How to file a complaint against an HOA - sample applications to the prosecutor's office, Rospotrebnadzor and the court

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Published: 10/05/2018

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The main reason for tenants to have complaints against the HOA is the ineffective management of the apartment building.

• Where to complain about the HOA
• How to write a complaint against an HOA Required documents
• Procedure and terms for consideration of a complaint

An HOA is a non-profit organization that is a legal entity, regulated by a charter and operates on the basis of Article No. 135 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. Accordingly, violation of the charter and the provision of services in an improper manner are the main problems in the work of the HOA.

As practice shows, the most common reasons for complaints against residents' associations are problems such as:

• poor-quality housing and communal services , interruptions in their supply or complete absence;
• lack of proper care of the common area : entrance, yard;
• failure to make necessary repairs to the building and utilities;
• exceeding the powers of the chairman or board , misappropriation of funds on their part, embezzlement;
• inflated housing and communal services tariffs;
• actions of the chairman or board that contradict the charter or legislation of the Russian Federation.

Grounds for filing a complaint against the HOA

If you, as the owner of residential premises in an apartment building, come to the conclusion that the activities carried out by the HOA are detrimental to your legal rights and interests, then in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation, you have the right to appeal any decision made by both the HOA board and and its sole chairman.

An analysis of practice shows that the following decisions made by HOAs are most often appealed:

• Establishment of excessively inflated tariffs for housing and communal services. This situation may be caused by the desire of the homeowners association to increase its own profits by artificially inflating tariffs. To do this, they include their own costs associated with managing apartment buildings in tariffs for housing and communal services. Such actions are unlawful, since the costs of the HOA should be included in completely different items, such as “Maintenance of common property” and so on. And even in this case, they must be economically justified;
• If the HOA agrees with one of the owners of a residential premises located in an apartment building for the redevelopment that he has unlawfully carried out, as a result of which the building structures have been damaged, which may endanger the entire house, this is an unlawful action that harms the legal rights and interests of other residential owners premises. In this case, any of them has the right to apply to the appropriate authorities to cancel the issued permit for redevelopment;
• If the HOA uses common property for its own interests. An example could be a situation where the HOA decided to rent out at an unreasonably low price, or even transfer for use free of charge premises that are in common property to persons affiliated with the chairman of the HOA or members of its board;
• Illegal imputation of debt to the owner of a residential premises for certain services. An example of such an illegal action by the HOA is a situation in which a person who purchased residential premises in a house that is part of the HOA is forced to pay off the debts remaining from the previous owner of the premises he purchased;
• Unlawful decisions made by both the board and the individual chairman of the HOA.

It is worth noting that it is quite difficult for owners of residential premises to prove the facts of violations committed by the HOA.

Therefore, if you have the opinion that the activities of the HOA are detrimental to your legal rights and interests, before taking active steps, seek advice from a lawyer who professionally deals with cases in the housing sector. This will help you avoid many mistakes and be more likely to succeed.

In the event that it becomes obvious that the actions carried out by the HOA run counter to the legal rights and interests of the owners of residential premises, the latter have the right to take comprehensive measures to stop this situation. Let's take a closer look at which authorities and how you should file complaints about the actions of the HOA.

Consideration of complaints and measures

There are no significant differences between the application with a complaint about the work of the HOA and other appeals from citizens, therefore it is considered in accordance with the Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation”:

• There is no fee for contacting government agencies.
• If, after filing a complaint with higher authorities, the HOA board has fulfilled all the requirements, the applicant has the right to write a new application to terminate consideration of the previous appeal.
• If the complaint was mistakenly submitted to an authority that does not deal with HOA issues, within a week after acceptance the document is sent to the required authority.
• No more than 30 days are allotted for consideration of the complaint. In rare cases, the period is extended for another month. The applicant must be notified of the extension of the deadline.
• Based on the results of consideration of the complaint filed against the HOA, higher-level organizations oblige the residents to fulfill the demands of the residents within the allotted time.
• The partnership or its chairman may be fined. Management can be taught a lesson for refusing to provide homeowners with any information.

If irregularities are detected in the operation of the HOA, regulatory organizations set a period within which the problem must be corrected. In addition, the legislation establishes deadlines for eliminating violations in the field of housing and communal services, so they must be strictly observed.

If the HOA has not eliminated the problem within the time frame established by the regulatory authorities, the applicant can write a second complaint indicating this fact.

Bodies that control the activities of HOAs

If you have encountered any of the above situations, then you have the right to contact government authorities to protect your legal rights and interests and file a complaint with them about the actions of the HOA. But in what situation and where should you file your complaint?

