Reasons for refusing to privatize housing

Reasons for refusal to privatize an apartment

The possibility of refusing privatization is provided for in Federal Law No. 1544-1 “On Privatization”. Re-registration of property rights may be prevented for various reasons. The refusal may even be caused by a banal reluctance to give the apartment into private ownership completely free of charge.

The decisions of municipal and state bodies are influenced by many nuances. For example, they may be refused due to a break in registration in a privatized living space, due to the inappropriate condition of the real estate, due to debt on utility payments, and so on.

The reasons for refusal can be divided into several groups. Let's look at each of them in more detail.

Residential status

In accordance with current legislation, the privatization of a real estate property is prohibited if it has the following status:

Reasons for refusal related to privatization participants

According to the law, a citizen can exercise the right to free privatization of housing only once in his life. The exception is persons who exercised their right before reaching adulthood. After 18 years of age, they can once again participate in privatization.

Consent to registration of real estate ownership must be given by all citizens living in the living space who have reached the age of 14 years. If any of the registered persons are against it, privatization is impossible.

If one of the interested parties has already participated in the privatization of housing previously, he must express written consent to the re-registration without his participation in the right of common ownership. The absence of this document may result in refusal.

Another reason for refusal is a long break in permanent registration in privatized housing. The municipality or government authorities explain the refusal for this reason by saying that the citizen could take part in privatization at another place of residence.

However, such a refusal is unlawful if the property is not registered with the applicant and privatization has not been carried out. According to the legal requirements for the privatization procedure, the competent authorities are obliged to check individuals for participation in the re-registration of such housing.

A special situation arises if the applicant dies before signing the contract. Accordingly, the procedure is stopped, and the municipality or state authorities try to deny final re-registration to the applicant's family members. Such a refusal is illegal, since the privatized apartment is included in the inheritance estate and its re-registration must be completed. This is stated in paragraph 8 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 8 of August 24, 1993.

When faced with such a situation, the applicant's family members will have to assert their rights in court. To resolve the issue in their favor, it will be necessary to confirm the right to inherit the property of the deceased applicant.

Refusal due to incorrect documents

A common reason for refusal of privatization is the non-compliance of documents with legal requirements or the lack of necessary papers. For example, if the applicant cannot provide a document that is the basis for living in the occupied living space (order, social tenancy agreement), then the procedure will be significantly delayed.

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In this case, the document must be restored in the organization or institution on whose balance sheet the house is listed. But even here difficulties may arise. There are often situations when multi-apartment housing is not listed on the balance sheet of any organization.

This can happen during the liquidation of a company. By law, such houses are transferred to the ownership of the municipality. However, documents often remain undocumented and the process of transferring ownership rights is delayed. Consequently, the house does not have an official owner, which means there is no one to issue permission for privatization.

A situation like this is grounds for going to court. The right to privatization will be recognized by a court decision made on the basis of Art. 18 Federal Law No. 1541.

If all the documents are available, but the municipality refuses privatization, then there may be two explanations for this:

Errors were found in the documents provided.
The authorities suspected the applicants of forgery.

Examination of documents or correction of mistakes will help eliminate this obstacle.

Refusal to privatize if there is debt

Special mention must be made of the refusal of government bodies to privatize if residents have debts to pay for utility services. Let's figure out how legal this is.

As a rule, a tenant, collecting documents for privatization, comes to the management company to receive extracts from the house register and personal account. If there is a debt, employees refuse to issue documents, explaining that privatization is impossible.

Such actions are illegal. A citizen has the right to receive the requested documents regardless of the presence or absence of debt. The management company is also obliged to issue them. Such actions by employees of the management company fall under Art. 19.1 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation “Arbitrariness”.

However, in any case, the debt will have to be repaid, since timely payment of housing and communal services is the direct responsibility of the tenant under the social tenancy agreement and current legislation. If the debt is not paid, preventive measures may be taken against residents, including eviction from the occupied living space.

Reasons why privatization may be refused

Law of July 4, 1991 Federal Law-1541-1 “On the privatization of the housing stock...” defines the procedure for transferring municipal residential premises into the personal ownership of citizens of the state, and also establishes the reasons for refusing to carry out denationalization.

