It's cold in the apartment. What to do, where to go and complain

How many degrees should there be in an apartment, office and entrance?

The temperature in apartments should be no less than 18–20 degrees Celsius, in offices - no lower than 20, and in school classrooms - no less than 18. In the premises of kindergarten groups, thermometers should not fall below 22 degrees, in bedrooms - below 19 degrees . There are also rules for entrances. During the heating season it should not be below 16 degrees.

Measurements will be more accurate if you follow a number of simple rules. First of all, you should close all windows and doors, and keep the thermometer a meter from the floor in the center of the room. You should also make sure that you are at least half a meter from the battery and the outer wall.

What to do if there are cold radiators in the house

For more than a month, pensioners lived in an apartment with cold radiators at the height of the heating season. The long-awaited warmth came to the home of elderly Barnaul residents only after the intervention of the Center for the Protection of Citizens' Rights. Next, the Management Company enters the process. She is obliged to immediately create a special commission, which will include representatives of the management company, the thermal inspection and the apartment owner himself. Within 24 hours, the resident must be informed of the date and time of the inspection.

Sometimes the most insignificant mistake becomes the reason for refusal to consider a claim. For this reason, experts strongly recommend contacting an experienced lawyer who will help you correctly formulate the document, give recommendations regarding subsequent actions, and answer related questions.

If the problem has not been resolved within 7-10 days, you need to find out the number to call if the cold batteries remain cold. You can also pay a visit to the housing and communal services department and get clarification directly. A positive response to the ongoing resolution process must be supported by specific dates by which all required work will be completed.

The second problem that Russians often face is ignorance of the rules for drawing up such complaints. This is due to the fact that the current legislation of Russia has many specific features and nuances, and only a qualified specialist can understand them.

The solution period is limited to a week, the only exception being the occurrence of a certain number of problems during repairs (discovery of the complete unsuitability of not only a secondary, but also one of the central branches of communications). If the problem with cold batteries lies in the batteries themselves, then they will need to be replaced by the owner of the apartment. Work can only be carried out after obtaining the appropriate permission from the management service. But in winter this will be possible only in exceptional cases (small child, paralyzed family member). After all, turning off the riser in the house will become a problem for other residents, which is why it is prohibited by the state. If, when entering your apartment, you feel the pleasant creaking of snow under your slippers, it means that utility workers are clearly saving on heating the house. Of course, warming a high-rise building is much more difficult than a kettle. But if the apartment is cold, like at the North Pole, then lighting fires or warming up with a gas stove is not the best option.

It must be borne in mind that the commission must measure the air temperature in the apartment with a special device. An ordinary thermometer will not work for this. Since it gives an error of 2 degrees. As residents who have already gone through the Cold War report, housing and communal services workers often choose from a dozen instruments the one that has the largest error in the desired direction, and it is with this instrument that the measurement is made. Of several alcohol thermometers with an accuracy class of ± 2? With select the “needed” one, which is at 16? Will C show 18? Yes, housing and communal services workers will not need much work.

If these standards are violated, the heating fee must be reduced:

by 0.15% for each hour of excess shutdown or temperature discrepancy;
by 0.1% of the monthly payment amount if the deviation from the norm is -3˚С;
by 0.1% for each hour of excess heat outage per month (the norm is 24 hours/month).

Where can I complain about heating in apartments?

If the heating is poor, the radiators in the apartment heat poorly, and the entrance is so cool that steam comes out of your mouth, you should contact the dispatch service of your area or the management company. Specialists must check and repair communications on the same day.

If the problem could not be solved or your call went unanswered, then you can report the poor performance of the heating systems to the Moscow Department of Housing and Communal Services. Operators of the Department's unified dispatch service accept requests for accidents, complaints and comments regarding the operation of heating systems around the clock by phone: +. In addition, Muscovites can use the department’s electronic reception desk.

