Buyer's risks when purchasing a privatized apartment

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Buying a privatized apartment requires certain knowledge and skills. Everyone decides for themselves whether to do this on their own or trust an experienced realtor. If you decide to do it on your own, then first of all check the title documents for the residential premises. These include: a certificate of state registration of rights or an extract from the unified state register of real estate, as well as a foundation document.

Arises based on:

• agreements for the free transfer of apartments into the ownership of citizens (privatization);
• contracts of sale or exchange;
• gift agreement;
• certificates of inheritance;
• By the tribunal's decision;
• property division agreements.

What is privatization?

Privatization of an apartment is a free transfer of residential premises, which previously belonged to the municipality, into the ownership of citizens (Article 2 of the Law of the Russian Federation of July 4, 1991 No. 1541-1).

The basis for privatization is a social tenancy agreement. All registered persons, including minors, have the right to participate in privatization. The residential premises are divided in equal shares between all parties to the transaction. Persons who previously participated in privatization cannot participate again (with the exception of minors under 18 years of age).

By purchasing a privatized apartment, you get the same advantages as from purchasing any other apartment. Subsequently, you can sell it, exchange it, donate it, register it to other persons, etc.

• Owners’ passports or other identification documents of sellers. For minor children (under 14 years of age), birth certificates are required. On June 2, 2016, a law came into force according to which all transactions for the sale of an apartment with shares are executed only through a notary (Federal Law dated June 2, 2016 No. 172). If the apartment is owned or jointly owned, then you can draw up a purchase and sale agreement yourself.
• Title documents for the apartment. These include: a certificate of state registration of rights or an extract from the unified state register of real estate, as well as a privatization agreement. Notarized consent of the spouse is not required when selling a privatized apartment.
• Certificates from the Housing Office. From a passport specialist you can order an extract from the house register, which contains information about all registered persons. A certificate is obtained from the accountant indicating that there are no debts on utility bills. The owner must also provide a receipt for payment for major repairs.

If the apartment was acquired by the seller as a result of privatization, then all registered persons not participating in the transaction must sign out of it.

• Extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate. In a notarial transaction, this document is ordered by a notary, but in a mortgage transaction, the bank’s credit manager can order it or ask you to do it yourself.
• Technical passport or description of the apartment. This document will be required to draw up an assessment, as well as to check the apartment for the absence of illegal redevelopment. Ordered from BTI.
• Estimation of the cost of the apartment. When purchasing an apartment with a mortgage loan, the bank will require an assessment of the property being purchased. The apartment will be pledged to the bank until you repay the mortgage.

These documents are quite sufficient to draw up a purchase and sale agreement and register the transaction.

Registration and registration

Before registering property rights at the MFC, pay attention to the terms of the agreement, namely:

• data of sellers and buyers;
• data on the property;
• apartment price and payment procedure;
• registered persons;
• procedure for vacating an apartment;
• act of acceptance and transfer of residential premises;
• permission from guardianship authorities (minor children);
• notarized power of attorney for sale (if it is not the owner who is selling);
• additional conditions as agreed by the parties.

1. make an appointment for a specific date and time;
2. hand over documents to the center employee;
3. pay a state fee of 2000 rubles;
4. receive a receipt for documents acceptance.

The statement will indicate the date when you can pick up the registered documents. From this moment you become the owner of the apartment. The entire process of collecting documents, completing the purchase and obtaining ownership rights to a residential premises takes no more than a month.

Main risks

How to reduce the risks of buying a privatized apartment? To answer this question, you need to know what they are.

Refuseniks

The residential premises are owned by one person, and the remaining residents have written a refusal to privatize, but are registered in the apartment. In this case, it is necessary that before registering the agreement:

• all persons not participating in the transaction have checked out of the apartment;
• or have undertaken notarial obligations to deregister;
• or personally wrote an application for deregistration.

Otherwise, it's worth considering other options.

All persons who are not the owners of a privatized apartment, but who are registered (refuseniks), have the right of indefinite residence. You will not be able to write them out, even through the court.

