Privatisation of housing

What is happening

A family has lived in a flat for decades, but the occupancy warrant is lost and a social tenancy agreement was never signed. The authority refuses privatisation and demands documents that nobody has.

A former departmental hostel was transferred to the city long ago, and the residents were given their rooms by the enterprise. They are told that hostels cannot be privatised, although the building's status changed years ago.

One family member opposes privatisation, another has already taken part in one in a different city, and a third is a minor. The family needs to know who will become an owner, in what shares, and whose consent is required.

What the law says

• Privatisation is carried out under the Law of the Russian Federation on the privatisation of the housing stock: citizens occupying state or municipal housing under a social tenancy are entitled, once, to receive it into ownership without payment. This right is currently not limited in time.
• Privatisation requires the consent of every adult family member of the tenant. A person who declines to take part keeps an indefinite right to use the flat even after it passes into the others' ownership.
• Minors living with the tenant are as a rule included among the owners; they can be excluded only with the guardianship authority's permission. Taking part in privatisation as a child does not prevent a person from privatising housing again as an adult.
• Service accommodation, housing in a dangerous state of repair and rooms in hostels, among others, cannot be privatised. But rooms in former departmental hostels transferred to a municipality are, under the Housing Code and the law bringing it into force, subject to the social tenancy rules, and therefore to privatisation.
• A refusal to privatise is challenged by a claim for recognition of ownership by way of privatisation. After the transfer agreement or the court decision, title is registered under Federal Law No. 218-FZ of 13 July 2015 "On State Registration of Real Estate".

What we do

• We check the status of the housing and the basis of occupation: the warrant, the tenancy agreement, information on the owner and the designation of the premises.
• We restore documents: requests to archives, the authority and former departmental owners, and certificates of participation or non-participation in privatisation.
• We identify the participants and prepare consents and waivers and, where needed, applications to the guardianship authority.
• We prepare the privatisation application and follow it through.
• We challenge a refusal and bring a claim for recognition of ownership by way of privatisation.
• We register ownership on the basis of the transfer agreement or the court decision.

What we will need from you

• The occupancy warrant or social tenancy agreement, if you have them.
• The single housing document or an extract from the residence register listing everyone registered.
• Passports and birth certificates of family members.
• Certificates of participation or non-participation in privatisation from previous places of residence.
• The authority's refusal, if already received, and your correspondence with it.