They can be divided into several groups:

Inconsistency in the position of the immovable object

The following real estate is not subject to privatization:

A room in a dormitory building, if it is the property of federal government authorities. Only residential properties belonging to municipalities can be registered as personal ownership. In a situation where the hostel previously belonged to a specific enterprise, but was later transferred to the management of the local administration, then it belongs to ordinary apartment buildings and its residents can get rooms for free without difficulty;
Living area of military camps. Currently, such settlements are excluded from the list of closed ones, but the privatization of apartments in them is a very complex process, since in most cases information about such premises is not available in the Unified State Register of Real Estate and the BTI;
Living space in houses that have the status of dilapidated or unsafe. This is only possible when such status is documented. Such a decision can be appealed in court if the decision has not yet been made.

Attention! The refusal to transfer ownership of apartments in dilapidated buildings is not based on legality, since there is no direct prohibition on the privatization of such objects by law.

Apartments owned by a company

Service housing can be transferred into the personal possession of residents only with the consent of its owner, on whose balance sheet it is located. Difficulties may arise when an enterprise needs to obtain permission to carry out the procedure from the Property Management Agency.

Residential premises subjected to illegal redevelopment

If permission from the authorities was not obtained during construction work, then the refusal will be unequivocal. In addition, you will have to pay a fine and return the apartment to its original condition. There is a possibility that after all requirements are met, the privatization procedure will be completed.

Reasons arising from the personalities of the participants

The law establishes the possibility of participating in the procedure only once in a lifetime and voluntarily. All residents registered in social housing must give their consent to register their ownership. Minors from 14 to 18 years of age express their consent under the guardianship of legal representatives, and the interests of minor citizens are represented by their parents.

Before signing the contract, authorized employees monitor compliance with the privatization conditions. If evidence of the participation of any of the applicants earlier is revealed, a decision will be made to refuse. If one of the registered persons has already participated in the privatization process, then he will need to submit an application for the procedure to be carried out without him. In the absence of such a document, the transaction will not be possible.

They can also refuse due to a break in registration. A prolonged absence of registration for privatized housing may serve as a reason for making a negative decision. Administrative authorities motivate by the fact that by living in another living space, a person could privatize it. Controlling services verify the implementation of such a procedure at the applicant’s former place of residence.

If there is no information about the privatized property, then the refusal due to a long absence will be unlawful.

A negative decision may be made due to the lack of approval from any of the registered residents for the privatization of the entire premises. If at least one of the registered persons does not approve of the privatization of living space, then it will be impossible to carry out the procedure. This mainly applies to rooms in communal living space, because such an object constitutes a single room.

Sometimes situations arise when the employer submitted an application for privatization, but did not have time to complete the procedure due to his death. The refusal of the municipality in this case will be unlawful, since the residential property is included in the inheritance estate and its privatization must be completed. In this case, you will need to contact the judicial authorities, where you will need to document the right to inheritance.

Errors in documents

A refusal may also be received due to a lack of documents, their inconsistency, or the presence of errors in them. Problems may arise when:

The participants in the procedure do not have documents that are the basis for living in the apartment. They will need to be restored in the organizations that provided the facility for hire;
The house is not transferred to the balance sheet of a specific enterprise;
The building does not have an owner, whose rights have not been formalized in the prescribed manner. The privatization process can only be carried out in court;
There are errors in the documentation or there are suspicions that it has been falsified. The issue is resolved only after an examination and the necessary corrections have been made;
Having debts to pay for utilities. Such a decision is unlawful, since the debt must be collected by the owner in court.

We remind you that even if you thoroughly study all the data that is in the public domain, this will not replace the experience of professional lawyers! To get a detailed free consultation and resolve your issue as reliably as possible, you can contact specialists through the online form .

What to do if privatization is refused?

If you were denied privatization unlawfully and you can prove it, you need to go to court. And here you cannot do without an experienced lawyer, because you will have to sue the owner of the apartment (i.e., the municipality or the state), on whose side competent human rights activists will act.

However, before contacting a lawyer, you need to understand whether it is worth starting a lawsuit at all. In what cases is it possible to appeal a decision?

The house was recognized as unsafe only in words, but there are no documents confirming this status.
The house is a dormitory, but this is not documented.
The apartment is a service apartment, but the owner company has nothing against privatization.

If your situation fits the above, then you need to defend your rights. A competent lawyer will help with this; you can turn to us for help on our website.

The grounds for refusal to privatize must be justified

Know your rights, because very often they are violated by other citizens.

The privatization process is not so complicated in its procedure, so if you face it in the future, spare no effort and study its main stages. The same goes for refusal.

You can learn more about the privatization process by reading articles on how you can privatize housing with debts, a cooperative apartment, a room in a communal apartment, municipal housing and a service apartment.

Only the right approach to business, as well as knowledge of our legislation, will help you to soon become the owner of your own living space.