Russia (bbabo.net), - The Kotenko large family from the city of Ob, Novosibirsk Region, has been living in a municipal apartment temporarily provided to them for the third year and may be left without a roof over their heads due to claims from the municipal administration. They claim debts on utility bills, although the tenants are ready to account for paying bills.
The barracks where the Kotenko family lived before burned down in early 2019 due to the fault of one of the tenants. The house stood on a municipal site, a few months before the fire it was declared emergency, and it had to be resettled. All the property of the family was lost in the fire.
Natalia and Alexei Kotenko have four daughters. The youngest is about to turn one. She was already brought here from the maternity hospital: to a four-story communal apartment built in the middle of the last century for military personnel. Behind the wall is a young guy, from his room it often smells of smoke. Near the common kitchen, there is a door to the man's possessions, from which an alarming "alarm" of empty bottles is often heard.
- Somehow my daughter calls me, says that she can’t go to school - the neighbor fell right under the door, so don’t open it. And either in a dream he screams and swears, or he can’t get up. The child was locked up. I was shaking with fear, - says Natalya. - And recently bedbugs have appeared, which seem to have partially driven out cockroaches. Insects fall on us directly from the ceiling. I wake up at every rustle at night: I have to jump up, shine a flashlight into the children's bed - if anyone is crawling over the child.
When representatives of the city administration brought Natalya and Aleksey to inspect the provided temporary housing, the couple tried to protest: wires dangled along the walls, the electrical wiring junction box was turned inside out. "What are we to move from one burned-out housing to another half-damaged house?" - Natalya was worried. But as an alternative, they were offered only a place in a hostel, which has long had a bad reputation due to the addiction of guests to intoxicating substances.
I had to agree. Moreover, Alexander Mozzherin, who at that time held the post of mayor of Ob, assured that this was a temporary solution, for half a year, a maximum of a year. Like, soon Kotenko will receive a new municipal apartment for use. Three years have passed, the family is still standing in line, which does not move - as they were at number 16, they remained.
- When we moved in, we asked the curators from the municipality to at least put the electrician here in order, - says Natalia. - It took several days, we had to live with friends. And when we were invited to accept the apartment, it turned out that the workers only added wires in the room, and the junction box remained with the insides turned outward. But this is only half the trouble: the bathroom here is in such a state that it is impossible to wash normally there. We go to bathe with friends.
According to the rules, every six months the family must renew the contract for temporary residence with the municipality. In turn, Natalya Kotenko recalls, the administration is obliged to timely carry out major repairs on the living space and monitor the maintenance of common property. And for this, when extending the contract for temporary residence, the municipality must inspect the apartment and, if necessary, put it in order. But for three years no one has ever come. The family decided that they would not sign the papers again - maybe this way they would pay attention to their problem. However, this idea went sideways.
- Recently, they came to us from the housing department of the city administration and said that we should vacate the premises, - says Alexei. - I tried to explain our position to people, invited them to come into the apartment and see the state of electricity and water supply. The experts did not agree to this, but they presented a notice that we had debts for utility bills. The receipt shows more than 15 thousand rubles, although we pay all bills on time every month. I again suggested that they look at all our payments, but they only told me: "Apparently, you do not need housing, we will come with the police."
How serious this threat is, the parents of four children do not know. But they are well aware of the debts for the communal apartment: the debt was already registered in the apartment upon moving in. Moreover, if the statement of the municipality is 15.2 thousand rubles, then the list of debtors, which is periodically posted on the door of the entrance, appears in the amount of 150 thousand.
The correspondent managed to get in touch with the former residents of the "bad apartment". According to Anastasia Savostyankova, they settled here with their mother, husband and two children in 2013. Also after the fire. The city administration did not agree to bring housing into a more or less decent condition. We had to nail a sheet of hardboard to the ceiling ourselves, as pieces of lime fell right on the bed.“At that time, a debt of 50 thousand rubles hung on the apartment,” says Anastasia. - But when applying for a temporary residence permit, we were assured that we should not worry about this, that it was not our duty. We have been waiting for the opportunity to move to a new home for two years, in 2015 we finally promised to give the keys. But when my mother came to receive them, she was refused with the wording: there is a debt on your apartment. No one even looked at our receipts for payment. They sent it to the city administration, from there to the management company, and only after calls from there they gave out the keys. Nerves shook. And until now, some payments for that temporary apartment come in the name of my mother, although we have moved out of there for six years.
As Elena Devaykina, head of the housing department of the Ob city administration, explained, no one has yet sent any notifications about Kotenko's eviction. Citizens only need to sign a document, and there will be no claims, let alone grounds for eviction. The family will be able to continue to live in peace in a communal apartment with bedbugs. As for debts, citizens themselves must apply to local authorities so that they can finally figure out who has been indebted since 2013.
- If citizens do not want to renew the agreement on temporary settlement, this means that they do not need this housing, - Elena Devaykina explains the position of the housing department, emphasizing that the administration operates within the law.
- I understand, these are not mansions, - Elena Devaykina believes. - But this is the living quarters of the area that they occupied earlier. They did not apply for the repair of living quarters in the mobile fund. Moreover, in order to make repairs, they will need to be temporarily evicted, and today we have only rooms in the mobile housing stock.
In addition, the head of the housing department of the mayor's office notes that the former neighbors of the Kotenko family in the burnt house made some kind of repair on their square and remained to live there. It turns out that poor Natalya and Alexei only need to repair a completely burned-out building located on a municipal site, which was recognized as emergency more than three years ago. Instead of ruffling the administration's nerves.
Meanwhile
Law enforcement agencies are investigating the situation. The Investigative Department of the TFR for the Novosibirsk Region is conducting an audit, the results of which will make a procedural decision. Check of observance of the housing legislation has begun in regional Office of Public Prosecutor. They also promise to take action if necessary.
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