Where to go if the batteries are a little warm: ways to solve the problem and recommendations

Everyone wants their home to be warm and cozy. But if the creation of a pleasant psychological atmosphere is entirely in the hands of the residents themselves, then the microclimate of apartment buildings with centralized heating is controlled and provided by third-party organizations.

Heat is far from the cheapest expense item among other elements of the rent. It is all the more annoying when you have to allocate funds from the family budget for services that are not provided in the proper volume. What level of heat supply are utilities required to provide? How to achieve the required temperature in the apartment? Where should I go if the batteries are a little warm, and how can I do this to resolve the issue as quickly as possible?

What temperature in a living space are utilities required to provide?

The legislation has approved sanitary rules and regulations for almost all occasions. According to the developed documents, the following indicators have been established that service organizations are obliged to provide for residential premises:

for rooms with external walls on both sides - corner ones - the temperature maintained by central heating should not fall below +20 °C;
the same indicator has been approved for new buildings, no more than a year has passed since their commissioning;
in all other cases, the room temperature should not fall below +18 °C, both in living areas and in the kitchen;
for a bathroom, the lower limit of the norm will be higher - at +25 °C;
on stairs and in lobbies - minimum +16 °C.

If the above standards are observed, any claims will be illegal, and even cold radiators at high heating rates will not be considered a reason for any action on the part of the organizations serving the building.

What to focus on?

There are government-approved rules regarding the procedure and standards for providing utility services to citizens. According to them, the temperature in the apartment and other residential premises cannot be less than +18 degrees. For corner apartments, a value below +20 degrees is completely unacceptable.

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Slightly different requirements have been approved for the cold regions of the country, in which on the coldest five days of the year the temperature drops to -31 degrees and below. Here in apartments the norm is +20 degrees and no less. At the same time, it is assumed that the room must be well insulated, and measurements are taken in the center of the largest room in the apartment at the level of a meter from the floor. At night, a deviation of 3 degrees is permissible, but if the temperature is exceeded, the indicator cannot be higher than normal by more than 4 degrees. During the day, no deviations are allowed.

To measure correctly, you should hold the thermometer at a distance of a meter from the outer wall and a meter and a half from the floor. The measuring time is ten minutes.

In order for the indicators to be as effective as possible, it is advisable to take measurements not once a day, but hourly. When a violation is detected, citizens have a reason to contact housing organizations.

What to do if the temperature in the apartment is below normal

Before making a claim to the management company, you need to make sure that the cause of insufficient heat in the house is a violation on the part of the utility service. It may not be the temperature of the water supplied to the radiators.

The result of such a check will determine where to apply. If the radiators in the apartment are cold through no fault of the utility services, you will have to call a specialist to carry out the work yourself, and most likely pay for his services out of your own pocket.

Causes of heating interruptions

The first thing to do is to determine the exact reason for the heating shutdown. Housing office employees or heat suppliers are required to do this. What could be the factors:

Airiness . Occurs when air was not released from the pipes and radiators when heating was started.
Impurities in water. This could be rust, plaque, sludge, etc. Most often found in houses with an old communication system, when water pipes have not been changed for more than 10 years.
Heat supply failure. Occurs when boiler houses do not control pressure. It becomes too low for the coolant to circulate quickly through the system.
Accident or water leak. A breakthrough can occur both in the pipeline and directly in the apartment.

You can try to independently determine whether the problem is local or house-wide:

In the apartment. The common riser will be warm, and the heating radiators in the rooms will be cold.
Throughout the house. There will be no heating in all pipes and in all neighbors.

What should I do if the top of the battery is hot and the bottom is cold? We determine the cause and eliminate it.

General or specific problem?

The easiest way to evaluate the performance of a heating system is to touch not only the battery itself, but the pipes and the common riser. If it is hot, it may be a blockage inside the radiator or pipes connected to it that belong to only one apartment.

You can also ask your neighbors about the microclimate situation, and not just one - you should find out this point both from those with whom you have a common pipe (for example, living above or below you), and from those whose apartments are not connected to yours way. This will help determine the scale of the problem and, in certain cases, find helpers interested in solving it, as well as understand where to complain about cold batteries.

