«Until a tragedy occurs, nothing is resolved»: Residents of a high-rise building in Mykolaiv complain about the services of the management company

Residents of a building at 10 Buznyka Street in Mykolaiv complained about the irresponsible attitude of the management company «Lisky-M» to fulfilling its duties. Despite numerous appeals, the company's employees did not respond to complaints about the old electrical wiring for a long time, until a fire broke out in the entrance. After the incident, «Lisky-M» allegedly offered the residents to replace the wiring at their own expense.

A local resident, Olha Palenkova, filed a complaint with the editorial office of NikVesti. She said that problems with the wiring in the house had been going on for a long time.

«This issue has been resolved for a very long time. I have repeatedly complained that my apartment smells of plastic. There was a time when the power went out, we called the housing office and they sent an electrician. He answered us: «It smells like plastic, raise money for wires. I tweaked it, wrapped it with electrical tape, and everything will work». The wiring was old, no one was repairing it,» she said.

On 26 October, a short circuit occurred in the entrance, which led to a fire.

«It was good that a neighbour parked his car in the yard and quickly ran to get a fire extinguisher. On the first floor, it just started to burn. My flat on the second floor, just above this switchboard, was filled with smoke in just five minutes. It was impossible to breathe,» the woman said.

After the intervention of rescuers from the State Emergency Service, representatives of «Lisky-M» sent an electrician to inspect the network. According to the residents, the electricity was restored, but they were told to replace the lighting on the first floor of the building at the expense of the residents themselves.

«They sent electricians. We asked them when the power would be restored, what to do. The answer was that «would be turned on by the New Year». And they did. In an hour and a half or two hours, they finished the work. They did it, but still the light at the entrance is no longer on,» said Olha Palenkova.

The woman stressed that this was not the first such incident. Earlier, the intercom at the entrance to the building allegedly burned down due to problems with the power grid. The residents had to repair it at their own expense.

Currently, the building is experiencing significant voltage drops of up to 300V. According to the residents, they addressed this problem to the Contact Centre at Mykolaiv City Council. There they were redirected to «Lisky-M», but the company never provided any response.

In addition to electricity supply, locals complain about serious problems with sewage.

«The same with the sewage system. It started to stink very badly, I'm sorry, like shit. The stench is just unreal. I just want to go down and get out of there. Because it's unreal. And this issue is not being resolved. There was a plumber who said «everything is fine». And the people who went down with him said that everything was very sad there. And this issue is not being resolved,» said Palenkova.

The residents emphasise that they pay their utility bills in good faith, but see no results.

«We pay every month. It turns out that until a tragedy happens, no one will do anything,» the woman said.

The company «Lisky-M», which maintains the building, told the NikVesti correspondent that after the fire, workers repaired the damage and restored electricity to the apartments the next day. As for the lighting in the entrance, the company did not know about it, but promised to send an electrician immediately to find out the cause of the malfunction. They also stressed that they had not collected any money from the residents, and had repaired the switchboard using their own materials.

«Everything was repaired. We couldn't do emergency repairs at night. We needed materials and wires. Our electricians did it all in the morning. And we didn't know about the lighting in the entrance hall. Our electrician will go and check it out. Perhaps a light bulb just burned out,» explained «Lisky-M».

«Lisky-M» also confirmed that they had received complaints about the voltage from residents before. According to Nataliia Platonova, the company's senior foreman, the measurements carried out by the company immediately after the complaints showed no deviations.

«Our electrician came out in the evening, and at the time of the measurements, everything was normal. That was before. If necessary, we will repeat the measurements. The electrician will check the readings in the control room — the residents will not see him, because he works near the cable that runs to the transformer substation,» she explained.

As for the unpleasant smell of sewage in the entrance, the senior foreman noted that «Lisky-M» regularly cleans the pipes when a tattoo parlour located in the basement of the building reports it.

«There is a tattoo parlour on the basement floor. If it contacts us, we immediately clean the outlet. The last time we cleaned it was quite recently — in October», added Nataliia Platonova.

In a commentary for NikVesti, Volodymyr Nikolaichuk, Head of the Sustainable Urban Development Division of the Department of Housing and Communal Services, explained that the issue of replacing wiring is individual for each building and depends on the estimate approved by the co-owners, as well as on the availability of the necessary savings.

«Theoretically, if there are adequate savings for routine repairs or emergency repairs, then yes (no additional funds should be collected for this, — note) If there are savings, if people pay 100% of them, then the management company should carry out these works. I am 90% sure that there are no capital expenditures in this estimate, because they are very rarely included by co-owners in the estimate. If we are talking about capital repairs, indeed, if necessary, money should be raised for this by a targeted method,» he explained.

Nikolaichuk stressed that during emergencies, the authorised person of the building should decide together with the management company how to rationally distribute the accumulated funds from payments.

The head of the department also pointed out that the city has many state and local programmes aimed at repairing the housing stock. He explained that he did not understand why LLC «Lisky-M» did not use these opportunities and did not eliminate the main causes of flooding, clogged pipes or sewage stench — worn-out networks.

«According to the current legislation, the city authorities often implement some budget programmes to finance repairs. Personally, I am the author of one of the programmes for repairing networks in basements in all apartment buildings, the so-called «50 for 50». «Unfortunately, Lisky-M» is a company that does not use these programmes, although I still do not understand why. This is a good cost saving for co-owners if the budget compensates 50% of these repairs. Therefore, «Lisky-M» could definitely use the programme to make repairs in the basements and eliminate the root cause of the blockage, because it clogs in the basement and then (goes, — note) down the riser, and the sewerage and water stops, if it is not cleaned,» said Volodymyr Nikolaichuk.

He also emphasised that residents can always change the manager or create a condominium if they are not satisfied with the quality of services provided by the current management company.

«They can even contact me directly, as I am responsible for this area. We will advise them on how to do this in the legal field as quickly as possible,» summed up Volodymyr Nikolaichuk.

Earlier, residents of Mykolaiv complained about Lisky-M, a company that refused to repair a sewerage pipe because of the residents' debts.