Partnership of home owners - problems and prospects of development

With the appearance of a new class of real estate owners inRussia, a necessity of reformation in the system of management of housing resources has arisen. The most prospective scheme of managementof blocks of flats, as well as regulation of legal relations among the owners of common property is a partnership of home owners.(PHO). The main advantages of PHO as a means of management of a block of flats are: the protection of interests of home owners,the possibility of direct participation in solving main problems connected with the management and exploitation of a house, the possibilityto influence the policy of a managing company, the possibility to realize business activity, to control the execution of agreed relationsand the quality of the housing and communal services provided, the beautification of yards, entrances and other. The process of developmentof PHO became more active in 2007, after the adoption of Federal Law № 185 On the Fund of Assistance to Reforming Housingand Communal Services. The activity of this fund is directed to the provision of financial support to the subjects of the RussianFederation for carrying out major repairs of blocks of flats. One of the most important criteria for getting financial resources is obligatoryavailability of regulatory and legal acts of the RF subjects, directed to forming favourable conditions for establishment and activityof PHO. Moreover, the share of PHO as a means of managing blocks of flats should be more than 5-20%. However, in spite of positiveresults in the sphere of development of market mechanisms in the housing sphere attained by regional and local authorities, it is necessaryto note that in most cases the practice of non-commercial management is not of use and does not promote the development of anefficient system of management of housing resources. The main reason of this is two factors. Firstly, people do not want to take responsibilityfor management and augmentation of their property, which they would have as owners. On the one hand, they have a possibilityto avoid such a responsibility, as municipal structures on default continue to manage private housing resources as if they were municipalones. On the other, the risks in respect of private housing resources, connected with indeterminacy of the sources of financing of majorrepairs, underdevelopment of the mechanisms of housing insurances and so on are preserved. Secondly, the process of making decisionsby home owners, which is rather difficult, becomes more complicated due to legacy of the administrative and command system, whichhas been formed in the industry. The problem of improvement and maintenance and servicing housing resources is, first of all, the problemof clearance of administrative barriers existing in this sector, and, in the second place, the development of maximum favourableconditions for the subjects, who are interested in the transition to market relations. Only systematic efforts concerning the solution of theabove-mentioned contradictions and problems, will lead our society to principal improvement of the quality of life in blocks of flats.

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