The housing code will be corrected

Distalists, owners of dilapidated housing and former spouses will give a chance for a year as Russians have been living according to the new Housing Code (LCD), and all this time criticism of its individual provisions does not subside. By the end of March, the State Duma promises to correct some LCD errors. The amendments proposed by a member of the Committee of the Lower Chamber on civil, criminal, arbitration and procedural legislation Galina Khovanskaya will be taken as a basis.

First of all, amendments will affect the preservation of the state’s obligations on the overhaul of dilapidated housing. “Every year, in Russia, 5 million square meters fall under this category to the state’s debt to the overhaul citizens have long stopped calculating. Approximately it is about 3 trillion rubles,” Khovanskaya brought the data. The new Housing Code clearly defines: if the apartment is owned, then its owner must carry out the repair of the house at his own expense. For these purposes, a special accumulative payment is introduced in the tariff for servicing the house. But while the necessary amount is scored, a building that has not been repaired for forty years before, may just fall apart.

To date, Khovanskaya notes, the current privatization law leaves guarantees to the owners of apartments, according to which the local authorities are liable for the repair of the house that was not carried out on time. “Therefore, you need to make every effort so that this norm is preserved,” the deputy believes, “otherwise the country will be overwhelmed by protests.”

Until the state fulfills its obligations for the overhaul of the housing stock, to complete free privatization, which is supposed to be done by January 1, 2007, Khovanskaya is convinced. In addition, in this situation there is a violation of the rights of citizens who have stood in line for decades and finally received housing, but after the Code entered into force, they no longer have the right to privatization. In relation to people who have lived in emergency premises for many years, in hostels, in office apartments, such norms, according to Khovanskaya, are "illegal and inhuman." In the amendments made to the State Duma, it is proposed to completely abandon the temporary restrictions on privatization. According to the bill, only the "new losers" who received apartments after March 1, 2005, who are also poor are, are losing the rights of privatization.

At the same time, according to the parliamentarian, citizens need to leave the opportunity and deprivate their housing. “People do not know what will happen to them in a few years, whether they will cope with the expenses that will“ pull ”the privatized apartment for themselves. And by that time taxes will grow, and the benefits of pensioners in a number of subsidized regions will be canceled,” Khovanskaya warns.

Another negative consequence of the new LCD: if a person has become for the owner of the “former” apartment, he can be asked “with things to exit”. And even if the court recognizes his right to use housing temporarily or for life, this will not prevent the owner from free himself from "encumbrance", selling the apartment. Moreover, after the sale, thanks to this norm of the LCD, not only the former, but also the current family members, including minors, can be on the street. The amendments propose a ban on the deprivation of housing of minors, elderly, disabled people and those former family members in respect of whom there is an appropriate court decision.

03/08/2006 / Olga Vinogradova, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 39 dated 09.03.2006.