In this case, it is necessary to obtain permission to sell from the guardianship and trusteeship authorities. It is issued if the children’s rights are not violated, that is, they are or will be provided with another living space. The basis for issuing such an order may be the improvement of living conditions, the departure of relatives or a change of place of residence.

From January 1, 2016, all transactions with minor children are executed only through a notary (Federal Law No. 391 dated December 29, 2015). It is he who is responsible for the correctness of the transaction and registration.

Children registered

The most common case is the privatization of an apartment by parents with registered children. It is advisable that all of them be written out before registering the contract. If this does not happen, then in the purchase and sale agreement, a separate clause stipulates the seller’s obligations to deregister all family members.

If the apartment is in common joint ownership, then the transaction does not fall under the notarial category. Also, permission from the guardianship and trusteeship authorities is not required.

Before purchasing a privatized apartment with registered children, be sure to order an extract from the house register. If at the time of privatization of the residential premises children had registration, but were not included in the privatization, then their rights were violated and it is not recommended to buy such an apartment.

• persons conscripted into the armed forces;
• persons serving sentences and in prison;
• missing.

It is advisable to refuse to buy such an apartment.

What else should a buyer check?

Check your apartment documents and passport expiration dates. If the documents are damaged and difficult to read, then ask to order duplicates. This can be done by submitting an application to the MFC. If your passport is expired, wait for it to be replaced.

Is it possible to purchase non-privatized housing?

You cannot buy non-privatized housing, since the persons living in the apartment are tenants, and the municipality is considered the owner of the residential premises. First, you need to transfer ownership of the apartment, and only then can it be sold, donated, etc.

Do I need to go through the procedure again?

Privatization of residential premises is possible only once. If you bought a privatized apartment, then you are considered the owner of this object and there is no need to re-privatize it.

If you have never purchased real estate, contact an experienced realtor or lawyer. He will help you collect all the necessary documents and carry out the transaction correctly.

Useful video

Below is a video with a lawyer talking about the risks when buying a privatized apartment:

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Purchasing a privatized apartment

When purchasing a privatized apartment, the buyer’s risks are determined depending on the circumstances under which the privatization was carried out. For his part, the owner of a privatized apartment can freely transfer ownership rights to third parties. But this does not mean that the buyer should not check certain information about the item being purchased.

Status of a privatized apartment

Typically, privatized housing, unlike a non-privatized apartment, is the property of the person or group of persons who participated in the procedure, and not the state.

If one person owns such housing, then it is considered personal property and no problems should arise during the sale. But if privatization was carried out for several persons, then the buyer should be wary.

In general, privatization of an apartment means that its owners can:

• sell;
• give;
• bequeath;
• transfer on lease basis.

People who live entirely in this housing rarely think about the need to privatize a non-privatized apartment.

As a general rule, persons registered in an apartment subject to privatization have a lifelong right of residence. Not many people think about whether it is necessary to privatize an apartment.

So the need for privatization arises only when the persons living in the apartment wish to sell it or otherwise transfer it to third parties.

By privatizing housing, individuals can count on expanded powers, including sales. Thus, this procedure is optional and is carried out exclusively on a voluntary basis.

So, how to buy a non-privatized apartment and what to pay attention to? The purchase of housing under a purchase and sale agreement, of course, is a more significant, from a legal point of view, basis for owning housing than privatization itself. The fact of privatization of the purchased apartment in no way affects the list of powers of the owner, designated by the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation.

Privatization according to civil law is the basis for the emergence of property rights. That is, the buyer actually purchases an apartment that is privately owned.

However, it is worth paying attention to some features of a privatized apartment:

• it is necessary to make sure whether the privatization procedure has been completed and whether ownership rights have been registered in the manner prescribed by law;
• whether the person selling the apartment is entitled to dispose of the housing in full and in relation to all housing;
• whether the apartment is individually owned or in common, shared ownership;
• is there consent of all registered persons to sell the apartment;
• whether the interests of minors and incapacitated participants in privatization are taken into account.

