments for housing and communal services increase if the number of individuals registered in the premises increases. But the rent and payment for heating remain the same, since they are charged per square footage.
Please note! If an individual is registered in a residential building, even if he does not live in it, payment for housing and communal services will be charged taking into account this person, except for heating and rent.
The owner of a residential premises may require all registered persons to pay for utilities in relation to the number registered at a given address.
You can influence them in three ways:
- separate personal accounts;
- write a statement of claim to the court;
- warn about possible eviction.
The court will be guided by part 2 of article 61 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. In such claims, the judge may rule on the loss of the registered person’s right to reside at a given address and compulsory compensation of the debt for housing and communal services.
To make such a decision, it is necessary to provide the original receipt for payment for housing and communal services, from which it is clear that the payment is made by the owner of the residential premises. Before starting litigation, it is necessary to obtain advice from a lawyer practicing in housing matters.
Attention! Our qualified lawyers will assist you free of charge and around the clock on any issues. Find out more here.
Stage No. 2 - Go to court
- Submit a statement of claim and other documents to the court.
I remind you once again that only one of the owners can submit an application and participate in the trial, but not all of them have to. Whoever appears in the statement of claim as a plaintiff is the one who files. The claim can also be filed by a hired lawyer/lawyer under a power of attorney. This can be done immediately after visiting the post office (the above stage).In practice, the trial lasts from 2.5 to 5 months. The law specifies a maximum of 2 months - clause 1 of Art. 154 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.
You need to go to court at the location of the apartment - Art. 24 and art. 28 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. After all, the defendant is registered in it. In large cities these are district courts, in small towns and villages - city courts.
If one of the plaintiff owners is under 14 years old, he does not need to come to court. Instead, there must be one of the parents/guardians - Art. 28 Civil Code of the Russian Federation. If he is from 14 to 18 years old, he must also be present together with one of the parents/guardians - Art. 26 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
First, you need to get the court details from the court office to pay the state fee. Usually they are at the information stand. Nowadays they rarely give you a receipt. The state duty is 300 rubles (clause 3, clause 1, article 333.19 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). It is better to pay it at some bank so that they issue a check in return.
After payment, you submit to the court reception/expedition: 1. Copies of the check and inventory for sending the eviction notice to the defendant (not always required) 2. Prepared documents for going to court (second stage); 3. Copies of receipts and inventories for sending documents to the defendant and a third party; 4. Original receipt for payment of state duty.
In all copies of the statement of claim, the court employee will put a stamp with the date of acceptance and the entry number. One copy will be returned to each plaintiff.
Sample of a stamp confirming the acceptance of a statement of claim
- The judge will consider the application and set a date for the preliminary hearing..
Within 8 - 10 days from the date of filing the documents, the judge will consider the statement of claim and decide what to do with it next - accept, reject or leave without progress. Although according to the law it must be done within 5 working days - clause 1 of Art. 133 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.If accepted, the judge will set a date for a preliminary hearing. It will arrive in approximately 15 to 35 days, depending on the judge’s workload. The court will send notices by registered mail to plaintiffs, defendants and third parties about the time and place of the preliminary hearing - clause 2 of Art. 113 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.
I do not advise you to wait to receive the summons, but a week after filing the claim, check with the appointed judge about the date of the preliminary hearing. Typically, every judge has Mondays and Thursdays as days for receiving citizens. The name of the judge can be asked in the office/expedition.
- Conducting a preliminary meeting.
The preliminary hearing is preparation for the trial - Art. 152 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. In it, the judge listens to the parties' demands and reviews the submitted documents. If there are not enough documents, the judge will indicate which ones need to be submitted.After this, a court date will be set. It will be held 15 - 35 days after the preliminary one. The defendant and third parties are again sent subpoenas, but this time for a court hearing.
- Conducting a court hearing.
At the beginning of the court hearing, the judge will announce the requirements for the claim. Then he will listen to each side, their additions, and ask clarifying questions.What should plaintiffs do? It is necessary to inform that their rights to use the apartment are violated by the defendant’s registration. I described above which articles to rely on. It all depends on who needs to be discharged.
