14/03/2017

Deputies Of The State Duma To Give Moscow Special Powers For Dismantling Khrushchyovkas

Konstantin Savin, Head of Real Estate Practice, commented for Kommersant on the legislative initiative.

There is a Council for Development of Urban Areas creating in the State Duma, which will discuss the issue of demolition of five-storey buildings (Khrushchyovkas) in Moscow. On a day preceding, a bill was submitted to the Parliament with a view to demolish five-storey buildings and “structurally similar” houses in groups at its discretion, to freely change height of buildings and category of land in the “renovation” zones, and depart in projects from the fire and sanitary requirements. They offer to give settlers “equivalent” housing in the same or neighboring area, and if they do not agree, after 60 days to forcibly carry out the procedure through court action. In the opinion of the experts interviewed by Kommersant, the authorities did not receive such powers and terms for termination of proprietary rights even in the preparation for the Sochi Olympics.

The Chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, announced the creation of the Council for Development of Urban Areas yesterday. He expects that the body, among other things, “will actively go into question of implementing the President’s order for the demolition of Khrushchyovkas in Moscow. On Friday, a bill drafted by the Moscow authorities was submitted to the Parliament with a view to carry out the five-storey buildings demolition program. As Kommersant has already reported, it says that officials themselves will be able to determine the content of the program, to make lists of houses to be demolished, while including to these lists not only five-storey buildings, but also other houses in the blocks designated for renovation (see Kommersant of March 10). The bill is about houses “structurally similar” to buildings of “the first industrial house-building period”. That said, the settlers will be able to count on “equivalent” housing - “well-furnished”, having the same number of rooms, living and total area of which is not less than in the vacated apartment. As was previously promised by officials, the housing will be provided in the same or a neighboring area (except for the Central Administrative District, Zelenograd and the New Moscow District, where the resettlement is planned to be within the district). This procedure is proposed to extend to both owners and renters of social housing. Only persons on the waiting lists (registered before March 1, 2005) will be able to improve housing conditions: they will be provided with apartments according to social normative standards (18 square meters per person). The rest, obviously, can do it with surcharge. In any case, in order to implement the program a Renovation Assistance Foundation (RAF) is created having a permission to raise finances from citizens for shared construction (according to 214-FZ) <...>

Konstantin Savin, Pavlova&Partners law firm representative, notes about the uncertainty in demolition of “structurally similar” buildings: such formulation will allow to demolish Stalinkas too. Ms. Ponomareva complains that the document allows officials to determine the list of series and codes of “the first industrial house-building period” houses to be demolished: “Thus, the spectrum of series can in fact look howsoever”.

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Ирина Кошечкина

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