In St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod in 2017. An experiment on centralized verification of water meters by management companies will be held. If it passes successfully, the residents of Russia can be exempted from mandatory verification in 2018. On Thursday, July 27, said in an interview with RIA Novosti, the head of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart) Alexei Abramov.

According to him, the experiment is not supposed to be conducted on the whole territory of these two cities, but in a specific area or a separate apartment building, without changing the meters.

"I think that in the near future we will try to conduct the first such verification ... Next year, if it is supported, we will try to implement it already within the framework of a nationwide decision," Abramov said..

Now Rosstandart only discusses this initiative with the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. At the moment, there is an agreement that before changes are made to the law, centralized verification of meters will be conducted in selected small towns or districts.

"Our conviction: firstly, it will be cheaper, secondly, if we work not individually with tenants, but with a management company, it will be faster. It seems to us that this will allow to exclude fraud, when some incomprehensible companies impose some incomprehensible verification services, "the head of the department.

Recall, now calibration of water meters, Russians should carry out at their own expense. As a rule, the device of accounting for hot water is checked every 4 years, cold - after 6 years. If the period has passed, then the consumer is automatically transferred to the general house tariff.

The Federation Council has already spoken out for the release of Russians from checking meters for water at their own expense. According to the senators, these costs should be assumed by management companies. In April 2017. According to the results of the government hour with the participation of the Minister of Energy Alexander Novak, the Speaker of the Council of Federation Valentina Matvienko pointed out that the current order of inspections "irritatingly" affects the citizens of the country.

Meanwhile, experts believe that if the verification function is transferred to management organizations, it will reduce administrative costs for residents, but may increase tariffs.

Such concerns voiced by innovations edition "Newspaper. Ru "expert of the Working Group" Quality of Life "ONF Arseniy Belenky. If verification, he notes, will deal with the Criminal Code, then she will take money for this service, that is, the communal tariff may grow. He gives an analogy with the payment of a doorphone.

"Many complain about high payment for the door phone, and the same can happen with the verification of meters, when the total tariff of all tenants will be determined in the amount of some cosmic amount, although it is specific to each owner that this is, for example, 10 rubles a month. This happens when individual services are smeared with an even layer at all, "the expert noted..

In his opinion, the Federal Antimonopoly Service should pay attention to how this can affect tariffs.

With him agrees and the executive director of "NP" National Center for Public Control in the field of housing and communal services "Housing and Communal Services" Svetlana Razvorotneva.

On the one hand, she believes, the initiative will help to minimize fraudulent schemes, when citizens are forced to check meters before their due date, when they are not put into operation.

"On the other hand, already now there is a duty for resource persons to establish common house metering devices. They do, but for what amount? If the owner buys for 3 thousand. Rub the meter of the account and will establish, the big question, for how many it will make the operating company and what quality. There are cases when the cost of the device and works increases two and three times. So here is a double-edged sword, "emphasizes Razvorotneva.

According to her, Rosstandart's initiative is just a half-measure, which will lead to nothing.