My wife and I own such an apartment and are currently in the middle of a battle to replace sewer pipes which are beginning to leak into the elevator shaft which threatens to render the elevator inoperable. Each of the apartments must pay to replace its section of the sewer pipe to remedy the problem. After a month of attempts to get all of our neighbors to pay their portion of the repair, the building director has decided that she cannot allow the situation to continue because of the threat to the elevator so, as of noon today, she will turn off the water to our section of the building until the sewer pipe is repaired.
So, what's the problem? Well, there is one old neighbor who lives alone and says that he simply doesn't have any money to pay for the repairs. Another neighbor says that it is not his problem because it's not leaking into his apartment so everyone else should pay to fix the pipe. Although this kind of battle is not unique to Ukraine, the way that everyone is dealing with the situation is somewhat different from what many expats might have experienced back home. Everyone is filling their bathtubs and preparing for the water to be turned off for some period of time.
Although it's impossible to know exactly what everyone is thinking I can relate some of the sentiments that have been expressed to my wife as she tries to deal with this situation. There are two primary categories of reactions. A small number of residents feel that it's not their responsibility and the remaining residents don't want to pay more than their share to fix the pipe used by everyone in the building. I offered to take a bucket of excrement to confront the neighbors who refuse to pay their share but my wife counseled against it. The reason is simple. That would be unacceptable behavior and turn everyone in the building against us, even the ones who are also suffering from the situation.
So, we sit here with a bathtub full of water waiting to see how long it takes for the situation to resolve itself.
