SELF-REGULATION IN THE HOUSING AND COMMUNAL SERVICES

Abstract

The sphere of housing and communal services in Ukraine was built during the time of the command and administrative system. For her satisfaction of consumer needs was a secondary factor. The policy of business entities in the field of housing and communal services is a monopoly policy confident in the impossibility of consumer loss. It is aimed at maximizing profits, even neglecting the quality of services and consumer rights. The article analyzes the preconditions and consequences of such a state of consumer policy of enterprises and the state in the sphere of housing and communal services. It is concluded that its grounds are not only inadequate competition in this area, but also the actual lack of a consumer rights protection system in Ukraine compatible and integrated into the relevant EU systems. Having examined the requirements of European legislation in the field of consumer rights protection, the Agreement on Association of Ukraine with the EU in this area, and changes in legislation that have to transform the housing and communal services market through increased competition, the author concludes that the current consumer policy of enterprises and the state in the sphere housing and communal services and the impossibility of its further functioning without significant reform. Changes should be based on pan-European principles, where "the consumer (his rights and needs) is at the center of any policy", while the state motivates business entities "to go beyond the mere adherence to legislation, to develop selfregulation measures, increasing their attention to customer service". Ukraine must also achieve compatibility of consumer rights protection systems with the EU. Since housing and communal services are only part of the consumer rights protection system, it is appropriate to build a bottom-up study. The author determined that the lowest component of the subsystem "Institutes of National Consumer Policy", and the "consumer self-regulation" component is the closest to the consumer. So, it is on this component that a whole system of protection of consumers’ rights in the sphere of housing and communal services should be built. For a qualitative development of the aforementioned system, it is proposed to build a complex model of self-regulation of housing and communal services enterprises through the integrated use of standards ISO 10001-10004. The author substantiates that it is the complex application of these standards that will allow to build a high-quality self-regulation system, to implement a substantial reform of the consumer protection system in the sphere of housing and communal services and to achieve EU-compatible systems in this area.