Is it possible to combine apartments without the consent of the residents?

Home » Housing disputes » Redevelopment » Combining two apartments into one - approval

The more living space in an apartment, the better, especially for large families. Even a large standard apartment is not always enough for a comfortable stay for all its inhabitants. And if you don’t want to leave or it’s not possible, then the best option is to buy another apartment next door and simply combine them with each other.

Vertical or horizontal joining

The association of apartments is divided into two options:

• Horizontal . This is a more standard method in which two apartments located on the same floor and located next to each other are combined into one. Usually the option of cutting a doorway in the wall is used, but it is also possible to combine it by forming a separate vestibule (depending on the layout, location of the home and many other factors).
• Vertical . This type of association is much less common and represents the combination of two apartments into one, but two-level. This method is not particularly popular for many reasons, ranging from the fact that it is unusual for most people and ending with the fact that not all apartment buildings have the physical ability to make a hole in the ceilings without violating the overall integrity of the structure.

A two-level apartment also has its advantages. For example, only here can you change the location of the bathroom on the upper level so that it will be located above the living space.

Advantages and disadvantages of the process

Positive aspects of combining apartments:

• it turns out to be an almost new apartment;
• the meters of the room become larger.

In the future, the owner will experience many other benefits when the apartments are connected. Usually this means savings on fees for utilities, etc.

When planning the procedure, look at the disadvantages of connecting individual areas:

• Sometimes there may be problems obtaining permission;
• high cost of work.

Combining apartments through a vestibule

If you choose the option with a horizontal connection, then the easiest way to connect the housing is by forming a separate vestibule. This is only possible when two apartments are located in close proximity to each other and there is no other housing nearby whose owners this vestibule could interfere with.

It should be taken into account that in such a situation the vestibule will occupy part of the common area of ​​the house and therefore not only the approval of the redevelopment is required, but the consent of the residents of the house for such a “seizure” of the territory. Moreover, consent is needed not just from neighbors on the site, but from most of the inhabitants of the house. Most often, you have to pay for additional space.

Such consent can be obtained through a general house meeting. Residents must be warned about it at least 1 month in advance, or better yet, several months in advance. Since the owner of the apartment/apartments is interested in this, he will have to deal with this issue, personally visit all the apartments, distribute notices of the meeting, and so on.

As practice proves, it is not always possible to gather all the owners of all apartments. The legislation provides for such a feature, and therefore two thirds of the owner-occupiers are sufficient to make a positive decision. At the same time, it is necessary to obtain consent from at least 51% of people who came to the meeting.

Most often, it is not particularly difficult to obtain consent, especially if the initiator of the meeting takes on some additional responsibilities. For example, to improve the local area (arrangement of a flower bed, playground, and so on).

Based on the results of the meeting, a special protocol is drawn up, which notes exactly what the residents agreed to. This document will need to be notarized. Only after this can it be used as consent from the residents of the house. Without such a protocol, no one will approve the combination of apartments through the vestibule.

Connecting apartments through interior spaces

This option is not as convenient and simple as the previous one, but it does not require a house-wide meeting. It is enough to carry out a small redevelopment and cut a door hole in the wall. It will connect the apartments in the same way that standard doorways connect several rooms to each other.

Most often, apartments are separated by a load-bearing wall of the house. As a result, it is strictly prohibited to carry out any work with it without obtaining prior permission (project approval).

The advantage of this scheme is that the apartments have two exits (if necessary), the interests of neighbors are not affected, and in order to move from one apartment to another you do not need to go out into the vestibule.

With all conviniences

Combining several apartments into one large room also requires a certain approach to design. It is important to create the most comfortable living conditions possible. So, it is better to place bedrooms, a nursery and an office in one part of the apartment, and guest rooms, a dining room and a kitchen in another.

When connecting two small rooms, do not forget about lighting. You will probably need additional lamps and chandeliers. You need to think about this point even before finishing work.

Experts advise not to give up the second door - let it serve as an emergency exit.

Combining rooms in a communal apartment

Often, each individual room in a communal apartment is perceived as a separate living space. If necessary, you can combine several rooms together and get something more similar to a real apartment than just a small room.

The main problem is that such work requires the consent of the neighboring co-owners. But a meeting of the residents of the house will not be required, since the vestibule between the rooms in a communal apartment does not belong to the common property of the house.

There are also advantages to such a redevelopment: most often, the partitions between similar rooms are not load-bearing. A permit to carry out the work will still be required, but obtaining it will be much easier than carrying out the renovation and redevelopment itself.

How to legitimize the association?

The combination of two apartments into one can be legalized or agreed upon. The first option involves legitimizing a redevelopment that has already been completed, when a doorway has already been punched through the wall without permission. The second option involves preliminary approval of all work, the project and all features, and only then, after obtaining permission, repairs begin.

