How to force a developer to eliminate defects in a new building

What deadlines does the law establish and from what point do they count?

The deadline for eliminating deficiencies by the developer is formulated according to Law No. 214 of December 30, 2004, as “reasonable”. The general definition is justified by the lack of precise knowledge about the essence of real problems. It is clear that replacing a defective door handle is easier and cheaper than pouring a new concrete screed. This implies a qualified identification of defects with the subsequent preparation of a truly justified claim.

The easiest way is when the exact terms are indicated in the text of the purchase and sale agreement along with penalties. In this case, detailed comments are unnecessary. If there is no mutual understanding with the developer, the shareholder files a claim in court.

It should be remembered that the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” (Federal Law No. 2300-1 of February 7, 1992, as amended on March 18, 2019) establishes a maximum period for correcting deficiencies in any services of no more than 45 days.

Important! The problem of timing for eliminating deficiencies can be eliminated or minimized at the stage of preparing the purchase and sale agreement. The period for eliminating deficiencies is counted from the date the claim is submitted to the developer.

In addition to the period for eliminating defects, it is very important to understand what warranty period is established for the work. It is established by the general norms of current legislation. According to the mentioned law No. 214, the minimum duration of warranty obligations is:

3 years – for water supply, electricity, other engineering systems;
5 years – for building structures.

The corresponding period is calculated “automatically” from the date of signing the acceptance certificate. The guarantee implies that any defects discovered during this period are entirely the responsibility of the developer.

Defects can be detected immediately upon acceptance or later if they were hidden.

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How to properly inspect an apartment upon acceptance

The level of readiness specified in the DCP is preliminarily clarified. In modern new buildings, apartments are often offered without finishing. The owner himself carries out finishing work in accordance with personal preferences, or entrusts them to specialists.

You can learn more about the acceptance procedure using thematic publications on our website. Below are the nuances that you should pay special attention to:

even in the “rough” state, the walls, ceilings and floors must be smooth, without gaps at the joints;
technological metal pins left in monolithic structures create cold bridges and brown spots on visible surfaces;
excessive humidity indicates poor insulation and insufficient ventilation;
during the acceptance process, the integrity of the seals is checked and meter readings are recorded;
In addition to the functional state, they clarify the correct installation of heating radiators.

Some developers offer a standard inspection sheet as an appendix to the transfer and acceptance certificate. It is recommended to create your own list of items for mandatory step-by-step verification.

If they lack their own knowledge and skills, they use the services of specialized specialists. Heat leaks, for example, are checked using specialized instruments. Timely elimination of significant defects will prevent problems and help optimize operating costs.

The shareholder has the right to refuse to sign the transfer and acceptance certificate if the property does not meet the following criteria:

parameters specified in the purchase and sale agreement;
design documentation data;
current construction and sanitary standards.

Sequence of actions in a standard situation:

identified deficiencies are recorded in a separate act;
list the discrepancies, hand the document to the developer against the signature of the responsible person, or send it by letter with mandatory notification of delivery to the addressee;
draw up a written agreement with the developer to eliminate the identified deficiencies, indicating a specific “reasonable” period (usually no more than 2-3 months);
After fulfilling the relevant obligations, they sign the transfer and acceptance certificate and complete the real estate acquisition transaction.

What to do if deficiencies were not discovered immediately

As soon as you discover a defect, immediately file a claim in which you outline all the circumstances. There is no point in delaying your claims. The statutory warranty period of 3 (5) years is useless in some situations. Unscrupulous businessmen register each property to a new company. After the bankruptcy of a disposable limited liability company, it will not be possible to compensate for losses.

For this reason, issues of remediation and penalties should be addressed as early as possible. It is quite difficult to prove that you are right if the transfer and acceptance certificate is signed without indicating certain comments. The law excludes compensation for the following items:

natural wear and tear, which is accompanied by deterioration of the aesthetic and technical parameters of the property;
violation by users of operating rules;
lack of proper care and routine maintenance.

Faults that appeared after additional repairs or reconstruction will not be a sufficient reason to receive compensation from the developer.

