Illegal redevelopment
The state prohibits removing and erecting walls in apartments as desired.
Otherwise, someone’s initiative could lead to destruction. The redevelopment of an apartment led to the collapse of an entire building in the center of St. Petersburg. Therefore, it is necessary to first make a redevelopment project and coordinate it with the local administration. You will most likely be allowed to do some things, for example, to combine a bathroom and toilet or arrange a dressing room. But some things are strictly prohibited: demolishing load-bearing structures, dismantling ventilation ducts, and so on.
In case of unauthorized redevelopment, which jeopardizes the safety of residents, you will be asked to return everything as it was. If you refuse, you may be evicted. In Moscow, the court evicted the owners from their apartment who made illegal redevelopment of the apartment. In this case, the housing will be sold to the housing complex of the Russian Federation Article 29. Consequences of unauthorized reconstruction and (or) unauthorized redevelopment of premises in an apartment building. at public auction, and they will give you the money minus legal costs.
Therefore, if you decide to redevelop, proceed legally.
In what cases does an apartment go to the state?
Inheritance of the second type occurs when the testator draws up an official will, formalizing a unilateral transaction regarding the disposition of a person's property after death. This document comes into force after the opening of the inheritance.
Can a privatized apartment go to the state?
After the adoption of the law on privatization, many fraudulent schemes arose to formalize this very privatization in violation of the law. There were different cases - forgery of documents, deception of a privatization participant, various threats, intimidation and much more.
The plaintiff, whose share respectively accounted for 2/3 of the living space, went to the courts in the hope of depriving her neighbor of property rights, recognizing his share as insignificant, and expressed full readiness to buy it out. However, the man did not acknowledge the claims and refused to sell. The district and city courts dismissed the claim. But the Supreme Court overturned these decisions and sided with the plaintiff. He found grounds for the forced sale of the disputed share and the transfer of monetary compensation to the owner, considering the case in question exceptional, and also indicated that this was “necessary to restore the violated rights and legitimate interests of other participants in shared ownership.”
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Here is a typical example. The defendant owned a 1/3 share in a three-room apartment in St. Petersburg. Back in the 90s, he purchased it from the plaintiff’s ex-husband. But in the end they failed to become good neighbors. Living together turned into a nightmare that the judiciary had to sort out.
And when the court definitely decides not in favor of the property owner
Housing purchased with a mortgage and pledged to the bank is the only one of all real estate that can be seized for debts, even if the borrower does not have another apartment. Therefore, the courts, as a rule, always satisfy the creditor's claims to collect money from the debtor through the sale of real estate at public auction.
Another question that worries many: can an apartment be taken away from the owner ? As follows from the information above, creditors or local authorities have such an opportunity, but then registering real estate as a property does not provide reliable protection against the fact that it can be taken away.
Construction of a house with violations
The problem is much more common than you might think. Here is a common scenario: an entrepreneur is building on a site for individual construction not a private cottage, but an apartment building. Residents pay money and transport things. And then the bailiffs evict them. This is how it happened in Saratov: Saratov residents were evicted from an illegally built house; in Kirov, “We basically have nowhere to move.” Residents of a new building condemned for demolition - about forced eviction from their house, Volgograd In Volgograd, residents of an illegally built house were almost evicted from their only home. Often local authorities try to somehow legalize houses and eliminate violations committed during their construction. And sometimes they demolish Perm officials explained why it was impossible to save their illegally built house from demolition.
Therefore, it is important to check all the developer’s documents and not chase too low prices - they are the ones who, as a rule, give away the catch.
Debts secured by an apartment
The most common mortgage lending scheme is when you buy an apartment and immediately mortgage it to guarantee the bank repayment of the loan. She's popular, but not the only one. In fact, you can also mortgage the apartment against a loan that will be used for other purposes. For example, to purchase another property or open a business. Until recently, even microfinance organizations issued Federal Law of August 2, 2020 N 271-FZ money secured by housing.
And if you are hopelessly in debt, the bank can sell Article 59.1. Retention of the mortgaged property and the sale of the mortgaged property by the mortgagee to another person your apartment and collect the amount due. You'll have to move out.
By the way, a loan secured by real estate can be taken not only from a bank, but also from a private individual. The consequences of non-payment will be equally tragic. Therefore, lending must be approached rationally.
Violations when drawing up a purchase and sale agreement
You bought an apartment, pay your utilities on time and don’t take on debt, but your housing can still be taken away. This happens if a purchase and sale transaction is declared invalid. The reasons may be different:
- The property is pledged, leased out with registration of the agreement at the Federal Property Management Agency, arrested for debts.
- The seller is married and has not received written consent to the transaction from the spouse.
- The owner is divorced, but the apartment was purchased during marriage and has not yet been legally divided between the spouses.
- The owner was incompetent at the conclusion of the transaction.
- The apartment was sold by proxy, and the owner disputed this document.
Problems are likely if there are children in the sellers' family. For example:
- The apartment was privatized, but the child was not included among the owners.
- The housing was purchased using maternity capital, but the children were not allocated shares.
- The child was one of the owners, and the guardianship and trusteeship service did not give permission to sell the apartment.
When buying an apartment on the secondary market, you need to check many documents. Don't neglect this.
Why can the state take away an apartment?
