Management companies more effective than municipal utility companies, say experts

Kyiv, November 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Management companies could replace municipal utility companies and ensure more professional and effective management of multi-apartment buildings, President of Ukrainian Union of Crisis Managers and coordinator of the initiative group for self-regulation in Ukraine Pavlo Mikhailidi has said.

"We should create such conditions in which the system of self-administration of residents would create incentives for them to unite and raise the culture of self-consciousness that we have to manage our houses," he told a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ukraine on November 24 to present the Upravdom XXI All-Ukrainian Social and Economic Project.

Acting President of the Union of Small, Medium and Privatized Enterprises Viacheslav Bykovets confirmed that private companies want to take part in such a program.

"I would like to stress that businesses want to participate in all stages of the implementation of this project [of the management of multi-apartment buildings by private companies]," he said.

At the same time, Bykovets said that businesses are unable to become sponsors, in particular, if a house needs to be overhauled before becoming a controlled object.

Mikhailida said that overhauls of houses are unlikely to be funded from the national budget.

Head of the Association of Real Estate Experts Dmytro Korchev pointed at the issue of land allocation to multi-apartment buildings, the residents of which have created the unions of homeowners in multi-apartment buildings.

"As of today, not more than ten unions of homeowners in multi-apartment buildings have received land, although there are about 500 such houses in Kyiv," he said.

The first stage of the Upravdom XXI All-Ukrainian Social and Economic Project, in particular, envisages the implementation of the following programs: The School of Managers XXI, Energy Efficient City, Professional Real Estate Management, and Legal Clinics.