Likbez: what to do if you bought an apartment with utility debts?

Practice shows, portal experts note The power of lawthat when buying an apartment on the secondary market, the new owner often faces such a problem as outstanding debts for housing and communal services of the old owner of the property.

These debts constantly pop up in payments and spoil the nerves in order. Public utilities in this situation is easy to understand. They want to collect the debt, and who will pay — they do not care. But what about the new owner? To pay or not to pay?

Who should pay?

Logically, the debt should be repaid by the person who has it. What does the law say in this situation? The law as a whole is “friendly” with logic. However, there are exceptions.

So, according to Article 210 of the Civil Code: «The owner bears the burden of maintaining his property, unless otherwise provided by law or contract.»

This means that, as a general rule, the burden of maintenance, which implies, among other things, the payment of housing and communal services, arises only in connection with property and nothing else.

In other words, the owner pays only from the moment when he received the property in ownership. And the old debts remain with the former owner.

But from the general rule, the law provides for 2 exceptions (law or contract):

Treaty

The rules stipulated by the contract are priority. That is, if, when buying real estate, the parties to the sale and purchase agreement provided that the debts are transferred to the new owner (in connection with which the price of the object may be significantly lower than the market price), then so be it, the rule provided for in the KP agreement will apply.

Law

Article 210 of the Civil Code establishes that some federal laws may also provide that certain debts are transferred to a new owner. This rule today directly applies to overhaul debts.

Why should the new owner repay debts for overhaul?

Cunning legislators apply a different logic here. We are talking about the fact that overhaul contributions are assigned not to the owner of the property, but directly to the property itself. Therefore, the debts here follow the property, and not the specific owner under whom they arose.

In the dry…

So, we found out that the new owner, by virtue of the law, is obliged to repay only the debt on overhaul contributions. All other debts on a communal apartment do not concern him.

So, we pay for the overhaul, and figuratively send the rest of the payments to the trash can or waste paper.

Debriefing with the management company

And how to defend your position in disputes with the Criminal Code? They both sent their payments with old debts, and continue to send them. And they are in no hurry to write off debts. This issue can be resolved quickly and easily.

To do this, you just need to contact the Criminal Code with the appropriate statement that they should open an account for the new owner. And as a supporting document stating that you have become the owner of this property relatively recently, attach an extract from the USRN to your application.

After that, the management company should leave you alone. If not, then you can file a complaint with the prosecutor’s office.

source: The power of law