Another option is to call MOEK. Messages about problems with heating in the apartment, accidents, steam release and other problems in the heating and water supply system are accepted around the clock by phone: +.

You can express dissatisfaction with the work of the management company through the electronic reception of the Moscow Housing Inspectorate or personally to the head of the territorial unit. In a written statement, you must briefly describe the essence of the issue and attach copies of appeals to the management company and other authorities.

You can also file a complaint using the Moscow State Services mobile application or on the Our City in the Apartment Buildings section. In the latter case, the answer will come within eight days.

Whose property is the battery in the apartment?

Legislation on common property of apartment building residents

Many residents of apartment buildings (MCDs) know that geographically similar buildings are divided into two zones:

the first is individual property, that is, apartments and the adjacent territory of individual residents of the house;
and the second is the common property of all residents, represented by the entrance area, elevators, entrances and similar areas of the apartment building.

According to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation (LC RF), their owners are directly responsible for the first type of zones of an apartment building, but for the second - the management company or the homeowners' association.

How to get a recalculation?

In case of constant interruptions in heat in apartments or on the landing, residents have the right to demand a recalculation. The cost of services should be reduced by 0.15 percent for each hour the permissible duration of a heating interruption is exceeded. The duration of emergency heating shutdowns during the cold season should not exceed 24 hours per month. A permissible one-time break at a temperature in the apartment from 12 to 18 degrees cannot last longer than 16 hours, at a temperature of 10–12 degrees - eight hours, and if the temperature in the apartment is 8-10 degrees, then four hours.

To record temperature deviations, you need to call the unified dispatch service of the Department of Housing and Communal Services. An employee of the management company will take measurements and draw up a report based on the results of the inspection.

The document must be submitted to or directly to the management company (if it independently makes calculations and accruals).

Heating payments are calculated based on the average monthly volumes of thermal energy consumption for the previous year. That is, accruals for the current year occur monthly in equal shares in the amount of one twelfth of the cost of the service consumed during the previous year. The heating fee is adjusted once a year. Volume reconciliation takes place in February of the year following the calculation year. Based on the results of this work, the amount of payments for the current year is adjusted in the first quarter.

Where to write complaints if there is no heating?

There is no need to wait for the three-day period to expire. The heating issue must be resolved by all available means. One of them is to file administrative complaints with regulatory authorities, including by telephone. The first step is to prepare the text of the complaint. They can be sent by mail or online.

Here is a list of organizations to call about heating:

Territorial department of housing inspection.
Rospotrebnadzor.

If you file a complaint by mail, you must attach to the application copies of documents that confirm the illegality of the actions of the management company or service provider. It is necessary to attach a copy of the report on the lack of heating and an appeal to the organization, which remained unanswered.

Option No. 1 - contacting the housing inspectorate

Utility workers are afraid of citizens turning to the housing inspectorate, so before submitting a request for an inspection, call the head of the management company. Offer to reconsider your claim, having first mentioned the registration number; perhaps the problem will be resolved at this stage.

If there is no reaction, then you need to write an application to the housing inspectorate using this sample. It needs to be supplemented with personal data, the address of residence, as well as the location of the management company. The complaint must be sent by registered mail with notification

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If you send a complaint via the Internet, then first you need to go to the website of the housing inspectorate, to which the location of the management company is located.

Next, the process will be described using the example of the State Housing Property Department of Moscow.

On the website you need to find a section where citizens’ requests are accepted. It is located on the main page. Next, you need to click on the “Appeals from Citizens” section and select “Electronic Reception” from the list that opens.

On the page that opens, you need to pause and study the rules for submitting an electronic appeal. After reading the submission rules, you must click on the link below the rules.

After this, a form will open that needs to be filled out.

At the bottom of the form you need to attach scanned documents, as well as write the text of the appeal. The text cannot exceed 4,000 characters. The size of the attached file cannot exceed 50 MB. It is acceptable to attach photos

It is imperative to indicate the method for receiving a response from the State Housing Inspectorate. The result of the application will be sent by email if you indicate this in the application. It is possible to receive a response by registered mail, but in this case you will have to wait much longer for the result. On average, it takes from 2 to 5 days to process one complaint.

