Minsk authorities to ban air conditioners in summer heat
The neighbor said she was disturbed by the device, because it was making noise and putting psychological pressure on her. The housing maintenance agency reacted immediately, having issued on the same day an order to display the documents that could prove the installment was legal.
Julia: “We approached their chief engineer and studied the laws. But we failed to find any document that would regulate the installment of air conditioners. The housing maintenance agency did not know it either. So it looked like we did not meet their demand.”
Then, the neighbor complained to the Minsk City Hall, which referred the case to the administration of the district and then back to the housing registration authority. Julia’s family received all the design documents from the company that carried out the mounting. The documents were approved by the chief engineer of the housing maintenance agency. However, in two weeks, Julia received a paper saying that since the conditioner had already been installed, it was not legal. Moreover, it damaged the façade of the building and had to be dismantled within once month, the paper said.
Julia: “Our house is located in such a way that it is not visible from major thoroughfares. In fact, our façade is considered to be a backyard. I think the view of our façade can hardly be damaged. It has a variety of windows, and the building itself is actually very old.”
The matter ended up in court, which ruled on May 15 in favor of the housing maintenance agency. The judge said that the air conditioner was damaging the view of the building regardless in which condition the façade was. There is no formal regulation that stipulates a procedure for the installment of air conditioners. At the same time, there is no responsibility if they are mounted without permission. So, Julia did not pay any fine.
The district’s chief architect, Alena Sukhadolava told the European Radio for Belarus that a regulation regarding the installment of satellite dishes and air conditioners was to come out soon.
“The architecture committee has been ordered to draft a regulation on the installment of those devices. I think decision will be taken within a one-month time,” she said.
Siargej Guseu, the director of the Your Choice company that deals and installs air conditioners, believes that a new document will hardly simplify the legalization procedure for air conditioners. Most likely, the story will be repeated like in the case of apartment re-designing, which became a mission almost impossible.
Siargej Guseu: “Air-conditioner is a household device like a refrigerator. It just consists of two parts. If the new regulation requires an officially approved design, it will run more expensive for you than the conditioner itself.”
The regulation is not yet there, but the authorities seem to be acting as if they are following it. The housing maintenance agency told the European Radio for Belarus that they had numerous questions from people in this regard.
“We are in a spell of hot weather. People call us, saying they want to install conditioners. But we do not have any documents which we could use to give out permissions. Therefore, we advise people not to mount the devices for now in order to avoid situations in the future when they would be ordered to dismantle them. It is not a joke; it costs money. People will lose money if they eventually are forced to remove them,” an official from the district’s housing maintenance agency said.
Those who have not bought air conditioners yet and whose windows look out onto the major thoroughfares and busy streets can be offered two options. Siargej Guseu says that you should either buy special devices that have no external (outdoor) units or make long extensions for the hoses that connect the internal device with the ventilator in your backyard. That’s if your neighbors do not object, of course.
Photo by techair.ru