Despite the fact that the general procedure for approval or legitimation differs little, it is always more convenient and simpler to agree on what has not yet been done, rather than legitimize unauthorized actions. In the second case, very often a refusal is issued and an order is given to “return everything as it was.” And it is not always possible to challenge this refusal in court, especially when the work was carried out with violations.

If non-specialists cut through the doorway, without a clear plan and understanding of what they are doing, the overall integrity of the entire apartment building may suffer. This threatens the complete or partial collapse of the structure. That is why, when coordinating work on combining apartments, a lot of attention is paid to how exactly the connection between the rooms will be made, what reinforcements are required for the door frame, and so on.

Procedure

Instructions for approval or legalization of redevelopment to combine two apartments:

1. Order a redevelopment project. In some cases, if not particularly complex work is planned, the project can be prepared by the owner of the apartment himself (such a document is often called a sketch). In this case, since the problem concerns cutting openings in load-bearing walls or ceilings, a full-fledged project completed by specialists is required. Exception: association through the vestibule. Here, too, permission is required, but the issue with the project remains open. Sometimes a sketch made by the owner of the premises himself may be enough.

The project contains a huge amount of information that a non-specialist may not even be aware of. As a result, regulatory authorities are more likely to approve a well-executed project than a homemade sketch. But the latter will cost significantly less - you will only have to spend your time and nerves, but not money.

1. Collect the remaining documents (see below for more details).
2. Contact any branch of the MFC.
3. Provide all documents and fill out an application.
4. Obtain a decision from regulatory authorities. If it is positive, repairs can begin. It should be taken into account that the decision will indicate the period during which the applicant is obliged to complete the repair/redevelopment and assemble a commission to draw up an acceptance certificate for the work performed.

If the procedure for legitimizing work already completed is carried out and permission is obtained, then at this stage everything practically ends. All that remains is to make the appropriate changes to the registration certificate.

1. After completing the work, undergo inspection by the commission. It includes a representative of the regulatory authorities, representatives of the companies that drew up the project and carried out the redevelopment work, as well as the homeowner directly. In some cases, a representative of the management company is added to this list. The commission checks to what extent the work performed corresponds to the project. If there are no violations, the act is signed.
2. If everything is done correctly, after signing the act, you can make changes to the registration certificate. Once this is done, the apartments will technically be combined into one. One should take into account the fact that formally they will still remain separate living quarters, simply connected to each other by an additional doorway. As a result, payment receipts will be sent to both apartments.

There is a misconception that if you “cut off” communications in one apartment and, instead, bring communications there from another, you can save on utility bills. In fact, this is not the case, because the total area of ​​the premises will remain unchanged, as will the volume of service consumption. Thus, if payments differ, it will be extremely insignificant.

Documentation

To approve/legalize redevelopment with the combination of two apartments into one, the following documents will be required:

• Apartment owner's passport.
• Consent of apartment co-owners to carry out redevelopment-merger.
• Minutes of the meeting of residents of the house (relevant only if united through a vestibule).
• Application for redevelopment-merger.
• Registration certificates for both apartments.
• Redevelopment project.
• Title documents for both apartments.
• Extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate.
• Power of attorney for the representative and his passport (if required).

Expenses

When agreeing/legalizing redevelopment, in addition to the work itself, which can also cost a substantial amount, the following expenses may arise:

• Preparation of a redevelopment project. The minimum cost is 10 thousand rubles, but in practice, in order to combine two houses you will have to pay from 30 thousand rubles to 150 thousand rubles. Much depends on exactly how the merger will take place, what work will be planned besides it, and so on.
• Fresh extract from the Unified State Register for each apartment: 300 rubles.
• Certification of the minutes of a meeting of residents: from 1 thousand rubles.
• Consent of apartment co-owners: from 1 thousand rubles.
• Power of attorney for a representative: from 2 thousand rubles.
• Making changes to the technical passport (merging two technical passports into one): from 5 thousand rubles.

Deadlines

Coordination/legalization of redevelopment-combination of apartments is a rather lengthy procedure. It may take about 3-4 months, of which about 2 weeks or more will be spent preparing the project and another 45 days will be spent directly on coordinating all planned work. In addition, it will take about 3 days to prepare an extract from the Unified State Register, and merging registration certificates will take about 1-2 more weeks.

Where to order a project?

This can be done in any organization that provides such services, but check whether it has a design permit or this is also called SRO approval.

You can contact the commercial design departments at BTI. There will definitely be no delays with permits.

It is unknown how much the project will cost, because the price depends on several factors:

• in what region, what type of house;
• Is it a secondary market or a primary market, a newly built house or a Soviet one;
• what changes do they want to make in the apartment: designing only a doorway will cost about 10,000 rubles, and demolishing a wall is already 3-4 times more expensive.

Specialists will do the calculations and issue an estimate before offering to sign the contract.

Solving the problem in court

Not always planned work can be agreed upon in a general manner. In some cases, the problem will have to be resolved in court. This is especially true when legitimizing. It should be borne in mind that in many cases going to court does not achieve anything.