Control over the activities of homeowners' associations is carried out by:

• territorial bodies of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare;
• State Housing Inspectorate;
• territorial bodies of the Prosecutor's Office.

In addition, any owner of a residential premises who believes that the HOA’s actions are infringing on his legal rights and interests has the right to go to court to protect them. To do this, he will need to prepare and submit an appropriate statement of claim. This can be done either independently or through the Prosecutor’s Office.

Appeal to the management of the HOA

This method may seem quite strange, and its effectiveness may raise doubts, but it should not be neglected. It won’t take you much time to draw up a statement and state your complaint and submit it to the governing bodies of the HOA.

There are cases when such complaints submitted in writing are satisfied. And even if your appeal is ignored, this will serve you as an additional advantage during further proceedings.

It was already noted above that in the periods between general meetings of owners of residential premises, the management of the activities of the HOA is carried out by the board and the chairman, who are elected during the general meetings of owners.

Information about the election, as well as the term for which they were elected, is entered into the minutes of the general meeting of owners of residential premises. It is to these governing bodies that a complaint about the activities of the HOA should be filed.

You should formalize the accumulated claims against the activities of the HOA in the form of a statement. It should be compiled in two copies. You need to hand over one of the copies to the chairman, board member, or other person authorized to accept documents submitted to the governing bodies of the HOA.

Sample complaint to the HOA.

In this case, it is necessary that the second copy, which remains with you, bears the appropriate mark indicating receipt of your application indicating the date.

This will confirm the fact that you have contacted the HOA management authorities with your complaint, and can be very useful to you during further proceedings.

In addition to the method described above, you can send your application by post. To do this, you will need to send it by registered mail with return receipt requested.

Please note that in the submitted application you must specifically emphasize that you want to receive a response to it in writing.

It should also be taken into account that a collective appeal submitted to the governing bodies of the HOA will have much more effect if it is submitted from a group rather than from one person.

In this case, the management of the HOA will not want to enter into direct conflict with a large group of dissatisfied people, and will try to satisfy the demands put forward.

Agreement with the HOA for the provision of services.

How to hold a meeting in the HOA, read here.

How to write a complaint to the Housing Inspectorate, read the link:

Appealing the decision of the general meeting of the HOA

As you can see, appealing against actions or inactions committed by the governing bodies of the HOA is quite simple.

But what to do if you do not agree with the decision that was made at the general meeting of owners of residential premises by a majority vote:

• First of all, during such a meeting, clearly indicate your disagreement with what is happening. Your position must be recorded in the minutes of the meeting. In this case, while carrying out a scheduled inspection, the state housing inspection will consider the arguments you present at the meeting and, if they turn out to be correct, will oblige the HOA to hold a new extraordinary meeting of owners of residential premises and make changes to previously made decisions that will correspond to your arguments;
• If the state housing inspection considers your position to be unfounded, or you cannot wait for its representatives to come check the HOA, you will have to go to court.

In this case, an appeal to the judicial authorities should be carried out taking into account a number of features:

• Before sending your statement of claim to the court, notify all owners of residential premises included in the HOA of your intention. This must be done so that those who voted for the decision you disputed have the opportunity to defend their position during legal proceedings, or, on the contrary, to side with you. In addition, they have the right to present to the court a variety of arguments that are relevant to the situation under consideration;
• It should be clearly known that in court it is impossible to challenge the same decision made at a general meeting of owners of residential premises twice, even if unrelated aspects of such a decision are disputed.

This restriction was established in order to protect the rights of all owners of residential premises, and to prevent a situation in which each point of the decision adopted by the general meeting will be challenged in separate legal proceedings, thereby paralyzing the work of the HOA.

Before filing a complaint against the HOA in court, you should clearly understand that the process you are starting will be very long and quite tedious.

Therefore, before filing your claim, consult with a professional housing law attorney.

He will help you correctly assess the situation, tell you about possible risks and, if possible, suggest ways to solve your problem pre-trial.

Legal basis

Awareness of the basic legislative provisions regulating the activities and powers of the HOA will help you convincingly argue your complaint. The defining factors in this sense are: the Housing Code (LC) of the Russian Federation and the HOA Charter.

The charter is a document drawn up by the members of a given partnership and adopted at a meeting of home owners by a majority vote. It establishes the subject and goals of activities, decision-making regulations, competence and composition of a particular HOA.