In the apartment, there may be no heating of all elements of the system or part of the pipes due to the accumulation of air in them, then they will be stably cold immediately from the beginning of the heating season. This issue does not require the involvement of third-party organizations, a large number of people and a long process of proving one’s rightness - only the intervention of the foreman of the housing and communal services branch servicing the house.

The radiators are hot, but the house is still cold: what to do

Heating radiators are not always the cause of cold in an apartment. They can be fiery and the room temperature is low. What to do if it’s cold in your apartment not because the batteries are turned off.

First of all, it is important to establish the cause of such a situation and begin to eliminate it.

The first thing you should pay attention to is the quality of the window frames.

Old wooden frames have long outlived their usefulness and require replacement. An excellent solution would be to install modern plastic double-glazed windows. If they are already installed, then you need to call a technician to check and possibly identify the cause of cold air leakage. You can insulate old windows using cotton wool, tape or foam rubber. More reliable materials include silicone sealant, putty and rubber gaskets.

It is worth paying attention to the walls: due to violations of technology during the construction of the house, they may freeze or crack. In this case, they require internal and external insulation with special materials: mineral wool, polystyrene foam boards, cellulose, foil and liquid insulation, polyurethane foam, penoplex. Insulation of the outer part of the wall should only be carried out by specialists. In this case, it is recommended to sheathe the facade of the balcony, which very often causes the penetration of cold air.

If the source of cold is the floor, it is necessary to improve it. Today, the heated system is especially popular.

In addition, it is worth checking the tightness of the front door: you can replace the trim and eliminate cracks and holes that allow cold air to pass through.

Probable causes of violation of heat supply standards

There are various possible reasons for the lack of heat in an apartment. Among them the most common:

excessive wear and tear of the communication system;
errors made at the design stage or during the installation of the system;
incorrect adjustment of heat supply by an incompetent or negligent employee;
unauthorized connection of neighbors to the centralized system (for example, incorrect installation of heated floors).

To identify the person responsible, you may have to use the help of lawyers, who you can contact for advice not only in person, but also on the Internet. In order to avoid unnecessary costs, it is better to do this in the event of any refusal, since reviews of those who have already encountered the problem indicate incompetence in this matter even among some representatives of the Supreme Court.

Termination of heat supply by law

On the territory of the Russian Federation, shutdown of heat supply is regulated by Article 22 of the Federal Law “On Heat Supply” dated July 27, 2010 N 190-FZ, which regulates the norms for shutting off heat supply in the absence of timely payment of bills (how are heating charges formed?). Since heat supply is a public service, Government Resolution 354 can also be considered regulators.

Organizations responsible for the microclimate in residential premises

In the case where the temperature measurement showed a violation of the norms approved by law and there is reason to believe that the cause of this inconvenience is not of a private nature, it will be useful to know the organizations with which the issue of heat supply can be resolved.

Where to turn if the radiators in the apartment are cold? The first instance is the housing and communal services office that services the building. You can contact the management company or directly the organization that provides this service. Their representatives are obliged to respond to the complaint and analyze the situation.

To be completely sure that the problem will not be left unattended, it is better to make a written statement.

How to properly submit an application to the authorities?

There is no standard for writing a complaint, but different management companies have their own forms and samples. The main thing is that the application meets the following requirements:

the upper right corner is intended for entering data, that is, to whom the document is being sent (name of organization), full name and residential address of the applicant, contact information is required (email address, phone number);
in the central part the word - Statement;
Below is a detailed description of the problem indicating the air temperature and the duration of the absence of heating (for greater efficiency, you can operate with articles from the current legislation);
the final part is a requirement - a request to send a specialist to check and measure the temperature;
At the very bottom there is a signature and date.

Experts recommend writing all statements and complaints collectively (if the problem concerns more than one apartment), since public appeals are usually considered out of turn.

If the temperature of the heating radiators in an apartment or house does not meet the standards, the supplier is obliged to recalculate in favor of the consumer, and the service organization is obliged to correct the violation. In the absence of reactions from utility companies, residents are able to protect their rights by filing complaints to various authorities.

The heating battery (radiator) in the apartment does not heat. What to do?

How to correctly file a claim for lack of heat in an apartment

To correctly indicate the recipient in the header of the application, you should find out the full name of the organization, its exact address, and the names of responsible managers. The name, address and contact details of the applicant are also indicated there.

