Landlords against Pankov

Whether the quarantine will survive the counter -cultural spaces of Moscow

For almost two months, employees of the Moscow DIY clubs “Success” and Punk Fiction, where non-certificate music regularly sounded before quarantine, cannot get into the premises of clubs-the lessor illegally sealed them. The courtyard between Baumanskaya and Krasnoselskaya, where “success” and Punk Fiction, were located, which was the main center of attraction of the capital's underground, was at risk of closing.

Bar "Success" opened in January 2018 on the site of the Rabitsa techno club, defeated by the police.

Unlike the predecessor oriented to electronic music, “success” adhered to a more diverse and variegated program. Here were artists who were not allowed to other places. The schedule of “success” was diverse: in a week, one of the main Russian freest-jazz teams “Brom”, metalists from Japan, techno-Digers and musicians of the Kraut-Cro-bands, who arranged many-hour jams with a free entrance could play in the club. And this is not counting the experimental performances that took place during the weekend. Even in “Success” they showed avant-garde cinema and arranged a multi-day punk-lectern.

The neighbor “Success”, the craft bar Punk Fiction, opened there, on the territory of the “Aviator” cluster, but a little earlier-in the fall of 2017. They planned to take a place for friends, but over time, the circle of visitors expanded, skaters and independent musicians of varying degrees of fame were hanging out there. The owners regularly stood behind the bar. Toward the end of the week, Punk Fiction began to work almost around the clock.

By mid -2018, parties in “Success” and Punk Fiction began to take place almost every day, and there were so many visitors that they stopped placing inside (good in good weather, the music coming from the clubs could be heard without problems from the street).

The audience of “Success” and Punk Fiction was largely intersected, and since the summer of 2018, festivals, including charity, began to take place in the cozy courtyard of the “Aviator”. Among them, “Psykhgorfest”, dedicated to mental health among artists, and the international charity action “not to blame” - in support of women who survived home violence. In 2020, more than a million rubles were raised for injured women.

What happened in the spring

“Success” and Punk Fiction stopped working in mid-March due to the ban on holding events with a capacity of more than 50 people. “The eighteenth we announced that we were not working,” said Alexei Trishin, founder of “success”. - For a week or two before, I went to the lease and warned, maybe quarantine, let's think about what to do.

I was told that in Russia there will never be universal quarantine. ”

The owners of Success have asked the Aviator to arrange a rental vacation since March, but the landlord refused to meet them. Then the bar launched a fundraising campaign. For March, the club representatives paid with the money collected. Their neighbors and friends from Punk Fiction contacted the Aviator almost simultaneously with “success”.

“We wrote letters so that some kind of connection would go to either the rental holidays or somehow change the conditions,” says Mikhail Minin, co-founder of Punk Fiction. - We were ignored, they did not answer at all. The only thing you asked: "Will you pay?" As a result, they warned that the institution would be sealed if the owners did not pay for April.

And there was nothing to pay, since the activities of clubs, like the rest of the catering in Moscow, were not conducted. ”

April 21 "Success" and Punk Fiction was sealed. At the moment, tenants still cannot get into their premises.

What is happening now?

Until the end of May, bars could not contact the landlords. “They themselves are on quarantine, the general director said that by law nothing could sign,” Trishin said.

In the lease department of the Novov business center, which owns the Aviator, the correspondent of Novye was reported that the owners of the space were negotiating about the rental discounts, however, not with the tenants of the Aviator, but with representatives of the business center. Almost two months after the start of “non -working days”, the Aviator’s leadership offered the owners of “Success” and Punk Fiction a significant discount for rent for April, May and June, according to Alexei Trishin. The establishments are ready to agree to the terms of the lessor and may open for the work of the “Vennation” on June 16. Nevertheless, the premises are still sealed.

Not only Moscow

Not only Moscow clubs suffered from similar actions of the lessors. In a similar situation, there were concert venues throughout Russia.

In mid -May, a large Yekaterinburg club "House of Press" closed. The owners could not agree with the lessor to defer the lease for April, and the club was evicted from the premises where it has been since 2013.

At the moment, the Press House team is going to sue Tatlin LLC, from which the premises were rented. At the same time, the landlord is not even the owner of the site: Tatlin rented a building from the state and transferred the premises to the cafe, restaurants and theaters. The owners of the "Press House" note that their institution belongs to the most affected by the coronavirus sectors and has the right to delay the rental payment. In turn, the CEO of Tatlin claims that the company itself did not receive a delay in paying for a rental to the state, and therefore cannot provide it with the subarterers.

How legitimate is the sealing of clubs and what the law has the right to demand independent sites in the context of the Pandemia, says Natalya Nikolskaya, chairman of the Moscow Arbat Bar Association.

Natalia Nikolskaya

Lawyer, specializes in real estate disputes, corporate conflicts and economic activities of organizations

- quarantine does not cancel the duty of the general director to respond to letters and fulfill the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and current lease agreements.

The sealing of the premises of the bars and the inaccessible to these premises of the tenants is illegal. This is a malicious violation of lease agreements. The premises probably remained products that could deteriorate, expensive equipment, electrical appliances, the operability of which should and has the right to check the tenant at any time during the term of the contract.

During the period of the contract, the tenant has the right to dispose of his property and premises in any way that is not prohibited for the time of quarantine.

So, many cafes and restaurants worked for delivery, any property could be taken out of the premises and, for example, sell it to minimize losses.

The fact that the general director of the lessor could not answer letters of tenants due to quarantine will be evaluated by the court as unfair behavior of the lessor. In connection with which the landlord can be assigned not only to a delay in rent, but also to recover direct losses from such a lessor.

Letters to the lessor should have contained a requirement to unclean the obstacles to the use of the premises. The quarantine has nothing to do with it. Now you need to re -send a complaint about the unfolding obstacles to the use of the premises.

It is necessary to fix the refusal to admit to the premises with witnesses. And apply for losses in court.

Anton Dyakonov - especially for "New"