Everything is clear with mortgages and debts for utility services. But there are precedents when owners were deprived of their hard-earned housing for other reasons. Let us consider such cases in more detail. For example, you can be left without an apartment if it is illegally redeveloped. Do you want to demolish a load-bearing wall? But you shouldn't do this. Any architectural changes to housing must be approved by the housing inspectorate.
Alimony payments and utilities
A separate problem is associated with minors who are registered in housing. According to the law, the rights of persons under 18 years of age cannot be infringed. It is possible to sell housing under arrest only with the written consent of the guardianship and trusteeship authorities, which take into account the circumstances of the civil case. How to help yourself? First, the judge considers each case individually. Apartments are seized only in extreme cases for malicious failure to pay utility bills, mortgages or alimony. The judiciary may offer debt restructuring as one of the payment options. Seized real estate cannot be donated or alienated, and no legal actions can be taken with it.
Paragraph 7 of the same Article 235 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation introduces grounds for the forced alienation of a share in an apartment with subsequent payment of compensation from other owners. If the owner’s share in the apartment is insignificant and in reality cannot be allocated (for example, a fifth of a one-room apartment), and the owner does not agree to the alienation voluntarily, then there is only one way out - forced redemption of a small share with the participation of the court.
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In legislation (Article 243 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) there is also confiscation. It involves the gratuitous seizure of property from the owner by court decision as punishment for a criminal offense or administrative offense committed by him. Confiscation can pursue different goals - compensation for harm, termination of ownership of property due to its dishonest acquisition, for example, if it was acquired by criminal means. Confiscation can also be applied by the court when determining the consequences of invalid transactions.
If the apartment was purchased with income whose legality has not been proven
You can easily lose your mortgaged apartment if you don’t pay the mortgage for it. The bank will sell it to pay off the debt. The fact that the disputed apartment is the only place of residence of the evicted citizens will also not have any significance. This nuance is spelled out in Article 446 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.
Example with registration. The debtor is registered in the parents' apartment, but is not the owner. Neither the parents nor the debtor have any other housing. The parents' apartment will not be taken away for debts, because collection can only be made on the property of the debtor himself, and not his relatives. The fact that the parents are registered in the apartment does not matter in this case, because this apartment does not belong to the debtor.
An example with a mortgage. The family took out a mortgage on the apartment for 10 years. The borrower is a husband. The mortgage is paid on time. But my husband has other debts worth 4 million rubles that are not being repaid. There is no other property, no official salary either. The mortgaged apartment cannot be foreclosed on, since it is already under encumbrance. The bank can take it away if there are problems with repaying the mortgage itself. Theoretically, the apartment can be taken away only if the amount of mortgage debt is small and the bank gives court permission to sell it. In practice, a bank is unlikely to refuse a legal security measure if the borrower already has debt problems.
Who decides how much space a family needs?
The court's ruling will establish the minimum amount that the debtor will receive after the sale of the home and settlements with creditors. Even if the cost of the apartment does not cover the debt, the debtor will still be returned the amount that should be enough to purchase housing according to the standards.
Since the owner has privatized the apartment, he is charged with maintaining the premises, as well as paying for services provided by various authorities. When the debt accumulates and the citizen cannot pay it off, the apartment is repossessed. This is legal only if the housing is not the only one owned.
Unaccounted heirs
Let's say you bought an apartment. We checked all the documents, all the owners going back many years. But this does not insure you 100% against property loss. Perhaps this property was previously inherited. Let's say a grandmother bequeathed an apartment to her grandson. But suddenly her disabled son appears. According to the law of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 1149. The right to an obligatory share in the inheritance, he has the right to an obligatory share in the inheritance, but it was not allocated to him. If he proves that all these years he did not know about the missed opportunities and only received information about his mother’s death now, the court may well side with him and leave you without an apartment.
So when buying a home, do not ignore this signal: if the property was once bequeathed, you need to check that everything was in order with it. Another assistant is title insurance of the transaction, when you receive compensation if the contract is declared invalid. In addition, from January 1, 2020, you can go to court to receive compensation from the state Federal Law dated August 2, 2019 N 299-FZ, if your housing that you bought honestly was taken away from you.
Use of the apartment for other purposes
According to the law of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, Article 17. Purpose of residential premises and the limits of its use. Use of residential premises Residential premises must be used for living. And if legal standards are not followed, the court may decide to evict.
The problem will be if you:
- We decided to open a production facility or a hotel in the apartment.
- You do not respect the rights and interests of your neighbors.
- You violate fire safety requirements, sanitary and hygienic, and environmental rules.
It will be very difficult to evict you, but it is possible. For example, in the Sverdlovsk region, he lost his apartment. Evict - so with the music of a DJ who annoyed those around him with loud music. Even if this is your only home, but you systematically violate the rules, refuse to eliminate violations, create a threat to the integrity of the building, as well as the health and well-being of residents, the court may decide not in your favor. The apartment will be put up for auction, and you will be given money from the sale.
At what amount of debt to the Federal Tax Service can an apartment be seized?
- land plots on which the objects specified in paragraph two of this part are located, with the exception of the property specified in this paragraph, if it is the subject of a mortgage and can be foreclosed on in accordance with the legislation on mortgages;
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- residential premises (parts thereof), if for the debtor citizen and members of his family living together in the premises owned, it is the only premises suitable for permanent residence, with the exception of the property specified in this paragraph, if it is the subject of a mortgage and on it in in accordance with the legislation on mortgage foreclosure may be made;
