Home / Housing disputes / Eviction of illegally residing citizens from residential premises
Private property is inviolable. This is stated in Art. 35 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. But in practice there are exceptions, for example, if someone moves into an apartment without permission and lives there without the knowledge of the owner. Or does not respond to fair demands to evict. Illegal residents have neither registration nor housing rights. Therefore, they can and should be evicted from the apartment.
But is everything as simple as it looks at first glance? The apartment owner will have to face many nuances. That is why the eviction of unauthorized tenants becomes a serious problem. We will try to understand all the features of this difficult process.
✅ Reasons for the appearance of illegal residents
The first question that needs to be answered is where do the uninvited “guests” come from? Establishing this circumstance serves as the first step towards the eviction of an unauthorized tenant.
There are several reasons for the appearance of illegal residents in an apartment:
- expiration of the residential lease agreement;
- placement of minor children (without the consent of the owner of the living space);
- subletting an apartment to third parties;
- accommodation of relatives of previous tenants;
- reluctance of the ex-spouse to move out of the apartment after the divorce.
These and other reasons result in the appearance of unwanted guests in the apartment. It’s good if they understand the situation and vacate the living space on their own. But often residents simply refuse to move out of the apartment along with their belongings.
If there are children among the unwanted tenants, read about the procedure in the article “How to evict minors from a residential premises”?
Where are they expelled?
A citizen who is deprived of the right to use residential premises is most interested in where he will live next .
There are 3 options to solve this problem :
- The citizen is provided with a comfortable municipal apartment in accordance with Article 89 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation.
This happens in several cases:
- the building where the premises are located is recognized as unsafe;
- the apartment is unsuitable for further use;
- the site on which the residential building is built is seized for state needs;
- real estate is subject to transfer to a religious organization;
- after a major overhaul, the characteristics of the premises changed for the worse, for example, the area decreased;
- the apartment is subject to transfer to non-residential premises.
This list is contained in Article 85 of the RF Housing Code.
- The citizen is provided with another premises, possibly with deteriorated characteristics. This happens if the tenant and other residents do not pay utility bills for six months.
- Other accommodation is not provided in all other cases. This procedure is established by Articles 91 and 35 of the RF Housing Code. A citizen will independently search for a new apartment if he has been evicted from a private premises.
Find out whether you can be evicted from your only apartment in our article.
✅ Can the police or local police officer evict illegally living tenants?
Before evicting illegally residing citizens from a residential premises, you need to understand who to turn to for help? The owner of the apartment has the right to involve the district police officer, police officers, housing inspectors, guardianship authorities, prosecutor and bailiffs. But this must be done gradually, and in no case should you engage in arbitrariness.
Arbitrariness is the commission of active actions in relation to other entities or their property that are contrary to the current legislation (Article 330 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Examples are threats to “take a person down the stairs”, assault, putting things outside the door, deliberate damage to the property of evicted citizens, etc.
You cannot act arbitrarily under any circumstances - this puts the owner himself at risk, so instead of evicting the guests, he may face imprisonment for up to 5 years.
Therefore, if you are faced with the problem of evicting unwanted tenants, contact law enforcement agencies or the court. It is this method that makes it possible to do everything according to the law and not incur any troubles. The basis is the provisions of Art. 301 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the right of the owner to reclaim his property if the latter is illegally in the hands of others.
Contacting the bailiff service
A writ of execution in itself is a basis for eviction, but sometimes even its presence does not allow the territory to be vacated. In this case, the owner should contact the bailiff service. This department implements court decisions.
To receive help from bailiffs you must:
- Take your ID and writ of execution and go with them to the FSSP.
- Write an application to initiate enforcement proceedings.
Next, the owner will not have to take any action, all that remains is to wait for the result.
The bailiff will notify people of the forced eviction from their premises, first in writing and then in person. If they do not want to vacate the apartment, a coercive measure will be applied to them, in which the residents’ belongings and themselves are simply evicted to the street.
✅ How to evict an illegally residing person from an apartment
Let's look at three ways to evict people living in residential premises without permission. The choice in favor of one method or another depends on specific circumstances. But it is important to remember that only the courts and, in some cases, prosecutors have the right to evict people from the premises they occupy.