The right to appeal decisions of the HOA is confirmed by clause 1 of Art. 143.1 Housing Code of the Russian Federation. The grounds for this may be the failure of the partnership to fulfill its obligations and violation of the rights of residents (Articles 138 and 143.1 of the Housing Code), namely:

1. Unsatisfactory sanitary and technical condition of common property in the house.
2. Low quality of work performed and services provided.
3. Concealment of statutory, reporting and technical documentation from premises owners*.
4. Unlawful charging of regular payments for the maintenance of common property.
5. Use of funds received from residents for other purposes.
6. The presence among the active members of the HOA of a person who is not the owner of the apartment in the building.
7. Arbitrariness of the HOA (independent decision-making, according to the Charter, submitted for approval by the residents of the house or members of the partnership, the introduction of “improvements” that are categorically unacceptable for one or more owners of the house, etc.).
8. Failure to provide timely, complete and reliable information regarding changes in rent tariffs, the procedure for providing services, the appointment of times and dates for meetings.

* — List of documentation required to be presented according to the requirements of co-owners of multi-apartment real estate:

• Charter;
• certificate of state registration of the HOA;
• register of members;
• audit results;
• annual budget;
• financial report;
• acts of title to the property of the partnership reflected on its balance sheet;
• minutes of meetings of HOA members and the audit commission;
• papers indicating the reliability of the votes taken;
• technical documentation of the house.

Please note that the HOA does not have the right to exist if half of the owners of the apartment building oppose its approval.

Complaint about the HOA to government agencies

If you decide to file a complaint against the HOA with government authorities, then, as in the previous case, make it in two copies. It is worth considering that the complaint you submit must comply with all the rules and regulations for the preparation of such documents.

A properly completed complaint must contain:

• Full name of the government authority to which it is submitted. In our case, such bodies may be the state housing inspection, the federal service for supervision of consumer rights protection and human well-being, as well as the prosecutor’s office. The complaint should indicate to which specific territorial division of one of the above bodies it is being submitted;
• All data about you, including full name, information about your place of residence and registration, as well as contact phone number;
• In the main part of the complaint, describe the essence of the current situation in as much detail as possible and clearly indicate what exactly does not suit you. In addition, please report the results of your appeal to the governing bodies of the HOA;
• Clearly state the requirements that you place on the HOA;
• Indicate what specific actions you expect from government authorities;
• A detailed list of materials that you have attached to this complaint;
• The complaint must be accompanied by your handwritten signature indicating the date on which this signature was affixed.

Sample complaint against an HOA to the Housing Inspectorate.

Sample complaint against an HOA to Rospotrebnadzor.

Sample complaint against the HOA to the Prosecutor's Office.

Sample statement of claim against an HOA in court.

When filing a complaint with government authorities, be sure to include:

• a copy of your identification document;
• a copy of the complaint that you previously sent to the management of the HOA with a note of receipt, and if you were given a response to it, a copy of this response;
• photographic and video recording materials that can confirm the legitimacy of the demands or accusations you make.

We would like to emphasize that there is no fee for filing a complaint with government authorities.

Rules for filing a claim

The complaint does not have a set template, but when drawing it up, you should adhere to the generally accepted requirements for writing such statements.

General rules for preparing an application:

• the header indicates the addressee of the application and information about the applicant, his last name, first name, patronymic, place of residence, telephone number for feedback;
• the text describes the essence of the claim, if there were appeals to other authorities, then describe the results;
• when writing a requirement, you should indicate references to the legislative acts on which it is based;
• in conclusion, it is indicated where and in what form the response should arrive.

Requirements and choice of base

Before presenting demands, it is necessary to explain the reason, describe the essence of what specifically caused the applicant’s negative reaction.

Requirements must be formulated concisely and competently. They must be understood unambiguously, without differing interpretations.

The basis contains a reference to the law under which the claim is made. The basis may be the Housing Code, the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights, as well as various sanitary norms and rules.

Not all citizens are familiar with the intricacies of applying laws. If you are unsure about the choice of justification for a claim, it is advisable to seek advice from professional lawyers practicing in the field of relations in the housing and communal services sector.

Collective appeal

You can complain alone, but it’s better to complain collectively. The application is signed by all owners who support the claims against the HOA.

A collective complaint carries more weight. When one person is dissatisfied with something, and the rest are satisfied with everything, then their demands will most likely be treated with skepticism. The more supporters, the higher the chance of achieving a successful resolution of the problem.

Sample complaint

The complaint can be drawn up in any form in compliance with the rules for writing statements.

