A receipt is a document issued in accordance with established standards and confirming the fact of payment for services. The form of the payment document is described in the Order of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation No. 924.
Everything is described in detail in the receipt: there is a separate line for each resource, the consumption rates of each utility are given. Thanks to this, you can check whether the payment amount has been calculated correctly and control your expenses.
Despite the fact that the norms described in the Order are only approximate, in most cases the receipts look the same. This makes working with this type of documents easier.
So, you have paid for utilities and received a receipt. What to do next? We need to save it.
There is not a single law or regulation in which the mandatory storage period for utility bills is clearly spelled out. But a hint can be found in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. It includes the concept of "limitation period" — this is the period during which you can file a lawsuit to protect the violated right. It is equal to three years. This means that receipts need to be kept for at least three years.
Be sure to remember: you need to keep receipts issued according to all the rules.
If you have paid for the service and noticed that the receipt does not look as usual, ask to reissue it.
If you pay for services with a card or via Internet banking, make sure that the receipts are attached to all other receipts.
You need to know about the deadlines and keep utility bills in order to always be able to protect your rights. For example, if you have to sue a utility provider, you can't do without receipts.
Let's say you kept receipts for three years. What to do with them next?
Knowledgeable lawyers advise keeping receipts after payment as long as possible. They say, although there is no such law, these documents may be useful to you even after three years. Litigation between suppliers and consumers of utilities is not uncommon. The longer you keep the receipts, the more arguments in your favor you will be able to attach to the case.
In addition, if we determine the shelf life based on the statute of limitations, we should know something else. If the statute of limitations expires, you can still claim protection of violated rights. Therefore, the saved receipts can not only be useful, but also become a trump card up your sleeve.
