In Astrakhan, hundreds of houses in the historical center of the city were under threat of demolition

In Astrakhan, there were hundreds of houses in the city center, including recently restored buildings, under the threat of destruction. Residents of these houses learned about the impending demolition of ads on fences.

Most of the buildings sentenced to demolish are located in the historical center of Astrakhan - in the White City and the nearest environs of the Kremlin. In some areas, dozens of houses, entire streets and quarters are marked with such points, writes the site "Such things" .

“We were hung on the fence that during a visual examination our house was recognized as emergency. No one paid attention to these papers: there was no signature or print,” said Olga, a resident of an apartment building in Astrakhan. However, it soon became clear that the city authorities recognized hundreds of apartment buildings emergency, and another 1.5 thousand buildings were recommended to be recognized as emergency. At the same time, apartment buildings, recognized previously by historical monuments, are not going to demolish, but their residents are required to restore buildings at their own expense. Repair of such houses at the expense of the overhaul fund is impossible by law, and there is no target program to restore them in the Astrakhan and the Astrakhan region.

The emergency lists have already included several hundred cultural heritage sites, and 59 such houses of the city’s authorities have already put up the residents to restore the building. If they do not, the buildings will be seized in accordance with Art. 32 Housing Code. These buildings included the former Indian courtyard. In this house of the XVIII century, merchants stopped and writer Alexander Duma-father was in during his visit to Astrakhan.

In total, 5.2 thousand apartment buildings are located on the territory of Astrakhan. If the authorities recognize about 2 thousand emergency and demolition, then almost half of the population will be forced to move somewhere. At the same time, the city simply does not have so many free housing, so people are afraid to be on the street.

Residents of most of the emergency houses recognized as objects of cultural heritage do not understand what to do, and where to look for money for expensive restoration work. State Duma deputy Oleg Shein believes that if these houses are seized with the owners, then empty buildings will quickly become unusable. The townspeople fear that after this building it can be excluded from the register of monuments, demolish and build up the territory.

“The fears that the buildings will be resettled and abandoned, understandable. If no special program is created, the practice will work to determine the objects, to force the owners to bring the monuments to proper state in court,” said Alexei Ageev, head of the state protection of cultural heritage objects in the Astrakhan region, not explaining how the authorities intend to solve the problem of financing restoration.

Low compensation

The residents of the city’s authorities recognized by emergency houses offer compensation, but the cost of housing is very underestimated. According to the inhabitants of Astrakhan, for an apartment in the city center, owners are offered money for which they cannot buy housing comparable in area even on the outskirts of the city. For example, at the average market price of real estate in the city of 45 thousand rubles per square meter, residents of houses near the Kremlin are offered to pay about 30 thousand rubles per meter.

The administration does not consider the exchange for equivalent in quality and real value, although many residents believe that in the event of eviction they should have a choice between money and other apartments. But even such an exchange causes fears: the law in Astrakhan does not oblige to give out new premises in the same area, so people living in the center can be relocated to the outskirts.

“If you really demolished emergency houses in our center, we would certainly leave them all, but on an equivalent square and the best conditions. But this will not happen. We would have moved, but not in worst conditions,” said pensioner Galina Kuznetsova, the house of which can be recognized as emergency. “No one will give me a loan. There are no other housing or relatives who can accept,” she added.

Dubious examinations

Meanwhile, residents of many houses recognized as emergency do not believe that the buildings are in disrepair. So, a resident of the house on Sovetskaya Street, recognized as a monument of architecture of federal significance, Abdrakhman Makhmudov said that the building was recognized as emergency in 2007, and the resolution on the seizure received only 13 years later. At the same time, an independent technical examination showed that there is only one emergency site in the building - rotten load -bearing beams in the same apartment. Makhmudov prepared a project for repairing this site without resettlement of residents. According to him, city officials, who got acquainted with the project, replied that if there were such repair projects and estimates, the city authorities are ready to find funds for restoration from the budget.

As for the fresh technical examinations, after which the houses were recognized as emergency, then residents of these houses have many questions. From the documents it follows that the work was carried out in 2020, during the quarantine introduced due to pandemia, but people who were at home did not see specialists who allegedly examined the buildings. In addition, residents did not receive notifications of inspections and were not present with them, although the owners have such a right. At the same time, in most cases, the district administration refuse to issue conclusions following the inspection results. The townspeople who managed to get documents indicate their resemblance to each other and obvious inaccuracies.

"All these examinations are linden. A person lives and claims that he has water and heat, and the windows are changed, and the roof does not flow, and there they write that there is no heating, sewage system in the building and there are no gas, the windows rickety, the doors are bent, the house is in the emergency state," Makhmudov said.

The conduct of examinations and the preparation of acts was engaged in companies from other regions. So, according to the state procurement portal of the company "Lelenexpert" from St. Petersburg and "Independent Expertise" from Volgograd. The latter carried out an examination of 100 houses for 412 thousand rubles. Thus, the cost of one technical detention was a little more than 4 thousand rubles. Conclusions to the households were issued by Stroytekexpert from Novomoskovsk (Tula region). At the time of work, this company did not have a license to examine cultural heritage objects.

The situation in Astrakhan drew attention to the State Duma and the Ministry of Construction. In April, the head of the Duma committee on housing and communal services Galina Khovanskaya, who indicated the need to submit acts of visual inspection of houses, met with the residents of the city and the governor of the Astrakhan region. The Ministry of Construction made the same requirement - the letter of the department says that the city authorities should issue copies of the inspection acts, first notify management companies, the councils of houses and all owners about all the procedures. Also, the Ministry of Construction demanded to revise approaches to assessing the redemption price of housing.

However, officials are in no hurry to comply with these requirements. For example, the administration of the Kirov district Astrakhan said in a letter that part of the acts of visual inspection of buildings "lost relevance" and is not subject to storage. A criminal case on the fact of fraud when recognizing an emergency house was still opened against one contractor. The company was accused of providing a forgery of examination.