After processing the application, the State Housing Property Inspectorate will check the activities of the management company. If violations are confirmed, the State Housing Property Committee may revoke the license issued to the management company. Without it, the organization will not be able to continue its activities. .

Option No. 2 – complaint to Rospotrebnadzor

You can write an appeal using the text that was compiled for the complaint to the State Housing Inspectorate. It is necessary to make minor corrections, indicating a violation of consumer rights, since the management company does not fulfill its duties.

The text of the complaint must reflect the request for an inspection. Next, attach copies of documents to the text of the complaint and send them by registered mail.

You can also write to Rospotrebnadzor on its official website or through the government services portal. The complaint process will be shown using the second method. To do this, you need to be registered on the appropriate portal.

You need to log into your personal account and click on the “Service Catalog” tab. From the list that opens, you must select the “Authorities” section. This tab contains the necessary supervisory authority

In the list of services that opens, you must select the fifth item from the top. After this, you will be taken to a tab with information about the service, where at the bottom there will be a link to go to the organization’s website. On the website you need to find an electronic reception, and then select the territorial department of Rospotrebnadzor. The system will take you to the desired site where you need to fill out the form.

Option No. 3 – lawsuit

Another effective way to force the management company to fulfill its obligations is to file an administrative claim in court. To do this, you need to use the services of a lawyer who has experience in courts with management companies. It is very important to find a specialist who understands housing law.

He needs to show all receipts, documents, requests and recordings of conversations. Together with a lawyer, it is necessary to draw up a claim, which will stipulate all claims against the company. In addition, the text of the document must contain demands for reimbursement of costs incurred by the consumer due to the lack of heating.

An example text of the statement of claim is as follows. The claim must be accompanied by a list of documents confirming material expenses. If exacerbations of chronic diseases occurred during the shutdown period, you should attach a certificate from a medical institution

If problems with heat supply arise in an apartment building, then you need to involve your neighbors and write a collective statement. The claims of owners and responsible tenants will most likely be satisfied by the court. The defendant will be required to comply with the court decision.

Option No. 4 – application to the local prosecutor’s office

If the heating situation has not returned to normal, you must contact the prosecutor's office. In addition to the management company, inspections will also be carried out on requests that remained unanswered by the supervisory authorities.

You can only submit an application to the prosecutor's office in person. To do this, you need to find out the address and come with ready-made documents. You need to write an application for an urgent inspection at the management company. Copies of unanswered requests must be attached to the application.

Option No. 5 – contacting the President’s reception

If there is no response from the prosecutor's office, you need to write to the president's reception. This can be done on the website by filling out the electronic form. Once a complaint is received, it will be reviewed and a decision will be made to order inspections, forwarding it to the relevant supervisory authorities.

You can write a collective appeal. To draw up a complaint, you can use an existing sample or write it in any form. You need to attach photographs and copies of supporting documents, this will reduce the time to receive a response.

How to reduce heating bills?

In some new buildings in the capital, heating radiators are already equipped with individual meters. By adjusting the temperature, residents can reduce their heating bills.

This technique can be used everywhere. But the whole house needs to switch to heating using individual metering devices at the same time. The decision must be made at a general meeting of owners. If you installed meters without the consent of your neighbors, then you will not be able to transfer the readings to the management company. Even with the radiator turned off, the heat in the apartment will remain thanks to the heating risers. But the whole house will have to pay for it.

It is beneficial for owners to install individual meters only with a modern horizontal heating system, when the risers are located in the entrance, and two pipes are supplied to the apartments - direct and return. With vertical wiring, several heating risers are installed in the apartment at once. In this case, meters will have to be installed on each pipe, which will reduce all savings to nothing.

