UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 13, 2018. Yekaterinburg Council coordinated a meeting to look into the communal housing services issues such as compliance with the legal requirements, unpaid housing bills, and crime rate in the sector, the council’s official website states.

Housing management companies that haven’t been paying their heat and power suppliers on time are one acute problem. Eighteen local companies currently owe their utility suppliers nearly RUR 2.8bn in unpaid housing bills.

As for the upcoming heating season, 3,439 apartment buildings in Yekaterinburg have already been inspected and issued a certificate of preparedness for the fall and winter.

‘These figures are better than the ones for one year earlier, but ongoing work to improve the readiness indicators is still necessary,’ says Yekaterinburg’s Public Prosecutor Svetlana Kuznetsova.

‘End users (private individuals) have paid their housing bills 102% as of August 2018. We always collect 100% of all payments from private owners/tenants by the end of summer, and it is hoped that by the end of the year, the debt-collection rate will be the same as last December, that is, 98%. Ad hoc committees are busy in various parts of the city, but some housing bills are still left unpaid. As for the power grids, these are quite prepared, even though the power companies are still doing their scheduled repairs,’ says Deputy Head of Yekaterinburg Council for Housing & Utilities Vladimir Geiko.