Now you won't run

Pavel Krasheninnikov spoke about the coming revolution in the registration of real estate rights

The Sochi authorities' ban on land privatization contradicts not only federal legislation, but also the Constitution. This was stated by one of the leading Duma lawyers, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov, speaking to reporters. Let us recall that on Sunday the authorities of the Olympic capital of Russia announced that the use of Sochi land is possible only in the form of a lease for 49 years. Commenting on this decision of the Sochi authorities, Mr. Krasheninnikov emphasized:“It doesn’t matter what city it is, it is important that it is located on the territory of the Russian Federation , where the Constitution of the Russian Federation is in force.” And according to the Basic Law, it is prohibited to privatize only certain territories related to ensuring the security of the country, and the Black Sea resort does not apply to such.

In fact, the entire press conference of Mr. Krasheninnikov was devoted to bringing Russian real estate legislation to a common denominator. The reason for the conversation was the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the law “On state registration of rights to real estate and transactions with it.” “The law can ruin life, but somehow it cannot immediately radically improve it,” the head of the Duma committee noted philosophically. In this case, according to Mr. Krasheninnikov, there is an improvement - at least now it is no longer possible, as before, to sell the same apartment ten times a day. A generally binding system and procedure for registering real estate has been established, and a unified register of rights to property has been created. Therefore, now, according to the deputy, it is necessary to discuss not so much the jubilee law, but rather the legal acts that follow from it.

For example, the law “On the State Real Estate Cadastre” adopted by the State Duma on July 4th. As the Vremya Novostei newspaper has already reported , starting from March 1 of next year, a unified real estate cadastre will be operational - more precisely, the systems for recording land plots and real estate will be combined. If now in Russia “there are dozens of cadastres: water, forest, related to real estate,” then now they need to be unified. “Cadastral authorities and authorities for registration of rights will exchange information online,” the deputy explained. Mr. Krasheninnikov considers this innovation revolutionary, because now information will be requested by the registration authorities themselves, and not by property owners: “Citizens will not have to stand in line, run for certificates first from the BTI, then for documents related to the purchase and sale of real estate.” According to the law, the procedure for measuring real estate should also be simplified - this task will be entrusted to cadastral engineers, “who will have to measure everything at once - both the house and the land plot.”

As soon as we were talking about simplifying the registration of land rights, Krasheninnikov could not help but mention the notorious “dacha amnesty.” “This simplified procedure for registering consumer real estate applies not only to dachas,” the deputy clarified. “We are talking about land plots, apartments, garages, vegetable gardens, etc.” Here the situation, especially at first, was not so rosy. According to Krasheninnikov, difficulties arose not without the participation of the government: on September 1, 2006, the “dacha amnesty” began to operate, and by-laws explaining its procedure were issued by the executive branch only at the end of August. “No matter how much we scold the officials, if they don’t have regulatory material, then they won’t be able to start doing this,” the deputy emphasized.

Another problem is related to law enforcement practice. The law, as is known, has simplified the procedure for registering country houses and garden houses - a citizen independently, without the participation of BTI officials, fills out a declaration for a country house building and submits it along with documents for the land plot to the registration authorities. However, they often refused to accept such “homemade” packages of documents, and in some cases, on the contrary, began to charge money for issuing declaration forms.

Commenting on the situation when the authorities confiscate land from citizens for state or public needs, Mr. Krasheninnikov noted that landowners have every right to resist these actions. “If the authorities suddenly decide that they like this plot of land, then they can come and set a price,” the deputy noted. If the owner does not want to part with his property, then this dispute should only be resolved by the court. The important thing is that, despite the insistence of officials, the construction of bridges or roads can be recognized as a state necessity, but not the construction of residential areas. Krasheninnikov threw a pebble into the garden of the Rosprirodnadzor department. “A citizen should not suffer because the rules in the country are constantly changing and the site on which his house stands was subsequently recognized as a nature protection zone,” the legislator noted.

In general, according to the deputy, housing legislation still needs to be improved, and parliamentarians will return to this issue with the start of the new session in September. For example, it is likely that an amendment will be made to the Housing Code prohibiting the removal of minor children from an apartment after the parents’ divorce if one of them is the owner of the property.

Mikhail MOSHKIN