The whole point of a privatized apartment, as opposed to a purchased one, is that it is initially acquired with the participation of members of one family and, accordingly, is an object of shared ownership with all the ensuing consequences. According to the rules of civil legislation, as well as the norms of the Housing Code, ownership of a privatized apartment has the following features:

• each family member living in a privatized apartment has the right of ownership equally with the shares of the others;
• the sale of an apartment is possible both as a whole and in shares;
• selling the entire property is impossible without the consent of all co-owners;
• the interests of minors and incompetent co-owners are represented by their parents, guardians and trustees, as well as authorized bodies.

The authority of the counterparty to sell the apartment is an important aspect. After all, if the interests of at least one of the privatization participants are violated during the sale, this will serve as a basis for declaring the sale agreement invalid. The purchasing person must take these aspects into account.

List of documents

In addition, in the public cadastral map you can check the status of housing by its address. However, the information in this source is not always reliable and does not provide a complete picture of the situation.

As for documentation, you should familiarize yourself with the papers on the basis of which the current owners own the apartment:

1. Privatization agreement. Attention should be paid to the circle of persons who are indicated in the agreement as participants in the privatization, as well as to the marks of the government body that carried out the privatization.
2. Certificate of registration of ownership in the state register. According to the law, property rights that are not registered are not recognized by government agencies and are not the basis for the disposal of property.

If the apartment is in common joint or shared ownership of several persons, then the written consent of each of them should be obtained for the sale. And if there are minors or incapacitated persons among the owners, the seller should be required to obtain permission from the guardianship and trusteeship authority to sell the share of such a co-owner.

If the housing is in shared ownership with clearly defined shares, it is necessary to ensure that the buyer is given certificates of ownership of the share, which are drawn up by a notary when dividing the property into shares.

In addition, the following documents may be needed to complete the transaction:

• certificates from authorized services stating that the apartment has no arrears on utility bills;
• copies of subscriber accounts, apartment books;
• copies of passports of counterparties to the transaction;
• extract from the house register.

This is a standard list of documents that are necessary to complete a transaction.

After concluding a written agreement, an act of acceptance and transfer of housing is also drawn up, after which payment of the contract price is made. Only after this the buyer will be able to register the property in his name with the authorized body.

Buyer's risks

The buyer needs to consider the risks when buying an apartment. The main risk for the buyer when purchasing a privatized apartment is the recognition of the transaction as invalid. This is carried out only in court, so in addition to refusing the transaction, the buyer will have to lose time and money in court.

Basically, the invalidity of the transaction under which a privatized apartment is sold may be as follows:

• sale of housing by an unauthorized person;
• lack of consent of co-owners;
• the presence of another agreement under which the housing is transferred to another person;
• failure to respect the interests of minors and incapacitated persons;
• the presence of encumbrances on privatized housing.

As a general rule, it is rare that creditors agree to accept privatized housing as collateral. However, the buyer should not exclude this option.

So, among the encumbrances on privatized housing it is worth checking:

• fact of collateral;
• the fact of having a life annuity (which happens quite often);
• debts on taxes and utility bills;
• the presence of an unfinished lawsuit, where the subject of the dispute is the specified apartment.

Thus, before purchasing a privatized apartment, it is best to consult with specialists. Due to the development of the real estate market, today realtors in their respective regions have complete information about real estate properties whose owners have decided to sell them. Of course, their services are not cheap, but it will save a lot of time and eliminate unwanted risks

What should you pay attention to?

All aspects and facts that you need to pay attention to when purchasing privatized housing can be divided into those permitted by law and those that are fraudulent.

From the point of view of circumstances permissible by law, the following factors must first be established:

• presence of minors living in the dwelling;
• fact of common or shared ownership;
• the presence of spouses of owners, including former ones;
• the presence of persons who, according to the law, have the right to use housing.

Is it possible to buy such an apartment? If one of the above factors is present, it is recommended not to purchase such housing. The solution may be to eliminate each problem separately, which without the participation of a professional lawyer seems to be an extremely difficult matter.

To check a transaction for fraudulent activity, you should pay attention to the following factors:

• do the seller’s data correspond to the data of the person indicated in the excerpt from the cadastre as the owner;
• is there consent from the seller’s spouse if he is (or even was) married;
• the seller’s passport must not contain any blots or corrections;
• documents for the property must be genuine, and corrections or additions must be certified by a notary or an authorized government agency.

