Government ensures effective use of budget funds

The Cabinet of Ministers approved the Resolution "On granting benefits and subsidies for compensation of expenses for maintenance of buildings, structures and adjacent areas by tenants of residential buildings that have established Apartment Building Co-owners Associations (ABCA) and Housing Building Cooperatives (HBC)", the Information-Analytical Bulletin of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine informs.

The objective of the document is to make effective use of budget funds allocated for provision of benefits and subsidies for maintenance of apartment buildings that have established ABCA or HBC.

In accordance with the Resolution, these benefits and subsidies will be allocated based on the size of a maximum building maintenance tariff established by the appropriate local authority.

As explained by experts from the Ministry of Social Policy, according to the Law of Ukraine "On Apartment Building Co-owners Associations (ABCA )," the general meeting of ABCA is authorized to establish the size of contributions and payments by its members. In this regard, general meetings of ABCA (HBC) often used to set the size of maintenance payments for houses, buildings and adjacent territories, which were significantly higher than the maximum maintenance rate established by the appropriate local authority.

In those cases, residents of ABCA (HBC) claimed benefits and subsidies in larger amounts than residents of apartment buildings which were maintained by communal ZHEKs. As local authorities did not have a legal framework to settle such inconsistences, the issue of compensation for benefits and subsidies for residents of ABCA (HBC) was not raised whatsoever.

According to experts, the adoption of the new resolution will allow to clarify the amount of compensation and benefits from the local utilities budget which can be claimed by  ABCA (HBC) residents. This will also ensure better planning and use of subsidies allocated from the state budget to local budgets for this purpose.