There may be several court hearings. By law, the defendant must be notified twice. Therefore, if he does not come to the first meeting, a second one will be scheduled. It will be 10 - 30 days after the first one. If he doesn’t come to the second meeting, the judge will consider the case without his participation - Art. 167 and art. 233 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.
- The court's decision is announced .
After the judge considers all the demands and arguments of the parties, he will make and announce his decision - Art. 193 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. If the defendant was present at the court hearings, the decision will be in person. If you were not present, either in person or in absentia. This is for the judge's consideration. - Pick up a copy of the court decision in final form from the court office. You can find out about its readiness by calling the office. The court will send a copy of the decision to the defendant by registered mail to the address from which it was written.
How not to pay utilities
Not all utility bills are calculated based on the number of registered individuals in the apartment. Therefore, each registered citizen is obliged to pay for the resource for which the accrual is based on the number of registered persons.
It is worth remembering what resources you need to pay for even if you do not live in an apartment.
Attention! Let's look at what services are calculated based on the number of registered persons:
- electricity;
- water supply;
- gas;
- removal of household waste.
Please note that it is in the interests of the owner to collect funds from all residents in equal shares or in proportion to the use of volume in the residential premises.
Legislatively, the obligation to pay for housing and communal services rests with the owner, and it is in his interests to monitor the timely payment for housing and communal services and demand reimbursement of costs from registered persons or not.
Now let’s look at what utilities you don’t have to pay if the apartment is only registered, but not lived by an individual:
- heating. After all, payment for it is calculated only depending on the square footage of the premises.
- general house expenses are also calculated depending on the number of square meters in the residential premises, so a person registered at the address, but not living there, may not pay for these services.
The owner is faced with the question of how to do it so as not to pay utilities for a person who is registered but does not live. The most suitable way out of the situation is to install metering devices.
Metering devices help to save money even in cases where people live in the apartment, because with metering devices, as a rule, much less services are saved than without them.
Attention! Calculator for calculating penalties for paying for utilities (Part 14, Article 155 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation).
Please note that each individual, if absent from the place of registration, is obliged to notify the management company and companies providing housing and communal services.
To confirm that this individual does not live at the registration address, it is necessary to submit a certificate, for example, from a medical organization. Just a word is not enough, confirmation is necessary, because in this case, payment for housing and communal services will be less than necessary.
Important! If the apartment is empty, there is an option to temporarily stop the supply of water, electricity and gas, then you will not have to install a meter. Just do not forget that during the heating period you will still have to pay for it, because it is not possible to turn it off.
There are cases when the owners do not want to refuse to provide utilities, for example, the tenant went on a business trip or vacation. In this case, of course, it will be better for the owner if he demands to pay his share for the period of absence.
If there are no metering devices, the entire amount will be divided equally between all registered persons. In case of refusal to pay for the period of actual absence, the owner may remind the tenant to evict, but if he is not a co-owner of the premises.
There are two options for how events unfold in this case: either he pays for housing and communal services, or he simply checks out of the living quarters.
Payment of utilities if a person is registered but does not live
To understand how utility bills are calculated, you should find out for what and from what calculation the payment is made . The first is the types of services, they are:
- communal;
- housing.
The first consists of supplied resources, which is almost 70% of the total amount. Consumption per unit is paid at tariffs approved by local authorities. This happens once a year. It doesn’t matter who the payer is: the owner or the tenant. Payments are calculated according to established rules.
If the owner has installed meters in the apartment, the readings taken from them are used in the calculation. But if they are not there, the calculation is made according to the standards.
For gas, water and sewerage, electricity, payment is carried out according to the meters. And the heating fee will be based on the square footage of the housing.
If we talk about housing services, then this is the maintenance of houses with a large number of apartments. This includes premises that are not the property of citizens: elevators, garbage chutes, staircases, etc. All apartment owners bear equal responsibility for these territories. Services are paid based on the area of the apartment.
Thus, both types are included in one payment that apartment owners receive monthly.
Each homeowner is responsible for ensuring that payments to all service providers are received on time. There are 3 ways to force registered citizens to pay for services:
- Personal accounts section. This option is appropriate if we are talking about relatives.
- Threaten with expulsion.
- Write a claim to a judicial authority.
The last 2 methods are appropriate for tenants. The owner of the property can unilaterally terminate the contract at any time due to debt on utility bills.