It is necessary to make sure that the complaint will be considered and that they will not be able to remain silent - to do this, you need to ensure that the written statement is accepted and a note is made about this on the copy that remains with the tenant - they put down the so-called incoming number and the date of receipt of the complaint.

Directly in the text of the statement it follows:

confirm your right to the service - refer to the concluded agreement with the organization, noting the conscientious fulfillment of the obligations assigned to it on your part (lack of debt);
provide information about the fact of failure to provide the service in the proper amount and the period during which this violation was observed;
indicate probable causes of system malfunction;
provide temperature measurement data in the apartment;
talk about the consequences of this incident, assess the moral and material damage caused by it.

In addition, it makes sense to determine the response time to the application (for housing and communal services representatives, a reasonable period is three days) and require notification of the actions taken in writing.

The application must be certified by the personal signature of the person making the claim.

If acceptance of the application was refused, it is necessary to send it by mail addressed to the responsible manager and always in a method of transmission that guarantees documentary information to the sender about the delivery of the document and its delivery to the addressee.

Confirmation receipts must be retained.

Liability if a utility service is disconnected illegally

Responsibility for illegal shutdown of heat supply may be of the following nature:

Administrative. According to Article 7.23 of the Code of Administrative Offences. Violation of standards for providing the population with utility services entails the imposition of an administrative fine:
for legal entities - from five thousand to ten thousand rubles.
Criminal. According to Article 215.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, an official who was responsible for turning off the heat supply and this negligently resulted in the infliction of major damage, serious harm to health or other serious consequences is punished:
or restriction of freedom for up to three years;
or forced labor for up to two years;
or imprisonment for the same period.

The comfort of living in an apartment depends on how the heating system works and whether heat supply standards are met. On our website you will find articles about what are the rules of heat supply, standards for heating water in radiators of a heating system, rules for commercial metering of thermal energy, causes of noise in batteries, whether it is possible to install heat meters in an apartment, as well as what to do if the battery is leaking and who should repair and replace radiators and risers in apartments.

Where to go if the radiators are a little warm, but there is no trust in local housing and communal services representatives

After submitting a claim, you can wait a week, unless cold weather and life circumstances (for example, the presence of small children or weak health members in the family) force you to act earlier.

If there is no proper response, such a complaint should be sent to a higher authority - the district housing inspection or Rospotrebnadzor. To the document it is necessary to add information about the actions taken previously, a copy of the first statement, reporting the lack of an appropriate response from the FSW.

In case of repeated silence, the next authority will be the prosecutor's office. The submitted complaint must be accompanied by documentary evidence of the futility of previous attempts to resolve the issue and provide information about the harm caused by the inaction of officials to residents of the apartment.

You can also go to court, but cases are not considered quickly and it is better to go there after resolving the main part of the issue, presenting a claim for compensation for material and moral damage.

Citizens faced with such difficulties often express the opinion that it is useless to contact the local housing and communal services, advising them to act immediately through higher-level authorities or send the original complaint to the management company, and at the same time copies to all other regulatory organizations.

Each case is individual, and it is impossible to make unambiguous prejudicial judgments about all organizations of this kind. The scale and intensity of action taken depends on many factors. How persistently and where to complain about cold batteries, what to do in a particular case - everyone decides for themselves.

Who is responsible for the cold radiators of the apartment and who should solve the problem?

Where to complain if it’s cold in the apartment? There are several types of management organizations that are responsible for maintaining specified standards and norms of housing conditions. This could be a management company, housing and communal services or HOA . You need to contact these companies.

The most common problem with cold batteries is either poor design or connections that are too old and no longer usable. Less often it concerns the house itself, which has very low thermal stability.

If the problem lies precisely in the above reasons (one or several at once), then it is the management company that must solve it. And they bear all the costs of the work performed.

The solution period is limited to a week, the only exception being the occurrence of a certain number of problems during repairs (discovery of the complete unsuitability of not only a secondary, but also one of the central branches of communications).

If the problem with cold batteries lies in the batteries themselves, then they will need to be replaced by the owner of the apartment. Work can only be carried out after obtaining the appropriate permission from the management service. But in winter this will be possible only in exceptional cases (small child, paralyzed family member). After all, turning off the riser in the house will become a problem for other residents, which is why it is prohibited by the state.

