Volgograd residents in city center left without heating

In the apartment building at 7a Port-Saida Street in the center of Volgograd, heating and hot water have been absent for the third day. The cause was a breakdown of the heat exchanger, whose replacement, according to estimates, will cost nearly 650 thousand rubles (about $6,500 at current rates).

Residents express dissatisfaction with the actions of the management company. «We haven»t had hot water for three days, and the heating is barely working,« they report. »The management company says that the heat exchanger broke down, it cannot be repaired, only a new one needs to be bought! But the fact that it broke down and cannot be repaired was said by a plumber; they didn«t call any specialized organization, and there is no official document confirming these words.» The townspeople note that children and elderly people live in the building, and being in cold apartments is unbearable.

The management company «Orbita 34» confirmed the accident and indicated that the problem is protracted. According to the director of the management company Anastasia Shcherbina, who is also a resident of this building, the replacement of the heat exchanger was proposed back in 2013, but the owners voted against it then.

Shcherbina described the condition of the building in detail: «Our heat exchanger is very old, more like a trough, so rotten. We told all our neighbors, and everyone knew perfectly well even without us, that our biggest problem is the roof and the boiler.» She added that over the past year and a half, part of the roof was repaired, but the main problem with the equipment remained.

The cost of a new plate heat exchanger along with dismantling and installation work is now estimated at 597 thousand rubles (about $6,000 at current rates). To finance the replacement, a special account was opened in June 2025, but the funds in it will become available only after a year — in June 2026.

Currently, the management company is preparing a meeting of owners, at which the issue of a targeted contribution for the purchase and installation of new equipment will be raised. At the same time, the management company fears that residents may again refuse to solve the problem, as happened more than ten years ago.