Home / Housing disputes / Privatization of a share, part in a municipal apartment
Advertisements for real estate sales can be found on any resource. But buyers are often put off by the high cost of housing, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Many families say goodbye forever to the opportunity to purchase their own apartment. Is there really no alternative opportunity to become the owner of a separate living space?
In fact, there is - to privatize municipal housing. There are several options:
- re-register the apartment as shared ownership;
- become the sole owner;
- privatize a separate part of communal housing - a room.
True, many factors need to be taken into account here - partial privatization of a municipal apartment differs from the re-registration of the entire housing. Let's see if and how it is possible to privatize a share or a room in municipal housing?
However, if you need to privatize a municipal apartment or an entire home, read about the procedure and nuances in our article.
✅ What does the law say?
Let's start with the fact that privatization in Russia is free - there is no need to buy an apartment at cadastral or market value. It is enough to collect documents, contact local authorities and register ownership in Rosreestr.
Moreover, starting from 2021, the privatization of housing in the Russian Federation has become unlimited - this is announced by the decree of the President of Russia V.V. Putin. Now any citizen of our country can transfer municipal real estate into personal property. Previously, this had to be done before the expiration of the free privatization period. Now the deadline has been removed completely, so there is more freedom in action.
But is everything so simple with registration of shares of municipal housing space? Federal Law “On Privatization...” No. 1541-1 dated July 4, 1991 states that the apartment is transferred into ownership as an integral piece of real estate. Housing can be transferred to one owner or several participants in the procedure at once. The main condition is the privatization of the entire apartment with the further distribution of shares to each family member of the tenant .
If you want to privatize not the entire municipal housing space, but, say, one room, they will refuse you. The law prohibits the registration of individual parts of an apartment without transferring ownership of the entire property. One option is to try changing the municipal status to communal living space . Subsequently, you can privatize a separate room in a communal apartment if it is a real estate property (i.e. it has a separate entrance, isolated from other rooms). But putting this into practice in real life is quite troublesome.
Drawing up a separate rental agreement
Is it possible to privatize a share in a municipal apartment without the consent of the other residents? If it is not possible to reach an agreement with the residents of the apartment peacefully, the privatization of a share in a municipal apartment can only be carried out by drawing up a separate lease agreement .
In this case, the last word remains with the owner of the premises, that is, local authorities.
A citizen needs to contact the settlement administration with a request to
conclude new social tenancy agreements for the occupied living space.
It is quite difficult to achieve a positive decision from the authorities in this case, since turning the apartment into a communal apartment is not profitable for the authorities.
But if there are compelling arguments and a loyal attitude from local governments, this option is still possible .
If the authorities meet citizens halfway and conclude several rental agreements with residents of a municipal apartment, each of them will become the owner of a room and will be able to acquire ownership rights to it.
If the authorities refuse to carry out the procedure, you can try to resolve the issue through the court . A citizen files a claim for the renegotiation of social tenancy agreements.
Residents must prove that there is no family relationship and they run their household separately. When filing such a claim in court, it is advisable to seek the help of an experienced lawyer.
✅ Is it possible to privatize a part, a share of an apartment, a room in a municipal apartment?
The most common method is shared privatization of municipal real estate. True, emphasis should be placed on the legal concept of “share” - this is not a separate room or footage, but a property right to a privatized apartment. For example, if a family wants a 2-room municipal housing, this does not mean that the father will get a living room, the mother a kitchen, and the child a single room.
Privatization means that housing will belong to both the father, mother, and child under the right of shared ownership. The size of the shares is established by agreement of the parties, but taking into account the interests of the child (if any). The rights of minors are protected by the guardianship and trusteeship authorities (CCA).
It is prohibited to privatize only one room in a municipal apartment . But the following is allowed: if the object is transferred to communal status, privatization of the room will become possible. The main difference between communal housing and municipal housing is the cohabitation of two or more families in isolated premises (rooms). Municipal real estate is similar to privatized property - the family lives in a separate room.
Question: Hello! My sister and I live in a 2-room municipal apartment under a social tenancy agreement. My sister wants to privatize part of the housing (one room), and leave the other to me. Is it possible to do this?
Lawyer's response:
The law prohibits the privatization of individual parts of a municipal apartment if the housing itself is not fully registered. Therefore, your sister will not be able to become the owner of a separate room. But you can privatize the entire property, and after signing the contract, determine your shares (for example, allocate a separate room to your sister). The housing will become personal property, and the sister will be able to dispose of the received share at her own discretion.
Goals
Allocating a room and then privatizing it allows you to become the rightful owner of the living space . From the moment of receiving the Certificate of Ownership of the room, the owner can take the following actions:
- Conclude transactions for the alienation of a room (share).
- Register any tenants in your living space without the consent of your neighbors.
- Rent out a room.
- Bequeath this living space.
The disadvantage of privatizing a separate room is the lack of rights to common areas.
From the moment of privatization of part of a municipal apartment, the owner becomes the owner of only a certain number of square meters .
He can only use the rest of the area (bathroom, toilet and utility rooms) together with other residents. He will not have property rights to this area.
✅ How to privatize a room in a municipal apartment?
So, we found out that privatization of a share, part and room is possible only with the general privatization of housing. It is separately possible to register rights to a room in a communal apartment. But to do this, it is necessary to transfer municipal housing to the status of a communal apartment, which is not so easy to do.
Therefore, we act according to the following scenario: we re-register municipal real estate and distribute shares upon completion of the stage of signing an agreement with the administration.
