Vice-Governor Marat Oganesyan admitted that according to the standards of the Ministry of Regional Development, all shared-equity construction projects in St. Petersburg can be called problematic

Smolny plans to deal with the problems of defrauded shareholders by 2018. According to Vice-Governor Marat Oganesyan, if we are guided by the criteria of the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation, then all participants in shared construction in St. Petersburg can be called victims. However, the authorities of the Northern capital consider only those objects whose construction has been frozen for at least two years to be “problematic”. There are 34 of these in the city.

The administration of St. Petersburg intends to solve the problems of defrauded shareholders by 2018. Mr. Oganesyan announced this yesterday at a press conference. To solve this problem, Smolny developed a draft amendment to the city laws “On the procedure for providing real estate objects owned by St. Petersburg for construction and reconstruction”, “On measures to protect the rights of participants in shared construction of apartment buildings” and “Social Code of St. Petersburg ". On December 25, the document was approved by the city government. It should be considered by the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg early next year. According to the document, contracts with developers using funds from shareholders who have completed less than 40% of their projects by the time the construction permit expires will be terminated. Land plots, along with unfinished objects, will be put up for auction to complete construction, and investment agreements will include a condition that the new developer must transfer part of the apartments to the defrauded shareholders. The site fee will be reduced by the cost of these apartments. The vice-governor did not rule out that the city will take part of the payment for land from developers with apartments for defrauded shareholders when providing not only unfinished construction projects, but also other plots.

Those defrauded shareholders whose living space is less than the standards established in St. Petersburg (18 sq. m per family member or 33 sq. m per individual living separately), as well as those who have no housing at all, will be provided with payments for rental of living space. Single citizens or a family of two people will receive 5,600 rubles, a family of three or four people will receive 7,000, and a family of five members will receive 8,400. For some reason, the bill does not provide for larger social units.

However, not all defrauded shareholders will be able to qualify for these support measures, but only those who entered into an agreement before April 1, 2005 (that is, before the entry into force of 214-FZ “On participation in shared-equity construction of apartment buildings”), lived in St. Petersburg for at least five years and received a court decision according to which an unscrupulous investor owes them living quarters or money. In this case, the developer should not be able to pay off the equity holders.

According to Marat Oganesyan, about 400 people will be able to apply for apartments under this law. Approximately 10% of them will need payments for rent. It is expected that the implementation of the law will lead to a budget shortfall of approximately 650 million rubles from developers. Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko instructed the committee to form a register of participants in shared construction in need of protection by July 1, 2014. It is worth noting that such a register already exists in the city, but so far there are only 24 people on it. Apparently, this is due to the fact that previously inclusion in this list did not imply significant assistance from the authorities.

The bill was developed on the basis of the order of the city government “On the plan of measures aimed at providing assistance in protecting the rights of participants in shared construction and completing the construction of problematic facilities,” adopted in October last year. It is interesting that, according to the plan, the draft law should have been written a year ago. Mr. Oganesyan refused to explain the reason for the delay, recalling that he came to Smolny only in the spring of this year.

It is worth noting that even members of the working group on protecting the rights of participants in shared-equity construction, headed by Vice-Governor Marat Oganesyan, did not see the text of the bill before the government meeting. Legislative Assembly deputy Irina Ivanova, who is part of this group, noted that the funds that officials plan to pay to defrauded shareholders for rental housing will be sufficient only if they are provided with apartments in the “apartment buildings” that began to be created in the city under Valentin Matvienko. The rent there is comparable to the amounts specified in the bill.

And the chairman of the coordinating council of the initiative group of defrauded shareholders in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Emelin, considers the provisions of this bill unfair, since there are many defrauded shareholders in the city who entered into agreements under the law “On participation in shared construction of apartment buildings.” “FZ 214 only insures against double sales,” he claims. “It does not protect against the bankruptcy of the developer and delays in construction.”

However, Marat Oganesyan told Kommersant that the majority of shareholders who entered into agreements under 214-FZ can return the money through the court. And the city authorities also plan to help those whose developers have gone bankrupt, but not within the framework of this law, but in a “manual mode”.

In total, according to the vice-governor, there are 34 “problem objects” of shared-equity construction in St. Petersburg. These are buildings whose construction has been frozen for at least two years. Mr. Oganesyan considers the criteria of the Ministry of Regional Development, which are specified in Order No. 403 of September 20, 2013 (in particular, that the victim is a shareholder, the fulfillment of obligations to whom the developer is overdue for more than nine months). The fact is that often already completed buildings are delivered late due to delays in connecting to utility networks, and according to the standards of the Ministry of Regional Development, all shared construction projects in St. Petersburg can be considered problematic.

Anton Arsenyev

Shareholders will be helped in fragments