IMPORTANT! By going to court, tenants will be required to pay their utility debt. But the homeowner must provide evidence of lack of payment.
To do this, you must pay at your own expense. This will make it clear that the owner is forced to pay the debt himself. There are several ways to collect utility debt:
- sanctions;
- lawsuit;
- disconnection of services;
- eviction.
It is worth knowing that if a person pays at least one payment within six months, no one will be able to evict him in the next six months. But this applies only to tenants. As for the owners, if the amount of delay is greater than the established value, the court may decide to confiscate some of the property from the debtor.
Some homeowners do not understand the standards by which rent debts are calculated. Many people are concerned about specific situations that do not happen often, but still occur.
If no one is registered in the apartment, this is not considered a reason to terminate accruals for services. Accruals will be carried out as for one person, and those values that depend on the quadrature will remain unchanged.
It often happens that a person is only formally registered in an apartment, but lives in another place. Payment will still be full and it does not matter whether the person currently lives here.
But you can always prove the fact that a person regularly pays bills at another address of his residence. This is not an easy method; you will need to provide receipts proving the fact of payment. This is done once every six months and for each service provider separately.
What is the basis for reducing utility bills?
Professional lawyers or specialists in the housing and communal services sector give advice on how best to recalculate for housing and communal services in the event of the absence of a tenant at his place of registration.
As mentioned earlier, the first step is to obtain evidence that the registered person does not live at this address.
Current legislation regulates the issue of recalculation for housing and communal services, namely paragraphs 54-58 of Chapter 6 of Government Resolution No. 307. The amount payable for water or gas supply, as well as electricity, is subject to recalculation.
Note! If a registered person lives not at his place of registration, but in another place, it is necessary to prove his actual residence. And also apply for a recalculation of payments for housing and communal services.
To recalculate, he must support the application with one of the following evidence:
- an order to send a given citizen on a business trip for a certain period of time;
- a medical certificate that confirms the fact of inpatient treatment in this institution (the citizen could not use the services during this period);
- document confirming registration at the place of stay. Travel documents confirming the fact of departure and arrival;
- other documents, checks from hotels, rental agreements for residential premises, certificate of military service, etc.
If a citizen is absent from his place of registration, he may demand a recalculation for this period. Within five days after submitting an application for recalculation, you will receive it, and the adjusted amount will appear on the receipt for payment of housing and communal services for the next month.
CENTURY 21 Russia lawyer Damir Khakimov answers:
Residents can be forcibly expelled from a municipal apartment if they have moved to another place of residence, that is, they are constantly absent from their place of registration (Part 3 of Article 83 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation). At the same time, in court you will still need to prove that these residents left the place of registration voluntarily, and not forced, and also that their absence is not temporary (due to study, treatment, service, etc.). The court will also take into account the fact of failure to pay for housing and utilities.
Failure to pay may itself also be grounds for eviction, but in this case the landlord (municipality) is obliged to provide alternative housing.
Heating fee
The owner of this premises is obliged to maintain the residential premises, regardless of whether they live in this premises or not.
It is impossible to turn off the heating in one living room of an apartment building, and this will lead the apartment into unusable condition if a certain temperature regime is not maintained in it.
Important! It is possible to reduce heating costs only by installing metering devices on radiators and heating, in which the owner can regulate the temperature.
What happens if the registered person does not pay rent?
The consequences of non-payment largely depend on the type of ownership. If the apartment is municipal, i.e. not privatized, payment for services falls entirely on the shoulders of citizens registered in it.
If they refuse to pay, they may face:
- Setting fines.
- Accrual of penalties.
- Disconnection from services.
- Seizure of bank accounts and property.
The most severe punishment for debtors will be eviction. The municipality has the right to force citizens to move out of their apartment by setting a time frame. At the same time, they will still try to collect the debt in court.
With privatized apartments everything is a little more complicated. As mentioned above, the owner is responsible for them. The penalties described above also apply to him. At the same time, he himself has the right to demand the eviction of tenants and their discharge from the apartment.
Additional services
If no one lives in the residential premises, you can seal the gas valves, in order not to pay for the gas supply, for this you need to contact a Gazprom branch or another gas service.