This is relevant provided that the project includes work that cannot be performed based on legal requirements. However, no one bothers you to try. If you properly justify everything that you plan to do, there is some probability that permission will be given. An experienced lawyer will greatly help in this matter.

Procedure

Instructions for going to court:

1. Contact the MFC and try to solve the problem in the general manner as described above. This is an important stage, even if it is clear in advance that approval will be refused. Thanks to such an appeal, the homeowner will show the court that he tried to solve the problem pre-trial.
2. Receive a refusal of approval from the MFC. This is a very important document for the court, which is the reason for the appeal. The refusal must include a reason, a signature and a seal.
3. Collect documents for the court. They are practically no different from documents for approval/legitimation, so you won’t have to put much effort into them.
4. File a claim. It is best to ask an experienced lawyer about this.
5. Submit the application and documents to the court.
6. Pay the state fee.
7. Wait for the meeting and attend it.
8. Get a court decision.
9. If the decision suits the applicant, you will need to wait until it comes into force and re-apply to the MFC. If the decision is negative, you can appeal.

Documentation

In addition to all the listed documents required for applying to the MFC, when filing a claim in court, in addition to it, you will also need the following papers:

• Refusal received at the MFC.
• Receipt for payment of state duty.

If you plan to involve a representative to go to court, you will need an appropriately issued power of attorney for him. In the event that the representative is the same person who was previously involved in submitting documents to the MFC, it makes sense in one power of attorney to provide in advance for the opportunity to act on behalf of the principal both in the MFC and in court.

Expenses

The only additional cost when going to court will be the state duty. Its size is 300 rubles. You should take into account the fact that if you need to issue a power of attorney, it will also cost 2 thousand rubles and more.

Deadlines

On average, the procedure for approving/legalizing the merger of two apartments when going to court lasts for 3 additional months. Of these, about 2 months will be spent studying the case materials and another 1 month will have to wait until the court decision comes into force.

When they can refuse, is it possible to do something about the refusal?

The basis for refusal to issue permission for redevelopment may be essentially two circumstances:

1. The project does not comply with existing standards.
2. Failure to obtain the necessary approvals when affecting the common property of the apartment building.

In the first case, there may be a significant number of specific reasons for refusal. This is because there are quite a lot of restrictions on dismantling work. However, if the designer approaches the matter competently, then there should be no refusal on this basis.

A competent designer, even at the design stage, will voice all the “weak” points of the idea and either suggest ways to solve the problem or advise abandoning the idea.

As for the second reason - the lack of approvals from residents - here everything is decided by the cohesion of the community of owners. It's rare to get 100% agreement from everyone.

For this reason, it is better to refrain from expansion plans at the expense of common property, as well as any other work that reduces it.

If a refusal is nevertheless received, then there is no need to challenge it. As a rule, such attempts are not crowned with success. The best way out of the situation would be to eliminate the comments of the competent authority and reapply for approval.

Problems with illegal merging of apartments

The illegal combination of two apartments has many disadvantages. The simplest thing is that it will not be possible to combine the accounts of these premises into one. Each apartment will continue to be considered separate. In addition, no bank will accept such housing as collateral, since the layout does not comply with the technical passport.

Further - only worse. The owner of the premises will be fined in the amount of 2-2.5 thousand rubles. Moreover, since the redevelopment affects two apartments at once, there may also be two fines. In addition, the owner will be given an order according to which the housing will need to be brought into compliance with the technical passports. Simply put, seal the opening between the apartments, demolish the vestibule, and so on.

If you pay a fine but ignore the order, ultimately the housing (both apartments) will be seized and sold at auction.

Merging personal accounts of two apartments

If everything is done according to the rules and, according to the technical passport, now instead of two apartments there is one, you can try to combine the accounts. To do this, you need:

1. Collect documents confirming the fact of combining apartments. Usually one technical certificate is enough, but it is better to also prepare a work permit, an acceptance certificate and a redevelopment project.
2. Please contact the management company (management company) with the documents and write an application to merge the accounts. Statements of this kind are usually drawn up in free form, but management companies may have their own forms and samples.
3. Submit the completed application and documents to the manager.
4. Wait for the application to be reviewed. Usually this takes from 2-3 days to a couple of weeks, it all depends on how active the management company is.
5. Receive confirmation of account consolidation. They cannot refuse in such a situation without compelling reasons. If a refusal nevertheless follows, it is necessary to clarify what exactly the management company does not like and eliminate the shortcomings. Perhaps they will need additional documents or something else.

Combining two or more apartments into one is a complex and lengthy procedure. At a free consultation, experienced lawyers will talk about the main problems that most owners face. Also, qualified specialists can represent the client’s interests in the MFC and in court.

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Author of the article

Natalya Fomicheva

Website expert lawyer. 10 years of experience. Inheritance matters. Family disputes. Housing and land law.

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