Mother Of Many Children Given Apartment And Its Former Owners Debts

The communal debt amounts to 1700 rubles, and the penalty is 3300.

A large family received two warnings from the housing and communal services in the small town of Neharelaye: if you do not pay the debt for utility services in the amount of 5000 rubles, we’ll cut off the electricity, Euroradio reports.

However, the mother of young children claims: "The debts of 1700 and the fine of 3300 are not ours, we have inherited them from the previous tenants."

Veranika, her partner Vasil and four young children received commercial housing in Vayennaya Street in Neharelaye three years ago (before that the family had lived in a small house with the woman’s grandmother). The new tenants made repairs in their three-room apartment. But the first alarm bell sounded three months after receiving the apartment:

"My wife even didn’t get all the paperwork done, when the utility bill arrived, saying that we were in debt of about 15 million (1500 new rubles) for this apartment, – Vasil says. – We called Dziarzhynsk housing and communal services immediately, and the accountant said it was not your debt, she told us not to worry, as they would annul it. And as a result, no one has annulled anything for three years."

According to Veranika, some builders used to live in the apartment before them, they finished their object and left. The debt was not annulled, but, on the contrary, it grew. Therefore, Veranika and Vasil tried to transfer more money on the communal account than they actually had to.

"Sometimes, communal bills amounted to more than two million old rubles. We are registered in this apartment, it's not the case that no one is registered, – Vasil says. – In the summer, for example, one of the bills was 30 rubles, and the wife transferred 80, 60, 70, but no one can answer why all that money was written off."

There are no problems with other payments in the family: they regularly pay for light, gas and the kindergarten, where two older children go to.

"Children attend the kindergarten without problems, we have no questions to the family," – the head of the Neharelaye kindergarten says.

However, there is one thing: Veranika assures that in 2015, they received a utility bill only once – the one with the debt. There were no other papers on the payment for the apartment, that’s why the family did not pay anything. When Veranika with children registered and settled, the utility bills started to come regularly.

Expert in the calculations of the Dziarzhynski housing and communal services Valiantsina Karneichyk has another version:

"The debt for their apartment was transferred to another personal account. They did not pay for the communal apartment, not for a single day. I told Veranika to pay at least what they could pay – 10, 20 rubles. But they only paid when we sent them warning letters or when they were visited by someone from the education department. We have received only six payments from them since 2015. And they have paid regularly for the last four months."

However, there’s one strange thing: as journalists have found out, Veranika’s neighbor Aliaksandra also "owes" to the Dziarzhynski housing and communal service about ... 5000 rubles.

And this is Aliaksandra’s bill with the same large debt. When asked how it could be that several people in the house have the same debts, Valiantsina Karneichyk sends us to the housing and communal service lawyers. Lawyers, in turn, say that now the regional leadership is dealing with the situation.

"Not only we have such a situation, but half of the house has found itself in it. However, most of the tenants are majors and captains, and they have written off their debts, – Aliaksandra says. – When I moved in, there was a debt of about 1,000 rubles. The housing and communal service head said: "Pay the amount that you are charged for utility services." Since that moment, I have been paying for them, but the debt is growing and growing, and no one is writing it off. The neighbor from below is in the same situation."

Aliaksandra lives in a two-room rental apartment in a two-story building of a former military unit. In December 2017, her communal bills amounted to ... 110 rubles. At that, Aliaksandra, who is registered in the apartment with the child, pays a 100-percent tariff for heating. In addition, there is no hot water in the house! Whence comes it that such sums are paid in a small village?

Veranika Hlebovich paid 70 rubles for a three-room apartment (5 people are registered) in December.

"From the child allowance, which is 420 rubles, 320 goes to pay for utility services in two apartments (last year Veranika got a two-room apartment in Dziarzhynsk as a mother of many children, it is being repaired), gas, light and kindergarten," – the mother of many children says. Her partner works on a rotational schedule in Russia. The parents of children are not married. That is, officially the family lives on a child allowance.

According to the Decree No 322 "On the Organization of Accrual of Non-cash Housing Subsidies," if the communal payment exceeds 15% of the total income, the family can rely on state assistance. That is, before sending Veranika Hlebovich warning letters, the management of the housing and communal services had to tell the woman about the possibility to come out of the situation and offer her a subsidy. But that did not happen.