OREANDA-NEWS. April 13, 2010. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) reviews the findings of its monitoring of the market of services for managing apartment blocks in the second half of 2009: 77.5% of such houses are managed by specialized organizations, 16% - by Housing Associations, Home-Owners Associations, etc., and 4.9% - direct control, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The monitoring is based on consolidated data from municipalities in the Russian Federation with population over 10,000 residents.

Total housing stock under management is 3,030,360,380 sq. m. in 1,341,134 apartment blocks.

According to the information provided by local self-government bodies, owners of premises in 124,486 apartment blocks (1.51 % of total housing stock) have not selected the method of management. In most cases those houses are mainly run by organizations created by local self-government bodies before the Housing Code of the Russian Federation came into force, which violated the antimonopoly and housing law.

By the end of 2009, owners of premises in apartment blocks exercised their right to choose the method of management of apartment blocks:

- By exercising direct control - in 370,452 apartment blocks (4.92 % of the total housing stock);

- By creating Housing Associations, Home-Owners Associations, Housing Co-operatives and other specialized consumer cooperatives - in 145,313 apartment blocks (16.04 % of the total housing stock).

670,806 apartment blocks (77.53 % of the total housing stock) are managed by various managing organizations. In the first six months of 2009 the figure was 64.26 %.

Owners of 586,302 apartment blocks (65.85 % of the total housing stock) chose their managing organizations at general meetings. In comparison with the first half of 2009, the number of apartment blocks, where owners independently chose managing organizations at their general meetings increased by 44,669 houses.

For 113 956 apartment blocks (11.68 % of the total housing stock) managing organizations were selected through open tenders organized by local self-government bodies, and government authorities of Moscow and St Petersburg in accordance with No.75 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On Procedures of Open Tenders Organized by Local Self-Government Bodies to Select Managing Organizations for Apartment Blocks".

Overall by 31st December 2009 local-self government bodies in the Russian Federation organized 3,926 open tenders to select managing organizations for apartment blocks. In some constituent territories of the Russian Federation such tenders had signs of antimonopoly violations. FAS Russia is carrying out antimonopoly investigations upon such facts (the signs of violating Article 17 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition").

Local self-government bodies transferred to the managing companies 23,192 apartment blocks (0.41 % of the total housing stock). Regional offices of FAS Russia initiated several cases for the signs of violating Article 15 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" upon the fact of transferring housing stock for management в управление without competitive bidding.

Stats-Secretary Andrey Tsarikovskiy, Deputy Head of FAS Russia: "In many cases violations in choosing the method of managing residential houses happen because citizens are not properly aware of their rights. Crooks take advantage of the situation acting jointly with the authorities. In the future a managing company imposed in such a manner can become a headache for the residents, charging higher rates for the building maintenance, or, for instance, preventing access of communication operators, independent from the managing company, to the house".