The service for turning off gas and sealing gas valves is provided if the consumer has no debt.
You can write an application to cancel the payment for garbage removal if a citizen registered at a given address actually lives and pays for this service at a different address.
Registered in one place but living in another
This means when someone registered in one apartment temporarily lives in another place (that is, has not left permanently, reserving the right to return).
In this case, the tenant has the right to be partially exempt from rent for the entire period of his absence (provided that it lasted more than 5 days in a row).
If he is registered in an apartment without being its owner, he does not pay for:
- all utilities that are charged according to meter readings (water and sewerage, electricity, gas). If there are no meters, but the technical ability to install them is available, alas, it will not be possible to get rid of paying for utilities,
- garbage removal - if the region has a calculation system based on the number of registered residents,
- maintenance and repair of housing, as well as major repairs - these costs are borne only by the owner of the residential premises.
He will only have to pay for heating (including gas or electricity costs if they are used for heating).
Well, the owner, even if he does not live in the apartment, will in any case have to pay for the maintenance and repair of the home, as well as contributions for major repairs.
Confirmation of a tenant's temporary absence in order to be exempt from rent must be done every six months.
Meters data
Meter readings prove that the apartment is empty, because there are no changes in the readings for water or electricity. Accordingly, if individuals are registered in the apartment, but no one actually lives, then there is no need to pay for the provision of these services.
Important! Even if there are metering devices in the residential premises, it would be more correct to invite specialists to seal them, especially in cases where the electricity meter is located on the staircase.
If there is no water flow meter in the living space, then it will be enough to put a plug on the water supply pipe or gas pipeline. Only the plug must be installed by employees of the relevant organization that provides this service.
To call specialists, you must write an application and attach to it a certificate confirming ownership of the residential premises and a certificate stating that you are registered at a different address.
It seems like not a complicated action, but it makes it possible to get an exemption from paying utility bills for electricity, water or gas.
Please note that service providers do not have the authority to refuse requests to seal meters or valves.
Solution options
Each case is individual; there are no ready-made answers suitable for any situation. First, try to come to an agreement voluntarily and peacefully. Did not work out? Then the responsible person is offered the following options:
- To try to conclude an agreement that the payment for housing and communal services is paid by a registered person, it is better if it is certified by a notary. Provide a copy of the document to the management company. In this case, current debts must be collected from the person to whom the concluded agreement indicates. Earlier amounts will be paid by the owner.
- Go to court. In the statement of claim, demand the recovery of amounts already paid. By the way, part of the payments should not be reimbursed by the resident, for example, funds allocated for major repairs or for the maintenance of real estate are expenses of the owner. The costs due for collection can be brought in a claim up to three years in advance. To confirm payments, all invoices for this period and receipts paid by the owner are collected. To accept the claim for consideration, you will have to pay a state fee.
- As a radical measure, discharge the defaulter from the apartment, stopping his registration. There are certain cases when such actions are possible - for example, the person registered is an adult and is not a family member.
- Refer to the procedure for dividing personal accounts. Most likely, the management company itself will refuse to issue several receipts for one residential premises. Then go to court. But we will have to convince judges of the legality and necessity of such actions.
- Sell real estate. Once purchased, the new owner will be able to terminate the occupant's registration. Of course, it’s a pity to part with property, but sometimes it’s the only way out. The value of the apartment decreases due to the fact that it is occupied by third parties, and for complete sole ownership the new owner will have to take additional steps.
The passive way is to accumulate utility debts, then the management organization will collect them. But penalties are charged on the amount of the debt, and it is not a fact that the total amount of the debt or part of it will be collected from the registered person, and not from the owner. Although preventive measures taken by public utilities - limiting the provision of resources (for example, the supply of water, electricity, installing a plug on the sewer to stop the discharge of wastewater) may be an incentive for a resident to pay debts. It is naive to hope that the Criminal Code will deal with the eviction of a registered tenant if there is a solvent owner.
Read more: A civil case in court is initiated upon application
It is important not to wait for the situation to get out of control - you can lose property due to the accumulated amount for utilities, but to start acting as early as possible - the situation will not be resolved by itself anyway. Delaying time will only lead to loss of nerves and also increased costs.
