Debtors in an ОСИ: Payment Deadline, Penalty Interest and Collection
A debt in an ОСИ does not appear on the day a neighbor fails to pay. It appears on the 26th, and after that everything depends on whether the chairman noticed. Here is what the law says and what to do by hand each month.
Who pays, and for what
Article 34-1 of the Law on Housing Relations obliges owners of apartments and non-residential premises to pay three contributions: current, accumulative and targeted. Owners of parking spaces and storage rooms pay the current contribution for their upkeep plus the accumulative and targeted ones (art. 34-1, para. 1). What each of the three is, and how the accumulative minimum is calculated, is covered in the Russian-language glossary entry on the accumulative contribution. This post is about what happens when a contribution does not arrive.
One detail people trip on. A targeted contribution is levied only by an assembly resolution: the assembly decides whether to collect it, how much and by when (para. 4). Once the resolution is passed, every owner must pay (para. 1). "Optional" is the wrong word for a targeted contribution.
The deadline: up to and including the 25th
Current and accumulative contributions are payable up to and including the 25th of the month following the reporting month (para. 8). The October contribution is due by 25 November inclusive. For parking spaces and storage rooms the same rule applies to the current contribution for their upkeep.
A simple consequence: the invoice must reach the resident well before the deadline, not on the evening of the 24th.
Penalty interest: from the 26th
For late payment, penalty interest accrues from the day after the deadline (para. 9) — that is, from the 26th. It applies to the current and accumulative contributions, to the current contributions for a parking space or storage room, and to targeted contributions.
The article names no rate: it refers to the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Any specific percentage on a notice board should therefore be checked against the act it comes from, because article 34-1 does not supply it.
No limitation period
The limitation period does not apply to a claim to repay this kind of arrears (para. 9). For a chairman this matters differently from how it sounds. It is no reason to wait: the debt does not "expire". But the later you start, the harder it is to reconstruct what was charged and paid, and when. Limitation will not save you; tidy records will.
Notary or court: after two months
If an owner has not repaid arrears on the contributions defined by sub-paragraphs 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of para. 5 of art. 42, the ОСИ chairman or the management subject (a management company or КСК) may apply to a notary or a court once two months have passed after the set payment date (para. 10). "May" means a right, not a duty.
Example. The October contribution was due by 25 November. Going to a notary or a court is possible only after two months have passed from that date. Penalty interest keeps accruing throughout.
What these paragraphs do not say
Paragraphs 8-10 of art. 34-1 are silent on some things. There is no penalty rate. There is no procedure for applying to a notary or a court: how the application is drawn up and what is attached is not described, and that is a question for the building's lawyer. There is no form of reminder to the debtor. Anything you write in a reminder beyond the deadline, the amount and the fact that penalty interest accrues is your practice, not a legal requirement.
Where the money goes
The chairman of the ОСИ or the management subject opens a savings account for capital-repair money within fifteen calendar days, at a second-tier bank (art. 34-2, para. 1). Money accumulated there can be spent only on an assembly resolution (art. 34-1, para. 3). So reconciliation needs more than "paid or not": it needs "paid for which contribution". The three have different purposes, and capital-repair money cannot be spent at will.
What the chairman does each month
The law does not write you a procedure, but one follows from it:
- By the 25th. Charges are issued and every resident has the invoice.
- On the 26th. Reconcile: who has not paid. This is the first day penalty interest runs.
- Contributions kept apart. Current, accumulative and targeted are different money with different rules. A single "contributions" line in a spreadsheet does not show that.
- The resolution to hand. For a targeted contribution the assembly sets the amount and terms (para. 4). Keep the protocol next to the charge.
- A two-month calendar. For each debtor, note the date after which a notary or court is possible.
You can run all of this in Excel. It is just manual work per resident, every month.
Where Unitify helps
Easybilly, Unitify's billing module, builds charges by category — building upkeep, heating, water, electricity, lift and others — per square meter, per apartment, per resident or as a fixed sum. Each contribution can appear on the invoice as its own line. The resident sees the invoice in the app and can pay there: Halyk (ePay) is connected to billing directly, while Kaspi is a channel residents already use on their own; billing takes it into account, but it is not a connected integration. Payments are reconciled automatically, and charges and payments are visible per apartment.
It does not replace accounting and it does not replace a lawyer. What it does is stop the 26th being the day you open a spreadsheet and try to work out who paid.
To see how it looks for your building, you can start free on the Unitify page for Kazakhstan's ОСИ.
Source: Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Housing Relations", art. 34-1 (paras. 1-4, 8-10) and art. 34-2, adilet.zan.kz, accessed 07.09.2026.
Frequently asked questions
By what date must ОСИ contributions be paid?
Up to and including the 25th of the month following the reporting month (art. 34-1, para. 8 of the Law on Housing Relations). That covers the current and accumulative contributions and, for parking spaces and storage rooms, the current contribution for their upkeep.
Is penalty interest charged on late ОСИ contributions, and at what rate?
Yes. From the day after the deadline, i.e. from the 26th, penalty interest accrues "in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan" (art. 34-1, para. 9). The article itself gives no rate, so no figure should be taken from it.
Is there a limitation period on a debt owed to an ОСИ?
The limitation period does not apply to a claim to repay arrears on the payments that attract penalty interest (art. 34-1, para. 9 of the Law on Housing Relations).
When can the ОСИ chairman go to a notary or a court?
For contributions defined by sub-paragraphs 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of para. 5 of art. 42, once two months have passed after the set payment date. The ОСИ chairman or the management subject may then apply to a notary or a court to recover the arrears (art. 34-1, para. 10). It is a right, not a duty.