A complaint was submitted to the anonymous FBRK bot from residents of the «Zhenis-3» residential complex in Astana. The residents accuse the chairperson of the property owners' association (POA) of systematic violations: illegally opening an additional bank account, failing to provide reports, spending funds without meeting decisions, and repeatedly increasing management salaries. It is reported that over the period 2021-2025, more than 32.5 million tenge was spent on salaries, taxes, and banking services in the absence of financial audits.
THIRD ACCOUNT WITHOUT A MEETING DECISION
The residents' main complaint is that the POA chairperson opened an additional current account at the bank «for parking space receipts» without a decision from the general meeting of owners. According to the law «On Housing Relations», the POA chairperson is only obliged to open two accounts: a current account and a savings account.
The residents contacted the bank to inquire about the legality of the chairperson's actions. The bank confirmed that upon registration of the POA, two legal accounts were opened, but a third one appeared later. However, the bank cited banking secrecy and refused to provide the residents with information on the movement of funds in the accounts, explaining that any client using online banking can open an unlimited number of accounts.
The residents noted that the parking area is the basement floor of the 195-apartment building, where all engineering utilities are located. According to the law, in buildings on a single foundation with shared engineering systems, owners create one association. The legality of separating accounts in such a situation raises doubts.
FINANCIAL MANIPULATIONS
In their complaint to the housing inspectorate, the residents provided specific data on transfers between accounts. In June, more than 700 thousand tenge was transferred, but these transactions are not reflected in the main account statement, and the parking account statement was not provided at all.
The receipts of contributions for parking spaces show a strange trend. For the first five months of the year, more than 1.1 million tenge was received into the general account, and for the following four months, less than 500 thousand was received into the «separate» account. Data is completely absent for some months. The residents are asking: where did the owners' contributions for these periods disappear to?
EXPLOSIVE GROWTH IN MANAGEMENT EXPENDITURE
The documents attached to the complaint to the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) contain a detailed table of expenses over five years.
Salaries of the management staff (chairperson, accountant, lawyer) grew from 1.5 million tenge in 2021 to 4.3 million in 2024. The trend for technical staff salaries is even more striking: an increase of almost 4.3 times over three years. The total amount spent on management salaries over five years was 14.1 million tenge.
Taxes and payments increased almost 5 times. The total for the period was 5.3 million tenge.
Spending on banking services increased more than 6 times. The total amount was about 500 thousand tenge.
Total expenditure on salaries, taxes, and banking services over five years reached 32.5 million tenge. Since 2023, staff have been paid 13 monthly salaries per year without a meeting decision, and a lawyer with a salary of 150 thousand tenge per month was included on the payroll — also without approval from the residents. During the entire operation of the POA, not a single financial audit has been conducted. The auditor moved out of the building three years ago, and another owner has since been registered in that apartment.
UNREADABLE REPORTING
It is reported that the annual report for 2024, amounting to 26.3 million tenge, was not put forward for approval at a general meeting but was posted in the entrances in an unreadable format with small font and unclear figures. In the report, salaries and taxes amounted to 11.4 million tenge — 43.3% of total expenditure.
For the first nine months of 2025, expenses amounting to 17.5 million tenge were incurred without approved budgets. 500 thousand was spent from the savings fund without a meeting decision. The budget for the current year, the POA work plan, and the budget for the following year have not been presented to the residents.
It is noted that at the end of the year, the chairperson conducted a written survey backdated, proposing to approve the budget for the past period and the annual report, but not the budget for the future year. The content of the documents, calculations, and explanations were not provided to the owners.
TARGETED COLLECTION OF 12.8 MILLION WITHOUT JUSTIFICATION
Simultaneously, the chairperson initiated a targeted collection for fire safety measures amounting to 12.8 million tenge without presenting a budget, calculations, or justifications. She informed that the POA plans to independently purchase materials and equipment, which constitute 60-70% of the total amount. Meanwhile, in December 2024, 500 thousand tenge had already been spent from the savings account to pay Temirsat LLP for «fire safety audit» without a meeting decision.
The residents demanded the creation of a group of materially responsible members of the building council to control the spending of targeted contributions, but their demands were ignored.
A SYSTEMIC PROBLEM OF NON-TRANSPARENCY
The situation at the «Zhenis-3» residential complex is not unique. The problem of non-transparent management of apartment buildings is systemic in nature across the entire country.
Earlier, the media reported that complaints about the work of home-owners' associations (KSK) and POA chairpersons regularly appear in building chat groups and social networks. Residents do not receive annual reports, do not know the amounts paid by commercial tenants on the ground floors, and tariffs are increased without the consent of the owners. According to the Almaty housing inspectorate, more than 6,500 complaints regarding the non-transparency of management bodies were reviewed in 2024 alone.
In November 2025, a major scandal erupted in Astana at the «Zhar-Zhar» residential complex, where the election of a POA chairperson escalated into a conflict involving accusations of vote rigging, collecting money on personal cards, and deleting CCTV footage. One of the female residents noted:
«I was asked: what's the benefit of being a chairperson? The benefit is that financial flows are not controlled, laws are interpreted arbitrarily, auditors are blocked, and executive bodies hardly intervene».
Experts emphasise that decisions by KSK and POA can be challenged only through the courts, which requires hiring lawyers and significant expense. For an average building, verifying signatures can cost around 200 thousand tenge, and a full audit can cost up to 600 thousand.
Yet initially, POAs were created as a form of self-management with full financial transparency, where residents control expenses, approve tariffs, and elect the chairperson on a voluntary basis. The main advantage over KSK was cited as the principle of «one building — one account», ensuring transparency of financial transactions.
REACTION FROM AUTHORITIES
Residents of the «Zhenis-3» residential complex sent appeals to several bodies. The bank stated it could not provide information on the accounts, citing banking secrecy. The Ministry of Industry and Construction gave a response without specific recommendations. The Housing and Housing Inspectorate advised them to go to court. The ARDFM is set to review the complaint at the beginning of January.
In their appeal to the financial regulator, the residents propose introducing changes to legislation: to establish a ban on POAs opening additional accounts, oblige chairpersons to close accounts opened without a meeting decision, provide for control mechanisms by banks, and approve standard reporting forms.
The residents note that upon the creation of owners' associations, the principle of full financial transparency and control was declared. However, in practice, supervisory mechanisms are not sufficiently effective, which creates conditions for violations.