You shouldn’t even think about whether you can get in touch if you have suspicions. In any case, the support of professionals will not be superfluous. Indeed, today there are very often cases of real estate fraud, when the same housing is sold to several persons.

Risks of buying a privatized apartment

Privatized apartments are those that are transferred free of charge from the state to citizens.

Russian legislation allows the purchase and sale of privatized apartments.

However, there are nuances and risks here. When purchasing privatized housing, it is necessary to thoroughly check the documents and properly formalize the transaction, and only then will you not be afraid that your right of ownership will be successfully challenged in the future.

Apartment purchase

A brief diagram for those who are planning to purchase a privatized apartment looks like this:

• The buyer's side makes a choice in favor of a particular home.
• A preliminary agreement is signed (if necessary) between the buyer and seller, which stipulates the advance payment, the timing of the full execution of the transaction and the cost of housing. It must be accompanied by documents required for the transaction.
• The buyer checks the papers.
• The main contract is being drawn up.
• It is signed by the parties, money is transferred.
• A transfer and acceptance certificate is drawn up and signed.
• The documents are submitted to the Registration Chamber, where state registration of the transfer of rights to the buyer must be carried out.
• Within the period specified in the receipt for receipt of documents, you can pick them up - after this, the registration of the transfer of rights will be officially formalized, and it will be recorded in the state real estate register that the owner of the property has changed.

Buying a privatized apartment, buyer’s risks

A thorough check of documents when purchasing a privatized apartment is required, first of all, to identify how the privatization itself was carried out, and whether there are certain nuances that would make it possible to challenge its very implementation or partially restrict the right of ownership.

All risks that arise when buying a home can be divided into two main categories: legal and technical. The former threaten much more, and in some cases the buyer even loses ownership of the purchased home; the latter are mainly fraught with unnecessary waste of money. For example, illegal redevelopment will be one of these risks.

And the main legal risks include:

1. The existence of third-party ownership or occupancy rights is one of the most serious problems a buyer may face.

Such persons may be the so-called “refuseniks” - during privatization, consent could be required from the persons living in the apartment to be carried out without their participation (hence the refuseniks).

As a result, they lost ownership of this property, but retained the right to reside in it along with registration.

As a result, after purchasing such an apartment, you may suddenly discover that you have a neighbor, and you won’t be able to just kick him out, since he has an indefinite right to live in the apartment, which you considered completely yours when you bought it.

To eliminate this risk, it is necessary that everyone check out of the apartment before selling it.

Please note that a written conclusion on the assumption of obligations to deregister after the completion of the transaction is not suitable. It is necessary to remove the registration, and not just undertake to do so, since such obligations may be rejected when the issue is considered in court.

But even a complete discharge will not be a guaranteed solution. Other potential owners are the seller’s children who did not participate in the privatization because they were written out before it.

After reaching adulthood, they can begin to restore their rights through the courts.

You should also pay attention to whether any members of the seller’s family were absent during the privatization of the property - due to their absence, they have the right to challenge the privatization.

2. Recognition of the purchase and sale transaction as invalid.

The reasons may be different:

• If the seller was an elderly person, his relatives may then insist that he was incapacitated.
• False power of attorney or other fake documents – such schemes are used by “black realtors”. In recent years, there have been much fewer of them, but this does not mean that meeting them can definitely be avoided.

3. Debts for housing and communal services and contributions for major repairs.

After the transfer of rights to real estate, debts for major repairs will also be transferred along with them, and therefore, if they exist, you should immediately agree on a corresponding reduction in the price of the apartment. If the seller claims that there are no debts, this should definitely be checked.

Debts for utilities do not pass to the new owner, but it is better to stipulate this separately in the agreement, if there are any, and it is even better to set a condition for their full repayment before the sale. After all, subsequent problems with utilities are absolutely not necessary for the new owner, and they can appear with a large debt that no one wants to pay.

Although we have listed many dangers that can await the buyer.

