St. Petersburg residents living in communal apartments will soon have the option to split payments for gas equipment maintenance, according to an announcement made by Vice Governor Sergei Kropachev. This new system aims to address issues of unfair billing where some residents pay while others do not. The initiative will be implemented starting with the September receipts, which residents will receive in October.

The possibility of dividing payments for gas equipment maintenance already exists, but not all residents participate. Previously, one owner could contract with PeterburgGaz, coordinating payments with other residents, or all owners could collectively contract with separate payment terms. From October 2025, residents without existing contracts will be offered a 6-ruble advance payment option via their EIRTs receipt to initiate a contract, allowing each owner to pay only for their share.

This initiative focuses on gas equipment maintenance, a service where issues of shared responsibility and non-payment have been particularly problematic. Until 2013, management companies handled maintenance contracts. Following Federal Government Decree No. 410, the obligation shifted to individual citizens, leading to confusion and incomplete contract coverage. Subsequent regulations in 2024 designated PeterburgGaz as the sole provider of technical maintenance for gas equipment. While PeterburgGaz reports that 86% of gasified apartments in the city have contracts, over 170,000 remain without them.

The new system addresses a key issue with joint billing, where responsible homeowners are forced to cover the debts of their neighbors. Cases have emerged where residents have had to prove in court that they are not related to their neighbors’ debts. In one instance, a woman’s bank card was blocked due to a communal debt. Courts have previously divided communal apartment debts among all owners, even when individual receipts were issued but subscriber numbers were shared.

While this new initiative addresses gas equipment maintenance, challenges persist with other utility payments. Out of 56,700 communal apartments, approximately 50,000 have a single electricity meter, and some lack meters entirely. Although residents can request separate accounts from the EIRTs, only about 26,000 communal apartments have separate electricity billing. The situation with water supply is less transparent, as the unified electronic system does not track how many communal apartments have divided water bills.

For questions about payment calculations and divisions, residents can contact the EIRTs hotline at 8 (812) 679-22-22. For inquiries regarding gas equipment maintenance contracts, PeterburgGaz can be reached at 8 (812) 458-83-52. The cost for gas equipment maintenance ranges from 440 to 604 rubles for a stove, 164 rubles for an oven, and 2.5 to 13.3 thousand rubles for a boiler, payable annually via the EIRTs receipt.