Intercom Fee in Kazakhstan: Who Pays and How to Collect

The short version: Kazakhstan's housing law names the intercom as building-wide equipment, owners pay for it, and the owners' assembly sets the amount and the basis. There is no separate "intercom contribution" among the three contributions the law lists, so a bill line for the intercom is best backed by assembly minutes. Below: whose intercom it is, who pays, how to set it up, what to do about refusals and how to run it per flat account.

This covers the case where the ОСИ (owners' association) or the management subject collects the fee. A separate service company's relationship with residents is outside this article.

Whose intercom is it

Article 40 of the Law on Housing Relations lists the building-wide engineering systems. Low-current systems are on the list and the intercom is named outright: "домофонные системы и оборудование, видеонаблюдение" (intercom systems and equipment, video surveillance; art. 40, para. 4). Equipment located inside a flat is excluded. The definition of common property in article 1 includes "общедомовые инженерные системы и оборудование" (building-wide engineering systems and equipment; art. 1, sub-para. 14).

The assembly may define the composition of the common property and change it (art. 42, para. 5, sub-para. 16).

Who pays

The law puts the duty on owners: "Собственники квартир, нежилых помещений обязаны оплачивать текущие, накопительные и целевые взносы" (owners of flats and non-residential premises must pay current, accumulative and targeted contributions; art. 34-1, para. 1). A tenant is not named. How owner and tenant divide the amount depends on their agreement.

Can the intercom be its own line

Do not promise more than the text gives. Article 34-1 has three contributions: current, accumulative and targeted. Current contributions are spent on current repair, fire safety and utilities of the common property (art. 34-1, para. 2). Intercom servicing is not named among those purposes.

What the law does provide:

• Extra expenses that are not management expenses cannot be put on owners without an assembly decision (art. 34-1, para. 5).
• The assembly approves the annual cost estimate and the size of current contributions (art. 42, para. 5, sub-paras 6, 7).
• For a one-off project, such as replacing the intercom system, the assembly decides on targeted contributions, their size, terms and conditions (art. 34-1, para. 4; art. 42, para. 5, sub-para. 10). Replacing common equipment can also run as capital repair or modernisation (art. 42, para. 5, sub-para. 12).
• If only one entrance needs the intercom, the owners of that entrance may decide on targeted contributions for measures not in the annual estimate, provided this does not affect other entrances. The decision stands with the consent of more than two thirds of all owners of that entrance, with minutes (art. 42, para. 11).

The disputed point is whether monthly intercom servicing counts as a management expense (so it belongs in the current contribution) or as an additional expense under para. 5 of art. 34-1. The text does not answer that. Either way, the safe course is an assembly decision in the minutes: the amount, what it pays for, and from which month.

If the intercom is treated as part of the current contribution, note that current contributions are set "in proportion to the useful area of the flat" (art. 34-1, para. 2), so an equal amount per flat does not fit that contribution.

Who sets the amount, and the vote

The assembly sets it. For the items in sub-paras 6-16 of art. 42, para. 5, a decision needs "большинства от общего числа собственников" (a majority of the total number of owners), not only of those present (art. 42, para. 8). The assembly is competent if more than half of the owners take part. The law gives no figure: there is no rate and no ceiling for an intercom charge.

If an owner does not pay

Current and accumulative contributions are paid "включительно до двадцать пятого числа месяца, последующего за отчетным" (up to and including the 25th of the month after the reporting month; art. 34-1, para. 8). The term of a targeted contribution comes from the assembly decision (art. 34-1, para. 4). Late payment attracts penalty interest "в соответствии с законодательством Республики Казахстан" (under the legislation of Kazakhstan; para. 9). For arrears on the contributions set under sub-paras 7-11 of art. 42, para. 5, the ОСИ chairman or management subject may go to a notary or court "по истечении двух месяцев после установленной даты платежа" (two months after the payment date; para. 10).

Note that para. 10 names only sub-paras 7-11 of art. 42, para. 5. A charge that is not set up as one of those contributions is not covered by it, and an entrance-level decision under art. 42, para. 11 is not among the named sub-paragraphs. The only way to get the para. 10 route is to approve the intercom fee as one of the contributions under sub-paras 7-11 of art. 42, para. 5. An additional expense under art. 34-1, para. 5, or an entrance vote under art. 42, para. 11, does not get it.

How to collect: a bill line and the flat's account

Three practical rules that ask nothing of the law beyond what it says:

1. Its own line. The intercom as a separate line on every flat's bill, with the amount and a reference to the minutes. The resident sees what is being charged and argues with the minutes, not with you.
2. Payment by the flat's account. Money arriving under a flat's account is matched to that flat. The intercom debt is kept apart from the other contributions.
3. A calendar. The bill reaches the resident well ahead. For recurring contributions (current, accumulative) payment is due by the 25th inclusive (art. 34-1, para. 8), with reconciliation and penalty interest on the 26th. For a targeted contribution the term comes from the assembly decision (art. 34-1, para. 4). Two months after the payment date a notary or court is available only for contributions approved under sub-paras 7-11 of art. 42, para. 5 (art. 34-1, para. 10); an entrance-level decision under art. 42, para. 11, and a charge treated as an additional expense under art. 34-1, para. 5, are not named there.

A spreadsheet handles this while the building is small. After that, every payment has to be matched by hand.

How Unitify does it

Easybilly, Unitify's billing module, builds charges by category: per flat, per square meter, per resident or as a fixed sum. The intercom goes on each flat's bill as its own line, and payments are matched per flat. The resident sees the bill in the app and pays there: Halyk (ePay) is connected to billing directly, while Kaspi is a channel residents already use themselves, which billing accounts for but is not a connected integration.

This is not bookkeeping and not a substitute for a lawyer: the assembly decision and the amount are yours. If an entrance has an intercom or panel with an integration interface (API, SIP), we connect it on request as a project; that is separate work on your equipment, not a ready-made button.

See Unitify for ОСИ in Kazakhstan, billing and pricing, or book a demo.

Source: Law of Kazakhstan "On Housing Relations", art. 1 (sub-para. 14), art. 34-1 (paras 1, 2, 4, 5, 8-10), art. 40 (para. 4), art. 42 (paras 5, 8, 11), adilet.zan.kz/rus/docs/Z970000094_, accessed 9 October 2026 (documents as of 6 October 2026). The law changes often; recheck the current edition before an assembly vote.