 But in order not to create a false impression, it should be noted that on average the risks are no higher than when purchasing housing that has not been subject to privatization - purchasing housing in new buildings has its own risks.

In both cases, most of the risks will be removed by working with a competent lawyer - and it is absolutely necessary to contact him in such a transaction, because it involves working with a large number of documents.

What documents to check

When concluding a purchase and sale transaction, you will need to check or complete a lot of paperwork. All of them can be divided into several main categories:

• personal;
• for an apartment;
• on payment of housing and communal services and repairs;
• about persons registered in the apartment.

Everything must be checked - there are no trifles here. It is clear that the methods and thoroughness of the verification must be different, but we still recommend entrusting this to lawyers who thoroughly understand the issue.

Personal documents

Of these, the seller is first required to provide a passport. It should not contain any extraneous stickers or inscriptions, it should have an unexpired validity period. The passport can be checked on the website of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Migration Issues using a special service, or better yet, by contacting the local passport office.

In addition, in order to ensure that one of the parties to the transaction is declared incompetent, it is required to undergo an examination and obtain a certificate of health. If the seller is already elderly, it is better not to get by with just a certificate, but to invite a doctor directly to the transaction so that he confirms that he is legally competent immediately upon signing it.

If the sale is carried out through a representative, you need a notarized power of attorney from the seller for him. At the same time, it is still worth asking for a personal meeting with the owner in order to ensure his fundamental consent to the transaction, and issues of a technical nature should be resolved with the trustee. If the meeting fails, this is a reason to check everything again.

For an apartment

The technical and cadastral passports of the apartment must be checked; it is worth making sure that no illegal redevelopment has been carried out in it, by checking the plan with the premises itself.

It should be borne in mind that the new owner will have to answer for illegal redevelopment, and you may then be required to pay a fine or even return the home to its original state at your own expense.

And even if not, you will have to deal with the design of the redevelopment.

If previously the most important document was a certificate of ownership, now whether the seller owns the rights to the apartment, and whether there are other owners, can be checked by ordering an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate Rights - and if problems are found, then they are necessary in any case decide before selling.

Naturally, you should carefully study both their appearance - so, all corrections in the text must be separately certified by signatures, there should be no erasures or other things - as well as the content. The title deed may contain mandatory conditions, failure to comply with which will result in the transaction being terminated - you need to make sure that they are met.

Otherwise, the second party to the previous transaction, showing up after the purchase of the apartment, can get it canceled through the court.

If the extract from the Unified State Register shows that the apartment constantly changed hands, this is a reason to be wary.

It also makes it clear whether any arrests have been made recently, whether there have been any lawsuits surrounding her, and the like. It is best if there have been no transactions or disputes related to the apartment within the last three years - since this is the statute of limitations, this will certainly protect against claims.

The apartment may not be listed in the Unified State Register - this means that there have been no previous transactions with it. It is worth submitting a request about it to the local Department of Housing Policy and, if the seller’s rights are confirmed, this means that it is legally clear.

About payment of housing and communal services and major repairs

The absence of utility debts will be evidenced by the Unified Housing Document. According to the acceptance certificate, a certificate of absence of debt must be presented, as well as payment receipts.

About registered persons

Another function of the Unified Housing Document is that it carries the functions of an extract from the house register. Accordingly, if, according to this document, the seller is married, and was married when he privatized the home, he will need the consent of the spouse certified by a notary to sell it. If there is a minor among the owners, the consent of the guardianship authorities will also be required.

Making a deal

Usually, registering a transfer of rights in Rosreestr is enough to draw up an agreement and put the signature of both parties to the transaction, especially since they will also have to be present when submitting documents for registration - and this is enough to confirm their consent. But this is not always enough - sometimes it is required that the agreement be certified by a notary.

Cases when a notary is needed

Without the participation of a notary, contracts will not be accepted in Rosreestr:

• For the sale of shares.
• If the seller is a minor. If he is between 14 and 18 years old, he will have to participate in the transaction personally; if he is younger, his parents or guardians will sign instead, and he will need to obtain consent from the guardianship and trusteeship authorities.
• If the apartment is owned by a person with limited legal capacity or an incapacitated citizen. In case of complete incapacity, his interests in the transaction will be represented by a guardian, in case of limited incapacity - by himself, but written consent from the trustee will be required.

