The State Duma lifted restrictions on the sale of apartments seized from corrupt officials

The State Duma adopted in the second and third readings a law that simplifies the sale of housing seized from corrupt officials, writes RIA Novosti.

The current privatization law allows housing confiscated from corrupt officials to be sold only in one case: if its market price is at least twice as high as the estimated area of ​​the apartment multiplied by the average cost per square meter in the region. The state cannot sell anything that is cheaper than this threshold - such housing has been on the balance sheet for years without movement. Vice Speaker of the State Duma Victoria Abramchenko previously noted that only 8% of such objects fall under the terms of sale. The adopted law abolishes this link to price and removes the six-month pause before re-bidding after a failed auction - that is, now any apartment can be sold, regardless of its cost.

The head of the Duma Committee on Property, Land and Property Relations, Sergei Gavrilov, said that the Federal Property Management Agency has approximately three thousand apartments that have already been transferred to the state by court decisions and can be put up for sale. According to him, the adopted law “removes the price barrier and cancels the mandatory six-month pause between failed auctions, so that repeated auctions can be announced without artificial waiting.”

A number of amendments were made to the document for the second reading. One of them gives the government the right to establish additional requirements for companies that evaluate state property and maintain their official register. Gavrilov noted that the results of the assessment of state-owned housing directly determine the initial price of the lot and budget revenues from its sale, therefore the circle of appraisers admitted to this work will be limited and tied to new criteria. Separate requirements for auction organizers are specified: they should not have bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings, tax debts, and managers and chief accountants should not have convictions for economic crimes. In addition, the company must have experience in selling such property.

At the request of the Russian Orthodox Church, a separate provision on religious property was included in the law - now it will no longer be subject to the statute of limitations when challenging privatization transactions. Thus, if in the past such an object was privatized in violation of the law and was not transferred to a specialized religious organization, the court will be able to invalidate the transaction regardless of how much time has passed. The document will take effect 10 days from the date of its publication.