How else can you fight for heat in a living space?

What to do if the radiators in the apartment are barely warm, and the responsible organizations are in no hurry to help solve the problem? You can begin to act more actively on your own, not limiting yourself to letters and waiting for a response to them.

To begin activities to solve a problem, official confirmation that it exists is necessary. For this purpose, an act is drawn up. The commission, whose presence is required to create such a document, must include representatives of the local government, civilians from other apartments, and a competent craftsman - a housing and communal services mechanic. It is better to take charge of organizing this event by sending written requests to the necessary authorities containing a request for an examination and proposing a possible date for the inspection.
If the request is ignored, the act can be drawn up without the participation of official government representatives. In this case, it is signed by residents and neighbors, and also, preferably, by a suitably qualified professional. Copies of previous unanswered requests are attached to the document, or a note about them is made in the act itself.
All requests and documents sent must be sent by mail with notification of receipt by the addressee and must be drawn up in two copies. Responsible organizations are required to respond no later than within three days. If claims are confirmed, representatives of housing and communal services must bring the indicators in the apartment to the standards established by law within a week.
Correct measurement results must be ensured. According to the rules for determining the temperature in a living room, measurements are made separately in each separate part of it at a distance of 1 meter from the internal walls and 1.5 meters above the floor.
In order to avoid claims from housing and communal services, it is necessary to take care of maximum heat preservation, which depends on the residents - make sure there are no cracks in windows and doors.

Hotlines for heat issues in citizens' homes

In large cities it is easier to find where to go if the batteries are a little warm. This issue can be resolved through unified dispatch services that have regional offices (telephone numbers can be found through local authorities or help desks). The call must be responded to on the day it is received.

If they didn’t respond to the complaint or couldn’t help for some reason, and the radiators in the apartment are cold, where should I go and what should I do?

Residents of the capital, for example, should contact the Moscow Housing Inspectorate. The service line numbers are listed on the official website. You can call to solve urgent problems related to heating in Moscow at any time of the day.

In 2021, the Moscow United Energy Company launched its rapid response telephone line. The phone number is published on the official website of the organization. In this case we are talking about Moscow.

Where to go if the radiators are a little warm, and the housing is in another city? It makes sense to call the thematic hotline in your region, stating over the phone your complaints about the condition of your housing.

How to find out which management company services a house

You can find the phone number of the management company on your utility receipt or on information signs at the entrance. Also clarify information about the service provider using the GIS Housing and Public Utilities service. To do this you need:

Go on the website.
In electronic services, click the “Find on map” tab.
Enter your home address.
The page will contain information about the method of managing an apartment building.
After choosing a management company, you can clarify information about the organization, operating hours, address and telephone number.

Heating problems can also be solved through the emergency dispatch service in the region of residence.

How should a recorded violation affect payment for the service?

If the radiators are barely warm, where should you go to avoid paying for almost no heating?

If there is a confirmed violation of the heat supply norm, the companies providing this service are obliged to recalculate the fee for it downwards.

To do this, you should send an application to the organization, attaching a copy of the report with the results of temperature measurements taken in the room.

It is lawful to refuse compensation for costs for unprovided services only in the event of force majeure reasons for violation of the terms of the contract (natural disasters).

Is it possible to get a recalculation for heating?

The apartment should be heated, even if you do not live in it. Accordingly, you always have to pay for heating, regardless of whether people live in the apartment or not.

But if the house was not heated or was heated poorly, then it is possible to receive a recalculation of the payment. To do this, representatives of the management company or heating networks must officially confirm violations of the quality of heat supply in the report.

The cost of heating fees in case of poor quality services should be reduced by 0.15% per hour. At the same time, according to the standards, sometimes the heating can be turned off, the main thing is that the permissible duration of the heating interruption is not exceeded (according to clause 14 of section VI of the Appendix to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of May 6, 2011 No. 354 “On the provision of utility services to owners and users of premises in apartment buildings and residential buildings"). Thus, a permissible one-time break:

at an apartment temperature of 12-18 degrees it cannot last more than 16 hours;
at 10–12 degrees - more than 8 hours;
at 8–10 degrees – four hours.

At the same time, if the cause of cold batteries was an accident, the fee will not be recalculated. But the duration of emergency shutdowns during the heating season should not exceed 24 hours.