Monday17 February 2025
manipulyator.in.ua

Scandals in homeowners' associations, along with water and electricity shortages, highlight the challenges faced by residents of new developments.

Investors breathe a sigh of relief when their properties are completed. However, often the challenges for residents only begin at that point.
Жители новостроек сталкиваются с проблемами: скандалы в ОСМД, нехватка воды и отключения электричества.

There are very few developers who complete residential buildings on time; they can be counted on two hands. Due to the collapse of the market, the situation regarding the fulfillment of obligations has significantly deteriorated.

For instance, about a third of the construction market in the capital is accounted for by the holding company "Kievgorstroy." This developer is effectively in a state of bankruptcy, leaving tens of thousands of its investors enviously looking at Kyiv residents who have received their long-awaited homes.

However, in many cases, the owners of these desired homes do not consider themselves to be envied, as they face other problems. Firstly, there is the necessity to undertake repairs, the cost of which can equal that of the apartment itself.

Secondly, living in new buildings for the first few years, or even the first decade, is often accompanied by a lack of basic housing and utility services, strained relations with management companies, and reluctance among residents to collaborate with each other to resolve issues.

Water Shutdown as a Tool of Blackmail

In the capital's Kudryavka, the Lviv developer Greenville is constructing a residential complex (RC) Greenville Park. The first building was commissioned in 2021, while the second is still under construction.

Some apartments in the first building belonged to the developer, who registered them under three legal entities. These entities acquired ownership rights to the apartments and formed a "manual" homeowners' association (HMA), as explained by Andrey Zhuk, a member of the "Ukrainian Truth" club and a resident of Greenville Park.

The HMA immediately signed a contract with a management company also linked to the developer - LLC "Greenville Service." Zhuk states that the new residents were not satisfied with the management company's performance and its high service fee of 33.8 UAH per square meter.

In 2023, apartment owners replaced the members of the HMA board and terminated the contract with "Greenville Service." This was only possible through the Supreme Court, as residents claimed that the contract stipulated a 30 million UAH penalty for early termination.

During an audit of the documents, the new HMA board members discovered that the building was not connected to the water supply networks, and water was being supplied to the building through the contractor for the second building - "Remservice."

"The developer has not connected the building to the water supply on a permanent basis. The pipe supplying the water is not adequate; it is thin. There is not enough water pressure even for the fire suppression system. Twenty-four floors, business class, and the fire system does not function because the developer has not provided water," Zhuk states.

The press service of Greenville disagrees with the characterization of the "manual HMA" and explains the necessity of its creation as "supporting the building's viability until all owners formally obtain ownership rights to their apartments."

ЖК Greenville Park. Справа - дом, который ввели в эксплуатацию в 2021 году. Слева - еще строится

Connecting water on a permanent basis - through a direct contract with "Kievvodokanal" - will only be possible after the second phase of construction is commissioned, according to the company. "The technical conditions issued by 'Kievvodokanal' do not foresee separate distribution for the two buildings," the developer asserts.

"Water supply to the building was managed through 'Greenville Service.' After the HMA's decision to switch to self-management, they were offered to sign a compensation agreement with the managing organization," the developer's response states.

Its representatives claim that the fire suppression system is operational, with six backup water tanks installed for its function. "Additionally, extra fire extinguishers have been placed on each floor in common areas," the company reported.

After the residents of the first building transitioned to self-management, the developer began to blackmail the co-owners, demanding they sign a contract with the former manager and threatening to disconnect the building from the water supply, Zhuk recounts.

On December 11, 2024, the construction contractor left a thousand residents without water for two days. "The developer demanded that a contract for water supply be signed. They refused to make changes to the contract - 'either our way or not at all.' After no one agreed to sign this contract, they shut off the water," says the investor from Greenville Park.

According to Zhuk, residents independently restored the water supply, called a commission from the Kyiv City State Administration, and negotiated a temporary connection scheme. "It works somehow, although the developer still has not done what they were supposed to do at the construction and commissioning stages," he concludes.

Greenville claims that they did not cut off the water supply to residents on December 11 "by the hands" of the contractor. According to company representatives, the developer does not provide water to the building and, therefore, could not disconnect it from the water supply.

"Due to the transition of the HMA to self-management and the unilateral termination of the contract with the management company 'Greenville Service,' the HMA board has irresponsibly approached the water supply of the building and effectively put all residents at risk of being left without water supply.

Currently, the HMA board is unjustifiably avoiding signing a compensation agreement for the costs of water supply to the building, which continues to put residents at risk of being left without water," states the response.

The Wojciechowski Effect: A Week Without Electricity

The "House on Kuzminskaya" in Kyiv is just a small part of the legacy of the fraudulent developer Anatoliy Wojciechowski. Among the 42 residential complexes where Wojciechowski sold apartments, there are both completed and unfinished buildings, but none of them has been commissioned.

The "lucky ones" who have waited for their homes to be completed or have completed them themselves by forming construction cooperatives are forced to pay for water and electricity at commercial rates and sometimes even heat their premises with firewood.

The completed but uncommissioned "House on Kuzminskaya" is located on a plot next to another long-term construction project by Wojciechowski - Park Hills (formerly known as "Youth Initiative"). Historically, electricity for both construction sites was supplied through Park Hills.

When the "House on Kuzminskaya" was completed, it continued to receive electricity through its neighbors. Investors in Park Hills created the cooperative "Syretskiy Hay" to finish the construction of their house, so residents of the "House on Kuzminskaya" signed an electricity supply contract with "Syretskiy Hay."

At one point, the cooperative accumulated its own debts for electricity, leading the energy company DTEK to begin cutting off power to both buildings, according to Natalia Medelyanova, a board member of the HMA "Kuzminsky." After partially settling the debts, electricity was restored.

"Park Hills used our funds to cover its own electricity debts because we all paid on time, but they did not. In November, our rate was 10.53 UAH per kilowatt (for the population, from June 2024, a rate of 4.32 UAH/kW - EП was introduced)," says Medelyanova.

The last time residents were without electricity was from January 24 to 31. According to Medelyanova, "Syretskiy Hay" recalculated the losses for the transformer of the "House on Kuzminskaya" from 2018 to 2024 and issued a bill for 700 thousand UAH. Meanwhile, as of November 2024, the debt of "Syretskiy Hay" to DTEK amounted to 3.1 million UAH.

"We asked for justification for the recalculation, and instead of a response, they cut off our electricity. Our heating, water pumps, and boilers depend on electricity. We paid because we froze for a week. In December, we hired a lawyer to help resolve our issues," reported a board member of "Kuzminsky."

The head of the servicing cooperative "Syretskiy Hay" and the director of LLC "Park Hills," Yulia