OREANDA-NEWS. November 21, 2011. ROSVODOKANAL Group supports the Government's initiative requiring management companies to join self-regulating organizations.

As reported earlier, the initiative was put forward by Vice-Premier Dmitry Kozak during his visit to St. Petersburg.

According to Michael Shneyderman, ROSVODOKANAL General Director, such requirements will guarantee that management companies honor their obligations as for providing communal services, repairing and maintaining housing, will improve transparency and quality of the management companies' operations.

"With management companies joining self-regulating organizations it will be possible to screen out sharp players whose activities are only geared to collecting money from people and quite often involve fraud: the management companies sometimes fail to pay utilities timely and in full for the services consumed and as the result service and resource providers, including water supply and disposal companies, get millions of rubles less than their due," Mr. Shneyderman said.

For instance, management companies owe ROSVODOKANAL entities in Barnaul, Kaluga and Tver about 700 million rubles in total.

Mr. Shneyderman added that one more means for dealing with unscrupulous management companies can be including in the Housing Code the right of the housing inspection agencies to verify the competence of management companies to conduct business. At present, the housing inspection is the authority that consumers can approach with complaints concerning actions of management companies after which the inspection is to take some measures. In particular, the inspection agencies can undertake disciplinary action against management companies, issue directives on remedying legal violations and, in some cases, initiate the management company liquidation due to it breaching the Housing Code.