Is it possible to buy non-privatized housing?

According to the law, the sale of non-privatized municipal housing is impossible for the obvious reason - the citizens living in it will not be its owners, will not have the right to own it, and therefore will not be able to transfer it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsbAFCrjhbM

But not everything is so simple, and with the help of certain schemes it is possible to “buy” this housing, but we put quotation marks precisely because this is not an ordinary purchase, and it is far from a fact that it will be possible to carry it out.

In theory, it is possible to agree that the “seller” checks out of the apartment and registers the “buyer” into it.

Thus, although officially no sales transaction will take place, the right to privatization, if it is possible at all for a given apartment, will be received by another citizen, and after he uses this right, ownership rights will be assigned to him.

Therefore, it will be much easier to privatize the apartment, and only then sell it - the problem can only be that the seller does not want to use his right to privatize, and the buyer is ready to do this in exchange for a reduced price. Then such a deal may make sense, but one must realize that the risk in its implementation is much higher, because it can be considered by the legislation as imaginary, which means there is a risk of its cancellation in the future.

To summarize: the purchase of non-privatized housing has so many reservations that it can be considered almost impossible.

Risks of buying a privatized apartment

When buying a privatized apartment, people expose themselves to serious risks of being left without an apartment and without money. Let's look at all the risks when buying a privatized apartment and how to be safe in your purchase.

• People privatize an apartment when they want to dispose of it, while judicial practice suggests that the courts almost always side with people who were deceived or bypassed during privatization.
• Why do people privatize apartments?

• Elderly people - for inheritance registration
• Those who need a “collateral mass” to obtain a bank loan
• Who plans to rent out an apartment?
• Someone needs to register someone without unnecessary approvals
• For redevelopment 
• If the house is planned for demolition, the owner of the privatized housing is required to compensate for all losses

All risks of purchasing a privatized apartment are divided into four groups. Let's look at each group in more detail.

Buying a privatized apartment with a refusenik

A refusenik is a person who refused a share in a privatized apartment during privatization. According to the law, he has the right to live in an apartment for life and no one can deprive him of this right. A person who refuses to participate in privatization signs the refusal with a notary.

If, after all, the apartment is “sold with a refusenik,” his rights must be respected through the payment of compensation, which is equivalent to his “privatization” share. Moreover, this issuance of “compensation money” must be recorded in a separate agreement.

If a “refusenik” is registered and lives in another social rent apartment, it is necessary to require the seller of the apartment to present a social rent agreement, according to which the refusenik will move into another apartment. It is imperative to indicate that the refusenik does not claim the right to live in the apartment and will not claim this in the future.

The purchase and sale agreement must also indicate that the refusenik must be discharged and move to a new place of residence.

It should be taken into account that there is contradictory judicial practice in cases of refuseniks. Often, refuseniks manage to restore their right to use housing even if they are deregistered and registered at a new place of residence. It happens that the courts rejected refuseniks, justifying their decision by the presence of other housing in their property.

Buying a privatized apartment with “problem” children

Check with the apartment seller about the presence of your own registered minor children. In addition, you need to find out from the seller the possible presence of illegitimate children; there are times when illegitimate children can apply for residence in the apartment being sold.

It is not uncommon, but it happens that children are discharged “to nowhere.” This happened due to the negligence or oversight of the guardianship authorities. In this case, you will have a significant “add-on” to the apartment you are purchasing in the form of the right of residence for other people’s children.

1. If the house register contains references to registered and discharged children, request permission from the guardianship authorities to discharge children and a certificate of registration of children at another address. 
2. Purchasing a privatized apartment with problematic co-owners
3. When purchasing such an apartment, you need to check:

• Availability of other co-owners
• The presence of spouses - former and present
• Find out if there are people, former residents of this apartment, serving sentences in a colony
• Check whether the seller of the apartment is married - there are cases when the apartment is joint property, but according to the documents it is registered in the name of only one person

Purchasing a privatized apartment with problematic documents

Carefully examine the seller's passport for erasures and corrections. Check the validity of your passport

Check the documents for the apartment - there should also be no blots or corrections. If there are corrections, they must be approved by a notary

And one last thing. Be sure to include a clause in the purchase and sale agreement for privatized housing that if any problems are identified with this apartment in the future, the seller will be obliged to solve them on his own behalf and at his own expense.

