Money is a medium of exchange between people, a kind of energy flow. Passing it on to each other means of payment, people share different energy with each other. For what a person is ready to pay a lot of money, you can understand by watching, for example, your friends.
First of all, people do not hesitate to give their hard-earned money to solve their own problems. Although, in fact, most of them do not exist, a person is simply used to calling what he does not like a problem, for example, any development of events prepared for him by fate. So it turns out that people part with big money for far-fetched problems.
For money, the experience of specialists and the services they provide are often bought to save personal time. People invest fabulous money in a roof over their heads, real estate with all amenities and in the purchase of furniture.
They are often busy moving and spending their money on it.
In business, money flows like water, it requires a lot of funds for promotion.
For transportation of the body from point - A to point - B. The means of this transportation can be an airplane, a car, cargo transportation, again, all this is paid for and purchased to save one's personal time.
Can everything be bought?
People are willing to pay for entertainment and emotions. But, what is the strangest thing, entertainment is paid for along with alcohol, which ruins human health. After that, huge sums are invested in its restoration.
It can be treatment, psychological help, prevention, vitamins, gym, proper nutrition.
Also people pay for their education, which is now a necessity. For any specialty and profession, there are many institutions such as schools, institutes, universities, training courses, and all these have been opened to improve the quality of life.
The need to give one's hard-earned money arises from the desire to make life convenient and comfortable. For this, people acquire equipment and electronics.
Very often, some men and women pay for aesthetic pleasure, such as art. They buy paintings, visit theaters and cinemas, listen to or write music.
What about beauty? After all, a woman seems to strive for this all her life! Visiting beauty salons, fitness clubs, yoga, goes shopping and decorates the body with expensive metal, stones.
Today, people pay for one thing - for the opportunity to achieve the desired state of affairs! Do not forget that happiness is not at all in wealth, because money cannot buy either time or love.
What are utility bills made up of?
Housing and communal services can be divided into two large sections. The first is utilities, that is, payments for gas, water and heat. The second is the cost of maintaining and repairing residential premises.
- What affects the amount of utility bills?
Utility bills are paid according to indications based on the number of consumed services for metering devices (meters), or based on general standards. For electricity and gas, calculations are made only according to the meter readings. By the way, there are benefits for paying for these services. For example, disabled people of the first and second groups are entitled to compensation up to 50%.
- Who sets these tariffs?
Tariffs for utilities are set by the district and local authorities - administrations and prefects. You can check these rates on the Internet portal of your area.
How are utility bills calculated?
If there are no individual and common house meters in the house, then the amount of the fee is calculated by multiplying total area premises at the statutory tariff and standard;
If the house has common house meters, but no individual ones, then the area of \u200b\u200bthe apartment and the number of people living in it are taken into account.
If the house has both general house and individual meters, then the owner pays according to their testimony for the actually consumed services.
How can you save money on utilities?
The simplest and most common way is counters. If you don’t have them yet, then you need to put them in and don’t forget to seal them with a representative of the management company. Without meters, you will be charged for all the "excess" water in the house.
Read also Houses and their residents talked about how to live when water freezes in the pipes, there is a pond of feces in the yard, the heating is turned off, there is neither water nor light, and rats run everywhere.
- How else can you save on water?
There are many different fixtures for faucets and showers. For example, nozzles that reduce water pressure, faucets with a sensor that will turn on water only when hands or dishes are under the tap. Two years ago, amendments were made to the Housing Code, which allow receiving compensation from the management company in the event of a lack of hot water, interruptions in heating, electricity or gas.
How can you save on electricity bills?
It is enough just to properly operate household appliances: turn off appliances from sockets, use energy-saving appliances. The nightly electricity tariff is lower, so washing and dishwashers it makes sense to include after 11 pm. If you have not been home for more than five days, the cost utilities electricity can be calculated. The same goes for water and gas.
- Is it possible to somehow save on heating? Why do we even pay for it in the summer?
The biggest expense after water is heating. It may really seem strange that we pay for heat outside the heating season (that's seven and a half months). You can pay for heating in equal installments only during the heating season. To do this, you need to write an application to the heat supply organization, but in fact this makes no sense: if you do not pay for heating in the summer, this amount will be evenly distributed for each month of the heating season. Explaining on the fingers, if you do not pay for heating in the summer, you will have to pay more for it in the winter, because annual amount payments of the population for heating is unchanged.
How is the heating bill calculated?
Each time a notional amount per year is calculated. If the house has common meters, then according to the testimony of last year. If there are no counters, then according to the standards. According to what formula residents pay for heating, regional authorities decide. By the way, the cost of utilities for heating (as in the case of gas and water), if you did not live in an apartment even for most of the heating season, cannot be counted.
- How to deal with the maintenance and repair of residential premises?