Quite often you can encounter a situation where those registered do not pay rent. Each of them will find its own reason, but this will not free you from accumulating debt and the need to pay it off. In what situations a registered citizen may not pay rent for an apartment legally, and what will happen for non-payment of services, we will discuss further.
What are the options?
Are you wondering: how to sign a person out of an apartment without his presence if I am the owner? We answer: if your opponent agrees that he needs to be discharged due to the fact that he does not live in the living space and, accordingly, does not pay for it, you can turn to one of the proposed methods.
All of them imply the consent of the defaulter to the discharge and his personal presence during the procedure.
With registration in a new place
If a former tenant in your living space lives in a new place and agrees to register there, he needs to come to the passport office and first go through the discharge procedure, which will last from seven to fourteen days .
After this, the citizen appears in order to carry out the registration procedure at a different address. Of course, if such an action takes place within the boundaries of one city, then such procedures can be performed in one department of the passport office.
If we are talking about different cities and regions , then the duration of the procedure may be increased.
We talked about how the process of deregistration from one address and registration at another address usually takes place here.
Confidant
If the person registered in your apartment has not lived there for a long time, it is quite possible that he is now in another subject of the federation.
Sometimes his desire to check out does not correspond to his ability to come, therefore, there is a method that involves the presence of a trusted person .
To do this, the former tenant of your living space issues a notarized power of attorney to carry out the deregistration procedure, to a certain person who carries out all the actions required by law, guided by the received document.
We talked in more detail about how a power of attorney is issued here.
"Going nowhere"
also provides for the discharge of a citizen without subsequent registration at another address.
The procedure is no different from ordinary discharge procedures and ends much faster.
However, a new registration must be issued within thirty days , while the departure slip issued by the passport office (form and sample) is valid.
Through the portal "Public Services"
The government services website cannot completely simplify the discharge procedure for you, but it can significantly facilitate it.
So, you need to register on the portal . After this, select your region, indicate the nearest branch of the Federal Migration Service and submit an application to deregister the citizen at his place of residence.
After that, you click “Get service” and at the appointed time they will be waiting for you at the FMS office with a package of documents . Thus, you significantly save time without wasting it in line.
In what cases and how you can simplify the discharge procedure with the help of State Services, we described here.
Impact on the amount for housing and communal services
What in the rent depends on the number of people registered?
How does the number of registered people affect the rent? The relationship between the amount for utilities and the number of persons assigned to the premises is direct.
This means that the more people in the apartment, the higher the amount of payment for services will be.
If we consider individual items on the payment receipt, then the rent and heating will not change .
How, for example, is the rent calculated if there are two or 4 or 5 people registered?
When registering 2, 3 people or more persons, it is necessary to multiply by 2, 3, etc. amount indicated in the payment per person :
- for gas, hot and cold water, if there are no meters;
- electricity, in the absence of a meter;
- waste disposal;
- water runoff.
You should not confuse the indicators for water and electricity with the same ones in the receipt with the entry ODN. These parameters are considered common to everyone and are divided by the number of apartments in the building.
What utilities are paid based on the number of services prescribed? There are items in the receipt for utilities that do not depend in any way on the number of registered ones .
However, there are also those that are calculated based on the number of people registered in the apartment. Such rent charges according to the number registered include:
- gas;
- hot water;
- cold water;
- draining;
- garbage removal and waste disposal;
- electricity. It is worth noting that today there is a counter for this resource in the vast majority of cases.
You can learn about the difference in the concepts of “registration” and “registration”, as well as how temporary registration differs from permanent registration on our website.
Notification after trial
Is it possible to sign a person out of an apartment without his presence? As we see, it is possible. If the discharged citizen was not present at the court hearing , after the decision is made, he is sent a copy of the court decision with subsequent instructions, for example, to appear at the passport office to get a stamp with a new registration, as well as to collect his belongings from his previous place of residence.
Notification can be made by mail, a letter with notification, as well as by telephone or a summons to a judicial authority.
Can you be discharged from your apartment if you don’t live in it? The issue of expelling a citizen from an apartment is very multifaceted, and each situation is inherently individual .
Therefore, before dealing with such an issue, delve into its essence in detail, and then the process will not cause you bewilderment.