What requirements can be presented to the developer?

To solve the problem under consideration, the law establishes the following methods:

elimination of deficiencies by the developer at his own expense;
transfer of funds to the shareholder for repair work performed;
reduction in the price of the policy in proportion to the expected costs.

Below, the listed possibilities are discussed in detail, taking into account the consideration of the dispute in the courts.

The first option attracts the convenience of drawing up an agreement and the absence of unnecessary worries. However, you will have to once again trust a company that did not fulfill its obligations. It should be emphasized:

difficulty in monitoring the actions of contractors;
possibility of violation of deadlines;
lack of personal inspection of purchased materials.

When performing repairs on your own, it is not difficult to eliminate the noted deficiencies. The work can be done independently or using a contract. However, in any case, actual elimination of the identified defects will be required. To confirm costs in court, you must collect:

cash receipts;
statements from a personal bank account;
written receipts;
contracts with contractors.

If, in addition to repairs, other work is performed, they are documented in separate agreements. It is recommended to arrange payment in the same way.

This option offers additional benefits:

repairs can begin after a positive court decision;
it is not necessary to actually eliminate all identified defects;
material costs may be less than an expert estimate.

Court decisions

The apartment plan does not comply with the contract
How to sue a developer for a penalty

Dispute with LLC Lenspetsstroy

Gray sales schemes in new buildings

Violation of deadlines for delivery of the house by the developer

How to return money for an apartment if the contract was not concluded in accordance with No. 214-FZ

How to force the developer to eliminate defects

In the worst situation, when the developer refuses to sign a report on the identified defects, it is necessary to formally record the problems. To do this, contact a specialized expert company that has a license to carry out the relevant work. A representative of the developer is invited to a joint inspection by written notification.

Submitting a claim

There is an opinion that the maximum period for submitting a claim to the developer is limited by warranty obligations (by law or in accordance with the text of the contract). This is not entirely true. The guarantee provides the shareholder with the opportunity not to prove that the defects arose through the fault of the developer. If the warranty has expired, then a claim can also be submitted, but the likelihood of its satisfaction is noticeably reduced.

The text must contain a specific list of shortcomings that need to be eliminated. If they require a penalty, then when calculating they take 1% for each day:

from the cost of the apartment according to the contract for violation of the transfer deadline;
from the total costs of repairs to eliminate deficiencies.

On our portal you can download a sample and a blank claim form.

Let's go to court

If the developer does not voluntarily eliminate the deficiencies, the only option left is to go to court. In the statement of claim, state the same requirements as in the complaint.

In addition to the costs of eliminating deficiencies, the application can indicate penalties for several items:

violation of deadlines for the transfer of real estate, elimination of defects;
compensation for moral damage and 50% of the total amount of the claim for refusal to comply with the legal demands of the consumer (Federal Law No. 2 300-1, Article 13, paragraph 6);
reimbursement of expenses for professional expert assessment.

If the shareholder himself eliminates the defects, documents about the work performed and materials purchased are provided.

For your information! The statute of limitations for filing a claim is 3 years. You need to count from the moment the deficiencies are discovered.

How to force a developer to eliminate defects in a new building

The most crucial moment in the long process of waiting for a new apartment is the acceptance of new housing. After signing the acceptance certificate, all responsibilities for maintaining the apartment pass to the owner. However, hidden defects discovered several years later must still be corrected by the developer. Not all St. Petersburg construction companies are willing to do this. As a result, the discussion of the problem spills over into the courts. LIVING found out which of the developers do not immediately recognize warranty cases, and how such problems are solved.

What can you count on

According to Federal Law 214 “On participation in shared construction”, the guarantee for new buildings is valid for 5 years. During this period, all apartment buyers have the opportunity to file a claim with the developer if deficiencies are discovered. If there is a crack on the wall of the apartment, poor hot water pressure, or a double-glazed window is leaking, this is a reason to use the guarantee.