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Sample complaint to the heating management company

In order for a complaint about cold batteries to be accepted for consideration, and the causes of the incident to be eliminated, you must follow the writing rules:

The complaint must be structured, written in legally competent language, without emotional overtones.
Only facts that can be supported by evidence should appear.
If a collective complaint is planned, then it should have as many signatures as possible. To do this, they hold a meeting of those living in the entrance or in the house and jointly discuss the initiative to create a claim.
For further movement through the authorities, you will need proof of application. Therefore, the complaint must be sent by registered mail with notification by mail or brought to the reception office of the Criminal Code, register two copies and keep one for yourself.

How to make a claim

A claim to the Criminal Code is drawn up similarly to any other government authorities. The document contains:

The so-called “header”, which lists the manager’s full name, name of the management company, data of the initiators of the complaint: their full name, addresses.
Below is the name of the document – Complaint or Claim.
In the main part, you need to set out the circumstances: from what period the problems with heating began, what temperature was recorded in the apartment, the entrance, what actions were taken by the residents to turn it on.
It is necessary to inform about your intention to apply for protection of rights to government authorities if the issue is not resolved at this level.
At the end of the claim, the participants are listed and their signatures are placed.
Attached to the complaint will be documents on ownership of the apartment, acts of temperature measurements, paid receipts for heating, and heat supply contracts.

These rules can be used as a sample or template for writing a complaint against the Criminal Code. The application form can be obtained from the official websites of government agencies.

IMPORTANT! Anonymous complaints will not be considered.

How to avoid paying for excess heat?

It is more profitable to install an automated heating system control unit in your home. Such equipment itself monitors the temperature outside and, depending on it, selects the mode of supplying heat to the apartments. In this case, residents do not face a situation where it is already relatively warm outside, but the radiators are hot and the room is so hot that they have to open the windows.

The decision to install smart equipment can only be made by a meeting of apartment owners. They also choose the brand of equipment, installation time and cost of subsequent maintenance.

Who should be responsible for replacing or repairing unusable batteries?

How to find someone responsible for battery maintenance and repair?

Now that all readers of our resource understand who owns the heating radiators in apartment buildings and under what circumstances, we can also consider the procedures relating to their repair or replacement.

In fact, the situation in this matter is outrageously simple - whose battery is responsible for it, or rather, undertakes:

repair and replace in a timely manner;
monitor its condition in order to prevent emergency situations;
when the latter occur, eliminate the resulting consequences (for example, compensate for material damage to residents below who suffered from a break in the old radiator).

It is worth noting that if the actual owner does not want to repair or change the faulty battery, his opponent in legal relations has every right to go to court, which will resolve all controversial issues.

When resorting to judicial debate on the “battery” issue in the MKD, it is important to take into account that the judicial body, when rendering a verdict, will focus specifically on the previously mentioned radiator valve. Therefore, if you are in a disadvantageous position, suing is not only pointless, but truly stupid.

This is largely due to the fact that the court verdict obliges the losing party not only to repair the battery, but also to reimburse all expenses of his opponent in legal proceedings that were incurred during the legal debate. Are you interested in this prospect? Most likely no.

Who is responsible for heating the apartment and supplying heat?

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In addition to the nuances presented above, the “radiator” issue in MKD has one more feature.

It consists of the procedure for replacing batteries. Many apartment building residents are interested in whether they have the right to spontaneously hold this event or not?

To better understand the essence of this procedure, let's look at the order of its implementation for two possible outcomes of events:

The first option is the owner of the battery, the owner of the apartment. In this situation, the latter has every right to change radiators at his own discretion, but to carry out this procedure he must:

Notify about future replacement of the Criminal Code;
Coordinate with the expert the procedure, since making major changes to the configuration of the heating system of an apartment building, even in a separate apartment, requires obtaining a special permit from the government agency authorized in urban planning activities.

After carrying out the above measures, the owner of the apartment can carry out a replacement, naturally, at his own expense.

