Code with deferment

Free privatization of housing is promised to be extended until 2010

Russians do not have time to exercise their right to a one-time privatization of housing previously received from municipalities within the time limits established by law, and therefore they will be given a little more time to register their rights to real estate. Yesterday, at parliamentary hearings in the State Duma, where the practice of applying the Housing Code was discussed, the chairman of the committee on civil, criminal, arbitration and procedural legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov, proposed amendments to the legislation to extend the terms of privatization. And thus he promised to make life easier for thousands of citizens who are now trying to quickly obtain certificates of ownership of apartments in which they have lived for many years.

As you know, the new residential complex has set a very strict “deadline” for registering ownership of housing. So tough that even the Federal Registration Service, according to Mr. Krasheninnikov, was not ready to help citizens settle their relations with real estate. Its specialists could not cope with the influx of people who went en masse to privatize housing. Moreover, according to the Duma Committee on Legislation, a considerable share of apartments in Russia has not yet been privatized - 20% of total housing. And after a year of the Housing Code being in effect, it became obvious that very little time was allocated for this procedure. Even Mr. Krasheninnikov himself admitted yesterday that until the date specified in the law - January 1, 2007 - Russians will not be able to exercise their right to free privatization.

However, this has long been obvious not only to Deputy Krasheninnikov. Experts warned about this even before the adoption of the Housing Code, and deputy Galina Khovanskaya, one of the most consistent critics of the package of housing laws, a year ago prepared a bill in which she proposed to abolish any infringements on our compatriots in the terms of housing privatization. She has repeatedly stated that the new Housing Code made a mistake with the abolition of privatization. According to her, “a natural reaction to the cessation of privatization has begun, especially on the part of people who have been on the waiting list for housing for a long time.” “Twenty years ago they hoped to get an apartment, ten years ago they hoped to privatize it after receiving it. Now they don’t have such an opportunity,” notes Ms. Khovanskaya.

The deputy considers it necessary to give such people the opportunity to privatize their apartments, and to cancel privatization only for those who received apartments after March 1, 2005. At the end of 2005, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, Sergei Mironov, also proposed postponing the privatization deadline. “I think we need to return to this issue and postpone this date for completing free privatization for several more years,” he said. He even self-critically admitted: “Here we, the initiators of the law and legislators, were in a hurry. It is obvious that many will not have time to privatize their apartments before this deadline.”

True, Pavel Krasheninnikov’s proposals, which he voiced yesterday at parliamentary hearings, are more modest than those of his colleague Galina Khovanskaya. He does not consider it possible to leave open-ended privatization in Russia. He simply proposes to push back the deadline by three years and set the next “deadline” to March 1, 2010.

Irina BELASHEVA