Who is master of the house?
Will the Housing Code bill help reform Ukraine’s public utilities?
The Verkhovna Rada may pass the Housing Code bill on December 14-18, thus getting closer to carrying out the coveted public utility reform. This bill was passed in the first reading more than a year ago, proving that there is no consensus in parliament on this bill or on the utility reform, although everyone realizes that Ukraine simply can’t exist relying on the Soviet code.
Yurii Serbin, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s committee on public utilities, told journalists in the aftermath of Maidan-2, “Lytvyn got scared and said the bill wouldn’t be put on the agenda in the nearest future.” Serbin sees the pluses and minuses of this document; it is badly needed, notably because there is not a single currently effective legislative act that reflects the changes that have taken place in Ukraine over the years of its independence. He believes that the merit of this new code is that it will finally determine who is the boss. Serbin attributes all problems facing the public utilities to the absence of this code and says that home-owner associations should be compulsory only in regard to modern housing projects.
Serbin believes the biggest mistake of the utilities bill, given the ongoing financial crisis, is the non-payment penalties clause that doesn’t even determine their range. On the other hand, he disagrees with those criticizing the bill, which allegedly allows for eviction in the course of renovation. He says the bill clearly states that this is only possible by court ruling, but adds: “There is no alternative because such five-story apartment buildings have become totally obsolete while their renovation hasn’t practically started, so we’re playing with fire.”
Ex-Minister of Public Utilities Oleksii Kucherenko, however, believes that the bill doesn’t stand a chance in the Verkhovna Rada, adding that proof of this is Lytvyn’s statement, as well as the one made by Volodymyr Rybak, one of the functionaries of the ruling Party of Regions. Kucherenko isn’t angered by these statements because he says the current bill is “an act of sabotage against the utilities reform” and that it simply has no future under the current circumstances: “It’s an explosive mix these days…” He goes on to list the subjects the bill doesn’t address, including energy-saving and changes to the existing utilities legislation, stressing the clause on the managing companies, saying they should exist, but not in lieu of the ZhEK housing authorities: “If the private managing companies receive all these ZhEK balance sheets, there will be no going back and the whole industry will be out of control.”
Kucherenko asks a relevant question: Which of the public utilities laws is actually effective today? He offers his answer: The social housing law doesn’t work, nor does the one available housing, with its good clauses; ditto the ones on comprehensive renovation of residential districts (the bill was passed in 2005). The law on the associations of apartment building home-owners (OSBB) exists on paper and is an impasse: “Today there is the big threat of forceful OSBBidization, what with eighty percent OSBB’s planned within four years. This project will backfire the way the Soviet collectivization campaign did.”
Kucherenko agrees with the Minister of Public Utilities Yurii Khyvrych, for whom the Housing Code bill spells penalties: “I support his view of the situation…” He cites the gruesome statistics of outstanding utility bills and stresses that penalties should not be a clause of the Housing Code but a separate law banning fines levied on such debtors, adding that the other side should also be held responsible: “The monopolist, or ZhEK, will also pay fines if it fails to provide the required services.”
Oleh Musienko, director general, Ukrainian Law Company, is critical of the Housing Code bill, saying that this bill, like all the others, is being adopted during the most severe constitutional crisis since Ukraine’s independence. The biggest problem is its being at variance with the Constitution and other laws currently in effect, and in a discriminatory approach by local and central authorities in applying these laws, with regard to ordinary citizens and ranking bureaucrats, the poor and the rich. Musienko says this bill emerged because big business wanted to launch housing projects in the Ukrainian cities after evicting the tenants of the existing apartment buildings and tearing them down. As a certified lawyer, he has serious doubts about whether the Housing Code bill is constitutional.