Sample claim according to filling procedure:

1. The “header” indicates who the applicant is addressing, as well as his last name, first name and patronymic, residential address and contact telephone number.
2. In the middle of the line is written the name of the document “application”, “complaint”, “claim”.
3. The first paragraph indicates the grounds for the applicant’s appeal, for example, that he is the owner of the apartment, and provides the details of the title document.
4. The fulfillment of obligations on the part of the applicant is confirmed, for example, timely payment of utility bills and absence of debt.
5. The next paragraph contains information about the violated regulations and how exactly this is expressed, for example, based on the contract, utilities must comply with the norms and rules, and muddy water with a disgusting odor flows in the apartment for many days.
6. Refer to witnesses or the report of an independent expert.
7. The requirement is set out to ensure that the provision of services is of adequate quality within the specified time frame.
8. Specify the form and delivery address of the response.
9. A warning is given about contacting government agencies if the claim is not satisfied.
10. The attachments are listed, dated and signed by the applicant or applicants, if the complaint is a collective one.

Complaint about the HOA to the Housing Inspectorate

The State Housing Inspectorate is the organization whose powers include carrying out inspections and monitoring the activities of enterprises and organizations working in the housing and communal services sector.

Exercising its powers, it has the right to control:

• the quality of services provided by enterprises and organizations;
• the time frame within which housing and communal services enterprises and organizations carry out certain work in residential buildings;
• how orders to eliminate previously identified violations are implemented.

The State Housing Inspectorate operates in every major settlement. It may have structural divisions in the form of city and district departments. You can find accurate information about this by visiting the website of the administration of your locality.

After considering your complaint on the merits, the state housing inspection will conduct an inspection of the HOA. Based on the results of this inspection, if the claims set out in your complaint are confirmed, a resolution will be issued to the HOA to eliminate the identified violations, indicating a specific time frame within which they must be eliminated.

If, during the implementation of control, it is discovered that the HOA has ignored the issued order or violated the terms of its execution, then, on the basis of Article 7.22 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, an appropriate fine will be imposed on it.

Complaint about the HOA to the Housing Inspectorate.

How to file a complaint

There is simply no standard form for claims to regulatory authorities, but applicants must consistently state the essence of the complaint, list all the violations committed, and attach evidence of these acts.

An example complaint text might look like this:

• in the upper right corner it is written who the complaint is coming from - all personal data, contacts, full residential address and postal code;
• in the body of the text, consistently state the essence of the claim, identified violations are given with references to the HOA Charter, or contractual obligations on items that have not been fulfilled to date;
• as requirements, one should ask for the elimination of the violated rights of residents, and set a deadline for the execution of decisions.

An example text of the complaint can be found on this page.

The complaint should be accompanied by all documents confirming the facts, inspection reports, copies of other appeals, photographs or testimony of witnesses.

The complaint is submitted in 2 copies, one is transferred to the inspection, the second remains in the hands of the applicant, with a mark of acceptance and the date of filing the complaint.

A sample HOA agreement with the management company can be found here.

Whether the chairman of an HOA can receive a salary is discussed on this page.

Complaint about HOA to Rospotrebnadzor

If you believe that your rights have been infringed or violated by the HOA, you have the right to apply for their protection to the territorial bodies of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare.

This is possible because you, as a member of a homeowners association, in the eyes of regulatory authorities, are, first of all, a consumer of the services provided by the HOA.

In this capacity you consume the following services:

• hot and cold water supply;
• sewage disposal;
• supply of various energy resources;
• operation and repair of common property;
• maintaining local areas and common property in proper condition.

The HOA sets certain tariffs for the services provided to you. The functions of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare include monitoring the quality of services provided by HOAs and the extent to which tariffs for the services provided were legally set.

If you believe that the services provided by the HOA do not comply with established standards, or the tariffs for them are too high, you have the right to apply for protection of your rights to the territorial body of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare.

Many citizens, at the same time as filing a complaint against an HOA with the state housing inspectorate, send the same complaint to the territorial body of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, simply changing the name of the body to which it is addressed in the text of the complaint.

But this approach is extremely ineffective. It is much more practical not to copy the complaint, but to prepare a new one, taking into account the specifics that are inherent in the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare.

If violations committed by the HOA fall within the competence of this particular service, then contacting it will lead to positive results for you much faster than filing a complaint with the state housing inspectorate and other regulatory authorities.

It is worth emphasizing that exclusively the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare has the right to force an unscrupulous service provider, in this case, the HOA against which you filed a complaint, to return to you the money that you paid them for poor-quality services provided .

If there is no answer

An application was submitted to the homeowners association, but after a while there was no response. The expectation that the applicant will “burn out” and no longer complain should not be justified. If it's worth it, you have to keep fighting.