The second option is that the battery is in common ownership and either the management company or the homeowners’ association is responsible for its operation. In this case, in addition to the previously presented measures, authorized persons must obtain written permission from the apartment owners to replace the radiator. The exception is situations when the battery is in poor condition and may burst at any time; in such circumstances, permission from the owners is not required.

As you can see, answering most of the questions that arise regarding “radiator” disputes in MKD is not so difficult if you know some of the legislative nuances of this topic. We hope the material presented above was useful to you. Good luck in defending your rights!

You can learn how to replace heating batteries by watching the video:

Watch this video on YouTube

Where to complain if the batteries do not heat well

They go to the prosecutor's office if: There has been intentional or unintentional misappropriation of funds In case of robbery, fraud, embezzlement If supervisory and regulatory authorities are inactive or act unlawfully Representatives of the prosecutor's office conduct checks and find out all the nuances of the case. As a result, the company may even be held liable in accordance with the Criminal Code. The judge considers the case after all methods of pre-trial conflict resolution have been used. They go to court with material demands, specifying the amount of compensation for damage caused to apartment owners and their property. The claim is filed at the location of the Criminal Code in accordance with Art. 28 Code of Civil Procedure. The basic requirements for what to indicate in the application are in Art. 131 Code of Civil Procedure.

Where to complain if the apartment is cold

All standards for temperatures and other parameters in a residential area are prescribed in SanPiN (“Sanitary Rules and Norms”), SNiPs and GOSTs. These standards must be observed, and in case of violations, measures must be taken. The temperature that will be comfortable when living in an apartment is taken as a basis.

An excess of more than 4 o C is considered an unacceptable deviation from the norm. Of course, a lot depends on how the house, corner apartment is insulated or not, how well the windows and doors are ventilated, and what the temperature is in the entrance. But if the utility companies do not heat it enough or the pipes have defects, then no matter how you insulate the living space, it will not reach the required temperature.

Saint Petersburg. Hotlines for heating issues. Where to call

What numbers to call for questions?

heating season in St. Petersburg?

There is one free number 004 for all residents of St. Petersburg.

Citizens can use this number to address ANY issue related to heating.

When will the heat be turned on, when will it be turned off, how much do housing and communal services cost?

You can also complain about poor quality housing and communal services using this phone number.

Every resident of St. Petersburg can contact the hotline, if necessary, find out, ask, or clarify something. To begin with, there is a single number 004, which works for the entire city, this is the housing and communal services number. You can also call Heating Network at 6884646.

You can also take the number from the table below and call it.

In winter, questions about heating are very relevant, and in St. Petersburg there is a magic phone that will solve all problems related to housing and communal services, including poor heating. This telephone number is 004 - covers all areas of St. Petersburg, call, the number is verified.

After connecting the heat to the city's houses, many residents have various kinds of problems: one riser in the apartment is warm, the other is cold, the house is connected, but the heat cannot reach the apartment on the top floor. You can call about these problems either to your housing and communal services department or to hotline numbers. Currently, heat is supplied to the houses in heating mode; the heating will operate at full capacity in October.

For heating problems, you can call the following numbers:

IC State Unitary Enterprise "TEK St. Petersburg": 6019393

Heating network hotline (open 24 hours a day) - 6884646

Dispatch service in the city - 2330008

You can contact us with questions about the quality of housing and communal services by calling the short number 004.

A service for receiving calls has been organized in St. Petersburg. Citizens of the cultural capital can dial 004 from their mobile phone. Then you will be redirected to the operator who deals specifically with your area of St. Petersburg. It is enough to name a part of the city, a street and a house. Heating will be explained in detail - when the date for checking the system is scheduled. What day should the official launch date be? They will also talk about the current situation. For city residents who are waiting for the start of the 2017-2018 heating season, this is a great opportunity. First of all, you will be in the know. Secondly, calm your nerves a little and notify your family.