Translated material
The mansion is rented out
The rental of cultural monuments will be controlled by the mayor's office
Finally, it became completely clear who in Moscow will set the rules for leasing architectural monuments. The corresponding law “On the protection and use of immovable historical and cultural monuments” was adopted yesterday in its final version by the Moscow City Duma. The capital's legislators call the law nothing less than “long-suffering.” The document was considered by deputies for a year and a half, and during this time about 200 amendments were made to it. Moreover, the struggle was mainly for the right to “last signature” on the document allowing the transfer of mansions for rent.Let us make a reservation that the law will not affect all more than three thousand Moscow mansions, which are considered historically significant buildings. And only those that are still owned by the municipality. The capital's government has managed to transfer approximately a fifth of architectural monuments into private hands. However, in recent years, the trade in historical buildings has practically ceased - mansions were only rented out. And the final word here belonged to the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Moskomarkhitektura. According to the new law, this department is now assigned only the functions of supervising the safety of buildings.
In general, the majority of deputies believe that the issue of leasing each historical building should be decided by legislators - by a separate resolution of the Moscow City Duma. However, Yuri Luzhkov categorically disagrees with this option, who insisted that the final word should still remain with the executive branch. The capital's mayor vetoed the previous version of the law and invited deputies to make several amendments. The main one is to stipulate that the decision to transfer an architectural monument for rent is formalized in the form of a separate law, which, as is known, after approval by the Moscow City Duma must be signed by the mayor. Yesterday the deputies lacked only one vote to override the veto, and they were forced to agree with Luzhkov's proposals.
Nevertheless, one of the initiators of this law, Moscow City Duma deputy Evgeny Bunimovich, seemed very pleased yesterday. Because, as it seems to him, the law has made the necessary adjustments to the rules for the operation of historical buildings. In particular, it prohibits the reconstruction of such buildings, including the redevelopment of premises. Restoration work must be supervised by the Department of Monument Protection. “We should not only take care of preserving Moscow’s historical monuments, but also make them accessible to citizens,” says Evgeniy Bunimovich. -- There will be a special clause in the lease agreement instructing temporary owners to organize so-called historical heritage days. That is, once a month everyone will be able to get acquainted with the interiors of an ancient house, as is customary abroad.”
According to realtors in the capital, such innovations complicate the rental of old premises. “Old mansions were not in high demand anyway,” says Oleg Osharin, head of the non-residential premises department of the real estate company “White City,” “because there were many requirements that were difficult to meet. Now it will be even more difficult. It seems to me that we should, on the contrary, allow tenants to reconstruct as much as possible.” Realtors claim that often the internal structure of mansions is not of artistic interest. But it is impossible to say that the new law caused panic among realtors. “Renting mansions is a fairly small segment of the real estate market, about one tenth,” says Iva Mayorova, manager of non-residential premises at Best. -- We think that rental prices for old premises are unlikely to fall in the near future. But they probably won’t increase now either.”