With maintenance and repair services, things are more complicated. The size and order of these services is taken on general meeting owners apartment building. The HOA and the management company (MC) cannot impose on the owners any additional services. It sounds good, but the problem is that not all owners come to such general meetings. In law(Government Decree No. 731 of 23.09.2010 and Article 161 Housing Code RF) , HOAs and the Criminal Code, at the request of the owner, must explain to him what the utility payments are made up of.
- What about overhaul? Is it necessary to pay for it?
According to the law (Article 169.1 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation), each owner must participate in the collection of funds for major repairs, because these costs are included in standard payment documents for housing and communal services. Over the past two years, there have been a lot of questions about overhaul, because at the end of 2015 a bill was adopted, according to which the regions themselves decide whether pensioners pay a contribution for overhaul. Therefore, people over 80 years of age can count on 100% compensation for overhaul costs.
In each receipt for payment of housing and communal services there is a column "Maintenance and repair of housing". What are homeowners supposed to get for this money?
How to charge
By law, the order in which this fee is established is as follows. Annually, the management company at the general meeting of owners proposes the amount of payment. The owners discuss what services they would like to receive, with what frequency (the minimum is prescribed in the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 3, 2013 No. 290 “On the minimum list of services and work necessary to ensure proper maintenance common property in an apartment building, and the procedure for their provision and implementation. There may be more services in the contract with the management company, less - no). Then all this is prescribed in the contract - both the prices and the list of services. If the meeting cannot be held, then a different procedure is established for the "silent" houses: the amount of payment for the maintenance of housing is determined by municipal rates.
What do we pay for
Elevator maintenance
For each elevator in your house, you must have a passport, and the management company has a contract for its maintenance, where scheduled repairs are required.
Maintenance of the smoke exhaust and fire extinguishing system
The system should be checked once a quarter. If the homeowner does not know if such a system exists in the house, this can be found out in the management company. There you can specify which contracting organization is responsible for the operating condition of this system. In addition, there should be special boxes and fire hoses in the entrance.
Emergency serviceHere you need to know this: from 08.00 to 18.00, the repair and maintenance organization copes with an emergency. But from 18.00 to 08.00 there is an emergency service that will cope with the situation. But, let's say, at the same time, he will not change the leaking pipe: this is not included in the prices for the maintenance and repair of housing. You will have to pay extra for the pipe.
Cleaning at the entrance
They also have to clean the stairwells, clean the garbage chambers, disinfect (do not agree to pay separately, say, for the extermination of rodents), paint the walls in the entrance and change the light bulbs there, take out the garbage.
Yard cleaning
This is a separate issue. If land plot under the house is municipal property, then the municipality is responsible for cleanliness in the yard, timely painted lawn fences and the like and pays for it itself. But if the borders adjoining territory were formed, there is a land surveying plan, then the owners themselves at the general meeting decide what work to carry out in the yard, how often to clean the territory, how many janitors to hire and how much to pay them. You can find out if the boundaries of the adjacent plot have been formed in the municipality.
Electricity
Previously, before the adoption of the Government Decree No. 354 dated May 6, 2011 “On the provision of public services to owners and users of premises in apartment buildings and residential buildings” (as amended on 04.09.2015), the maintenance fee included payment for lighting common use. After May 2011, the price for this service moved to the column of payment for general house needs (ODN). But from April 2016, the ODN for electricity will again be included in the housing maintenance fee.
Energy service
Grounding resistance measurement should be checked in the house once a year. Measurement of the phase 0 loop - once every six years, and measurement of the insulation resistance of the wires - once every three years. An extract on such inspections can be requested from the Criminal Code.
All services for planning and restoration work.
Preparing for winter and spring
As soon as the heating season ends, your home management company should start preparing for the new season. It is desirable that the residents or the council of the house themselves point out the identified shortcomings (non-working valves, clogged batteries, freezing of the walls, etc.). All repairs and replacements are included in the maintenance fee (including bridges between pipes, insulation, etc.). The management company should have a work schedule, where it is fixed when everyone will do it. Power engineers (or an organization that has special equipment) check the pressure test.
Ventilation cleaning (drawings, as a rule, are at the Criminal Code) is also included in the list of works for which you deduct money monthly.
Residents can choose initiative group and walk around the house in the spring, noting all the cracks in the blind area and in the basement panels. Then it is necessary to make sure that they are cleared and patched up - otherwise, in five years, a fungus will appear on the walls. In the spring, the roof is also checked.
What can you save on
For almost all of the listed works, the frequency of their implementation is established in the legislation. Therefore, discussing with management company the estimate of work and prices for the next year, you should remember: it will be cheaper to pay for services provided with a rare frequency, it will be cheaper one-time - in fact.
More advice. The frequency of work recorded in the contract must be strictly observed. If, for example, it is written that the stairwell should be cleaned once a week, and the residents observe this process once a month, or even less often, there is reason to demand a recalculation. And so on for each type of unprovided services.
Prepared by Lina PEROVA