• Passports of all participants
• Agreement on the fact of transfer of a municipal apartment into the ownership of the seller
• Certificate of ownership
• Certificate of absence of debt 
• Copy of personal account; 
• Extract from the house register. 
• Permission from guardianship authorities (when a minor is registered in the apartment)
• Notarized order - if the transaction is not executed by the owner

• When a privatized apartment is inherited, the owner provides:
• Document on the right to inheritance
• Certificate from the tax office (payment of inheritance taxes)

Risks of buying a privatized apartment

If a buyer is going to purchase an apartment where the original document is a privatization agreement, many different nuances should be checked before the transaction. There are persons who, not being the owners of privatized housing, have the right to live in it indefinitely.

Legally, these are persons who once gave their consent to privatization without their participation: they are popularly called “refuseniks” of privatization.

Thus, when buying an apartment after privatization, in which “refuseniks” were registered at the time of the transaction, the buyer may receive, in addition, lengthy legal proceedings and a stranger as a neighbor. Clause 2 of Art. does not apply to these persons.

292 of the Civil Code, which states that with the transfer of ownership, the right to use the housing of family members of the previous owner also ceases. These citizens have an indefinite legal right of residence. No matter how many times the owner changes, it does not stop. There is no separate provision of law regulating this rule.

But it was withdrawn by the RF Armed Forces and formulated in paragraph 18 of the Plenum Resolution No. 14 of July 2, 2009. It is this document that states that the rights of “refuseniks” are preserved even in the event of alienation of residential premises, because, by giving consent to privatization without their participation, they believed that their right to reside in this housing would be indefinite.

Therefore, when buying a privatized apartment, you cannot sign a sales contract until the moment at least someone remains registered.

Even if the seller brings statements to the transaction that the registered people undertake to deregister after the transaction is concluded, these statements subsequently have no force in court.

What you need to pay attention to when purchasing a privatized apartment

When buying an apartment after privatization, the main thing that the buyer must do is research the privatization procedure.

Were there any refuseniks, when were they deregistered and whether they were deregistered permanently or was their deregistration forced or temporary in nature (for example, a conscientious objector went to study, joined the army - in all these cases, even a conscientious objector who was deregistered can restore his rights to residence by filing a claim in court).

There is one more important point - it is imperative to check whether the owner of the privatized apartment has any children (or at most even illegitimate ones or from a first marriage) who did not participate in the privatization because they were discharged from the apartment before it was registered. They do this to avoid communication with the guardianship authorities when selling a home. Having become adults, they can restore their property rights by filing a claim in court that they were knowingly discharged before privatization.

You also need to pay attention to:

• the absence of family members of the seller who did not take part in the privatization because they were absent at that moment - they were in the MLS or served in the Armed Forces. When they return, they can challenge the very fact of privatization in court;
• age of the seller: if he is an elderly person, it is better to play it safe by asking for a certificate from a psychoneurological dispensary about his legal capacity. Otherwise, the guardians may later challenge the deal;
• availability of consent to the sale of the home of the seller’s spouse, if any.

Advantages of buying a privatized apartment

Of course, there are some risks when purchasing privatized apartments, but they are no greater or worse than the risks when purchasing ordinary residential real estate.

Contacting a competent lawyer who will check the entire history of the property and its ins and outs solves all problems for the buyer.

All the advantages of buying any home are obvious: you buy apartments without history and from the first owner.

Risks when buying an apartment | Gordon and Partners

A. Gordon

Lawyer Gordon Andrey Eduardovich 

When purchasing apartments, after asking about the characteristics of the apartment (location, area, number of rooms, kitchen size), you should ask: what documents? The best answer is considered to be a privatized apartment, owned for more than 3 years. It is believed that a privatized apartment is a transparent history of the apartment, it is safe, and there are no surprises.