It must be remembered that if a problem is discovered a couple of years after moving in, most likely you will have to prove that its cause is precisely a violation of construction technology. After all, the developer has the opportunity to accuse the tenant himself of improper use of the premises. For example, sometimes apartment residents discover mold on the walls of the apartment. Formally, this can be attributed to warranty cases. But if the ventilation system in the apartment is not properly organized, then the tenant is to blame for these troubles. “Here it is very difficult to prove that mold did not appear as a result of people living in this apartment, but is a flaw in the construction itself. If mold is found in an unrenovated apartment, then you can still fight it. And if the repair has already been done, then it is very difficult to establish the cause of its origin,” comments lawyer Anton Lebedev. If you are sure that the problem was the fault of the developer, and he refuses to correct the defect, feel free to go to court.

New judicial history

Of course, an examination will have to be carried out. Perhaps more than one. But if you can prove the guilt of the builders, you won’t have to spend your own money on expensive repairs.

This is what the residents of the business class residential complex “New History”, located on Sredny Ave. VO, did. The developer was the developer, and the construction customer was Dom na Srednym LLC.

Photo
novostroy.su

A resident of one of the apartments had systematically leaking windows. The problem became acute about a year after moving in. The owner called both representatives of the contractor and the developer. In an attempt to eliminate the leak, the window fittings were replaced. But nothing helped. I had to go to court. “Two examinations were carried out. They showed that during the installation of windows, building codes, rules and GOSTs were violated. As a result, water got inside the curtain wall. Since they had a single stained glass window from the 10th to 14th floors, water flowed down it and collected in this apartment. The shareholder, almost within the last year of the limitation period, went to court. Based on the results of the examination, they began to look into the situation, and the court found that there were indeed violations,” says lawyer Anton Lebedev.

At the moment, a decision has been made at the first instance. The shareholder entered into an agreement with a contractor to replace windows. The examination showed how much it cost to renovate his apartment. We are talking about an amount of about 3 million rubles. The decision has not yet entered into legal force, so perhaps the developer will try to appeal it. However, lawyers are confident that the case will be resolved in favor of the shareholder.

The buyers of apartments in the residential complex “Two Captains” from the Normann company also had to seek the truth in court. The complex was occupied back in 2011. Two years later, serious problems arose with the hot water supply. The homeowners association, to which the developer handed over the management of the pulp, had to repair the entire system at its own expense. But still, a claim was brought against the developer. We are talking about an impressive amount of about 17 million rubles. An additional examination was ordered, which confirmed that there really was a problem. Ultimately, after two years of litigation, Normann accepted the HOA's demands and offered a settlement. As a result, the money spent on replacing the pipes was returned. LCD "Two Captains". Photo novostroy-spb.ru

A similar problem affected buyers of apartments in the Juno residential complex from the construction company. Here, rusty hot water flowed from the residents' taps. The rust content here exceeded the norm by 20 times. The reason is corrosion of hot water supply pipes inside the house. This fact was also established through examination. According to experts, the cause of rust is the poor quality of pipes in the home’s hot water supply system.

The court recognized that these defects “result in difficulties for the owners, and in some cases, the impossibility of using the hot water supply system of the house for its intended purpose. In addition, with such defects, large-scale leaks from the hot water system are not uncommon, which can pose a danger to the life and health of the owners of the said apartment building.” This is stated in the decision of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region dated April 16, 2021.

To eliminate the problem, it is necessary to completely replace the hot water pipes with polypropylene ones, and the lines of the individual heating point must be made of stainless steel.

Residential complex "Yunona"

The management company, which conducted all the negotiations with the developer, had to repeatedly contact KHOSK-2. Negotiations and litigation with the developer lasted for two years, which led to nothing. As a result, in April 2021, the court recognized the developer’s obligation to pay an amount of about 3 million rubles.

Resolution of the Arbitration Court

How to proceed

In order for the developer to fulfill his obligations under the guarantee, several actions must be taken. First of all, contact the company with a written complaint. Most likely, you will have to do an examination at your own expense. But we must remember that if you win in court, the developer will be obliged to compensate these costs too. If within a month or two the developer does not respond to the buyer’s claim, you need to go to court, says Anton Lebedev. Unfortunately, the problem cannot be solved any other way.

November 2, 2021