The next step, depending on the nature of the problem, will be to contact the HOA again or file a complaint with government control authorities. There must be a response from the state housing inspectorate or Rospotrebnadzor; this is established by law.

If it happens that there is no response from government organizations to the application, then the initiator of the fight against the HOA has a chance to achieve his goals by filing a complaint with the prosecutor’s office or a lawsuit in court.

Complaint against the chairman of the HOA to the Economic Crime Department

Each regulatory authority has the right to inspect the HOA solely within its competence. The State Housing Inspectorate - for the purpose of fulfilling its direct obligations, the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare - for compliance of the quality of services provided with the requirements established in the standards.

But where to turn if you think that the management of the HOA is stealing material assets and funds at their disposal?

In this case, you should contact the police, specifically the department for combating economic crimes and anti-corruption.

It is this specialized police structure that investigates various types of economic crimes. To do this, she has the right to seize and analyze the accounting and financial documentation of the HOA.

The complaint you send to the Department of Economic Crimes must contain the same information as complaints filed with other government bodies. However, it should focus not on your suspicions, but on the facts that prove them. Remember that upon your application, the Department of Economic Crimes will organize an inspection of the HOA.

Therefore, when drawing up your complaint, try to avoid accusations that are not supported by significant evidence, based only on your personal emotions.

Indeed, if, as a result of the verification, the facts stated in your complaint are not confirmed, the persons whom you have accused may file a claim against you for the protection of honor and dignity, as well as accuse you of slander. In addition, law enforcement agencies may charge you with knowingly false denunciation.

The OBEP will take 10 days to complete the inspection. After it is completed, if the facts stated in your complaint are confirmed and are sufficient to bring the perpetrators to criminal liability, a criminal case will be initiated, or a refusal to initiate it will be issued if the facts are not confirmed. You will be required to notify you in writing of any decision made as a result of the inspection.

Complaint to the Prosecutor's Office against the chairman of the HOA

You will be able to contact the Prosecutor's Office with a complaint against the management of the HOA only if you have data on violations committed by them, confirmed by an inspection by the state housing inspection.

In addition, you will be able to file a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office if you have an independent expert's opinion, or it has been established that you have suffered damage as a result of actions or inactions of the HOA management.

Complaint to the Prosecutor's Office against the chairman of the HOA.

It is worth considering that the Prosecutor’s Office is not authorized to independently initiate an audit of the activities of the HOA. It has the right to react only if, as a result of an inspection carried out by any of the regulatory authorities, significant violations are revealed in the activities of the HOA. In addition, not an individual, but a collective complaint should be submitted to the Prosecutor's Office.

This is explained by the fact that the Prosecutor's Office can only support collective complaints during court proceedings, or individual complaints filed to protect an incompetent person.

The legislative framework

Appeals against actions or inactions of the HOA occur in accordance with the following legislative acts:

1. “Housing Code of the Russian Federation” dated December 29, 2004 No. 188-FZ.
2. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated June 11, 2013 No. 493 “On state housing supervision.”
3. Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” dated May 2, 2006 No. 59-FZ.
4. “Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation” dated November 14, 2002 No. 138-FZ.
5. Federal Law “On the protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the exercise of state control (supervision) and municipal control” dated December 26, 2008 No. 294-FZ.

Statement of claim against the chairman of the HOA

The highest authority you can turn to to protect your legal rights and interests is the court. If you have evidence that the management of the HOA has committed illegal acts that infringe on your legal rights and interests, you can file a claim directly in court, bypassing all previous instances.

Please note that it is better to entrust the drafting of a statement of claim to a professional lawyer. This will increase your chances of getting it reviewed favorably.

Protecting your interests in court will require you to make certain financial investments. However, if the court makes a positive decision for you, all your expenses will be compensated by the defendant.

Before filing a lawsuit, it is advisable to seek advice from professional lawyers who can assess your chances of a positive outcome of the case. This will help you avoid unnecessary costs associated with litigation.

If the amount of the claim you are filing does not exceed 50,000 rubles, then it should be filed in the magistrate’s court. The proceedings on this claim will be carried out in a simplified manner and will not take much time. File the claim in the magistrate’s court at your place of registration.

In the submitted statement of claim, indicate the subject of your claims and the amount at which you estimate them. Complete the application in two copies. Having attached to one of them documents confirming the legitimacy of your claims, it should be submitted to the court.

Statement of claim against the chairman of the HOA.

If you filed a complaint with the HOA and received a written refusal to satisfy it, be sure to attach copies of these documents to the statement of claim.