We have to disappoint: There are always risks when buying an apartment! There may be more or less. Privatized apartments are no exception.

Risks when buying an apartment

The buyer bears the main risk when purchasing an apartment. Confiscation of apartments from buyers by court decision occurs everywhere. The reasons may be different, but it all ends in the recognition of the agreement for the purchase of an apartment as invalid.

The seller's obligation to return the money received for the apartment is little consolation for the buyer. Buyers can receive them for years.

And the apartment will be taken away quickly enough.

Privatized apartment risks

Risks when purchasing a privatized apartment can be divided into several types: 1) Violations during privatization, 2) The presence of “refuseniks”.

Refuseniks are persons who refused to participate in the privatization of an apartment and did not become owners. When buying and selling an apartment, refuseniks should not participate in the transaction, but they are the ones who can present the buyer with a surprise.

Moreover, problems may arise for the buyer even if the privatized apartment is purchased at auction, from a bank, etc.

The fact is that a refusenik has the right to use the apartment for life, and after a while he can claim his rights to live in the apartment you bought.

According to the law on the privatization of the housing stock in the Russian Federation, residential premises are transferred either to the common ownership of all residents of a given living space, or, by agreement between them, to the ownership of one or only several of them (Article 2 of the law).

If one of the residents does not want to participate in privatization, then to privatize the apartment the following is required: Refusal to participate in privatization and Consent to the privatization of the apartment by another person. These documents become crucial.

Without such a refusal, the apartment will not be privatized - that is, transferred into ownership. By refusing to participate in privatization, the refusenik actually acquires the right to lifelong residence (use) of a privatized apartment.

Since 2004 such a right of a refusenik is directly enshrined in the law - in Article 19 of the introductory law on the implementation of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation and in Article 31 of the code itself. The sale of an apartment in which a refusenik lives (registered) does not terminate his rights to live in the apartment. Moreover, this rule also applies to former family members of the apartment owner.

The practical significance of the right of a conscientious objector to live in an apartment

When accompanying apartment purchase and sale transactions, we repeatedly come across situations where the owner’s child from his first marriage, or an ex-wife (former mother-in-law, father-in-law), etc. is registered in the apartment being purchased. Moreover, these persons do not live in the apartment. But legally, such citizens retain the right to use the apartment.

• Sellers and their realtors often assure the buyer that after registering ownership of the apartment, the seller will remove such persons from the apartment (remove them from registration at the place of residence in the purchased apartment), and if they do not want to, the seller will remove them through the court.
• Sometimes, citing personal hostile relationships with their “ex,” sellers convince the buyer to sign out the exes himself, since the buyer is the new owner and has the right to sign out family members of the previous owner of the apartment.
• In such situations you need to be careful.

If one of the former family members of the seller refused to privatize this apartment, the new owner (buyer) will not be able to remove them from the apartment. Even if he files a lawsuit for eviction.

The buyer may also face the problem of eviction of registered citizens, even if these residents have nothing to do with privatization. For example, if it is a minor and one of his parents or guardians.

There are court decisions when the court refused to terminate the registration of a child before he came of age.

The situation is a little easier when a conscientious objector lives in the apartment being purchased. There were cases when, after the sale of an apartment, a refusenik for one reason or another refused to be discharged to another.

Therefore, the buyer needs to establish in advance, when preparing the transaction, the status of each person living in the apartment. It is necessary to identify the presence of refuseniks in advance. The next stage is to take care of the correct registration of the “release of the apartment from the refusenik.”

A simple technique will help eliminate such situations: before making a transaction, such persons must be registered at a different address, and the apartment must be vacant. At the same time, such a discharge may be considered illegal if there was abuse and the refusenik was discharged “to nowhere”, or to a obviously unsuitable premises, etc.

Proper preparation of a transaction with an apartment will prevent you from encountering the situations described - a mandatory legal inspection of the apartment, during which the persons registered in the apartment and their rights are identified.

But all of this is abuse by the parties to the purchase and sale transaction, which can and should be identified in preparation for the transaction with the apartment.

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