An orphan from the Rostov region's housing complaint has attracted the attention of the Investigative Committee.

Ivan Solonsky, an orphan from the Volgodonsk region, complained about non-functioning gas equipment, fungus, and mold in the house provided to him by officials. The Chairman of the Investigative Committee demanded a report from his subordinates on the investigation of Solonsky's complaint.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," in June 2024, the prosecutor's office announced that in several districts and cities of the Rostov region, orphans were not provided with housing in a timely manner. The office called on the governor to influence local authorities to address these issues.

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, has ordered a progress report on the investigation into a complaint filed by an orphan from the Rostov Region regarding the provision of substandard housing, the agency's press service reported on the evening of March 15.

"The media published an appeal from a man from the Volgodonsk District of the Rostov Region, who is an orphan, to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia. The man reports that the local administration provided him with substandard housing, which, three years later, has fallen into disrepair. The investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Rostov Region have launched a procedural investigation into this incident under Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (negligence)," according to a post on the agency's Telegram channel.

The author of the appeal is Ivan Solonsky, a resident of the village of Donskoy in the Volgodonsk District. Three years ago, he and his family received a house from the state as part of a program to provide housing for orphans, the publication "Bloknot Volgodonsk" reported on March 13.

"I am writing to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. Three years ago, I was provided with a house as an orphan. As a child, I was under the guardianship of my grandmother, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. After a fire in the village of Romanovskaya, we were allocated funds to purchase housing in the Volgodonsk region – 1.7 million rubles. Ultimately, we were offered a house built in the late 1970s or early 1980s in the village of Donskoy," the publication quoted him as saying.

Solonsky noted that he is a second-degree disabled person and has undergone several surgeries. His son is 14 years old.

Construction experts explained to me that this fungus cannot be killed.

"And the house we eventually bought in the village of Donskoy, 60 kilometers from Volgodonsk, began to fall apart. It turned out it was rotten from the start. Even when I first inspected the house, I immediately noticed that the base of the house, the foundation, had already detached from the building. And the part of the foundation adjacent to the ground was already covered in fungus. Construction experts explained to me that this fungus cannot be killed. Its spores enter the lungs and then the body," the man complained.

Furthermore, it turned out that the gas equipment previously installed in the house "had already failed due to age." "The meter turned out to be expired, and the gas was shut off. I had to pay 35,000 rubles in overpayments due to gas consumption not being calculated according to the standard. The boiler broke down in December. I had to heat with a gas stove all winter. The house was damp and humid, and mold had appeared. As they explained to me, the heater in the boiler had burned out due to age and wear. The floors in one room had already sagged, and in the second room, the boards had also begun to warp and break. You literally walk into the room and feel the flooring creaking under your weight. And this is only three years after purchasing the house with public funds," Solonsky said.

It requires a huge amount of money to repair.

He said he contacted the guardianship authorities. "I was told that the gas equipment was 'functional' when I purchased the house. [...] That is, we are supposed to replace the basic gas equipment at our own expense, while the house itself doesn't yet belong to our family, as it is provided to us on a social lease for the first five years, and we will only own it after that period. And I'm afraid that by that time the house will simply start to fall apart, although they can take it away from our family anyway. Already, its repairs require a huge amount of money, which our family doesn't have," he was quoted as saying.

"Caucasian Knot" also wrote that in June 2023, a court sentenced Igor Gribov, former head of the Kagalnitsky District of the Rostov Region, to two years in prison, finding him guilty of abuse of power. According to the investigation and the court, Gribov approved the payment of seven million rubles to a contractor for apartments for orphans without inspecting the housing quality, even though the apartments were unfit for habitation.

The court did not reliably establish that Igor Gribov knew about the substandard condition of the apartments, the cassation court stated, and replaced the convicted person's prison sentence with a fine. Gribov was released from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.