How to legally take over an abandoned plot in SNT. Step-by-step instruction

25.03.2021

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Common situation: You are the owner of a plot in SNT. Your site is well-groomed and cozy, licked and ennobled by you.

And in the neighboring area there is a war of windfall and brushwood. From such a neighborhood, weeds mixed with vipers creep into your territory, and the tall grass growing there is a fire hazard for nearby buildings.

And how beautiful your gazebo with barbecue or small garden would look on this site.

And then land is a good investment in the future. Stable and reliable.

But, alas, the neighboring plot is abandoned, and neither you nor the Chairman of the partnership know where the owner is. They say he seems to have died, but there are no heirs in sight...

According to paragraph 1 of Art. 225 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, ownerless is a thing that does not have an owner or the owner of which is unknown or, unless otherwise provided by law, the owner of which has renounced the right of ownership.

It turns out that the current legislation provides for methods of legal re-registration of uncultivated land plots to new owners, including on the territory of SNT.

How to legally take over an abandoned plot in SNT. Step-by-step instruction

Depending on the specific situation, several scenarios are possible:

if the land plot does not have an owner, then it may be classified as undemarcated land managed by a municipal entity at the district level.
According to clause 3 of p. 225 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, ownerless immovable things are accepted for registration by Rosreestr, upon the application of the local government body in whose territory they are located.
If the owner exists, but is not interested in bearing the burden of maintaining the site, then he can voluntarily renounce property rights to it by submitting a corresponding application to Rosreestr (clause 2 of Article 53 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation)
there is always the opportunity to conclude a civil contract with the owner, for example, draw up a bill of sale, if you manage to find him and interest him in the transaction
a procedure is applied for the seizure of a land plot not used by the owner for its intended purpose. Finally, in the event of the death of the copyright holder and the absence of heirs, the land plot acquires the status of escheat property and passes to the state (Part 1 of Article 1151 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The procedure and duration of registration of rights to an abandoned land plot in SNT depends on many factors, including whether an inheritance case was opened with a notary after the death of the owner of the plot, whether any buildings are located on the land plot, etc.

Based on the principle of the unity of fate of the land plot and the real estate located on it, it is possible to purchase an abandoned plot only at the same time as the house and other buildings located on it.

So, let's get started! First we need to identify the owner of the land if we do not have this information.

The algorithm of actions may be as follows:

1. Find a land plot on a public cadastral map and find out its cadastral number.

Each plot of land registered in Russia has a unique number in the cadastre. This is a code that serves as a means of identifying a property.

If the cadastral number of a plot of land is unknown, you can find it out at the address.

The public cadastral map (PCC) is a reference and information resource for providing users with information from the state real estate cadastre on the territory of the Russian Federation https://kadastr.ru/services/publichnaya-kadastrovaya-karta/.

With its help, you can obtain information from Rosreestr about the general characteristics of the site, check the name of the owner, and the presence of restrictions.

In what cases may a land plot not be displayed on the RCC?

The land plot was not registered with the state cadastral register in the manner prescribed by law;
The land plot does not have clearly defined boundaries, i.e. the copyright holder has not carried out land surveying. Previously, during real estate transactions and registration, the law did not require citizens to carry out land surveying. But there may be a situation where land surveying was carried out by the copyright holder (or the previous owner of the land plot), but information about the boundaries of the plot is still not available on the PKK. The following situations may occur here: land surveying was carried out, but the copyright holder did not submit the necessary documents to the authorized body at that time

2. Then we order an extract from the Unified State Register for the area of interest

In order to document the absence of information in the USRN database about the registered rights of a new owner (or to ensure that the plot is registered in the name of a deceased gardener), you need to order an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate (USRN) using the cadastral number of the land plot, for example, through the Rosreestr website (https://rosreestr.gov.ru/) or using the State Services service, or through the MFC. Anyone can receive such an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate with information on any real estate, both for their own and for someone else’s real estate.

3. To whom can local governments transfer ownerless land in the SNT?

According to the norms of the Land Code of the Russian Federation, without holding a tender, the sale and lease of land plots in state or municipal ownership, formed from a land plot provided by SNT, with the exception of general purpose land plots, is carried out to members of such a partnership (clause 3 p. .2 Article 39.3 and clause 7 clause 2 Article 39.6 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation).

Therefore, there are options:

A. A land plot can be transferred into shared ownership of all owners of plots located within the boundaries of the SNT territory

If the land plot of interest, located within the boundaries of the SNT territory, belongs to the public property of the SNT, then, in accordance with the decision of the general meeting of members of the gardening partnership, such a plot is subject to free transfer into common shared ownership to the persons who are the owners of land plots located within the boundaries of the SNT territory, in proportion to the area of these plots, provided that all owners have expressed consent to purchase the corresponding share (Clause 3 of Article 25 of Federal Law No. 217 of July 29, 2017 “On gardening and vegetable farming by citizens...”).

In practice, it will be extremely difficult, almost impossible, to carry out actions and obtain the consent of 100% of all land owners to hold a legitimate general meeting. What to do if the plot belongs to the public lands of SNT, and the general meeting does not want to register it as the common shared property of all members. SNT?

There are legal ways out of such situations. Options can only be proposed after familiarization with the specific situation of the person concerned.

B. The land plot can be transferred to the owner of the land plot located within the boundaries of the SNT land territory.

If it turns out that a specific land plot was issued or registered in the name of a deceased gardener, and the data from the public cadastral map https://kadastr.ru/services/publichnaya-kadastrovaya-karta/ confirms that this plot, located within the boundaries of the SNT territory, does not belong to the common use lands of all members of the SNT, that is, the opportunity for an interested member of this partnership to enter into an agreement for the sale or lease of an abandoned land plot with a local government body.

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How to legally take over an abandoned plot in SNT. Step-by-step instruction

How do local governments process abandoned sites?

First, local authorities must register the ownerless plot. To do this, the interested party submits an application with a request to recognize the abandoned site as ownerless.

The local government body carries out the procedure for registering the site.

Registration of ownerless plots is carried out by the local branch of Rosreestr at the request of local authorities

According to clause 3 of p. 225 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, after 1 year from the date of registration of an ownerless immovable property, the body authorized to manage municipal property may apply to the court with a demand for recognition of the right of municipal ownership of this thing.

If, by a court decision, an ownerless land plot and the buildings on it become municipal property, then the local government body will then decide on the possibility of providing the applicant with these real estate objects by concluding a purchase and sale or lease agreement with him.

Conclusion

Let's summarize. When there is a desire and opportunity to increase your possessions by annexing a neighboring plot, why not take advantage of it? But, as they say, water does not flow under a lying stone. You must understand that in order to register an abandoned summer cottage as your property, you may have to run up the stairs of bureaucracy and spend money. Registration may take months, or even years. Find out what the costs will be in your case before you decide to buy or rent, are you ready for them?

Who can I contact to resolve the issue of an abandoned site in SNT?

If you have questions about an abandoned plot in SNT, you can seek advice and further recommendations from municipal land control inspectors in the territory of the municipality where the land plot of interest is located.

The powers of inspectors include monitoring the use of land, registering rights to municipal land plots and organizing the conclusion of contracts with applicants.

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How to legally take over an abandoned plot in SNT. Step-by-step instruction

Searching for information about abandoned plots

To begin search activities, you will need to use a public cadastral map . It is presented in electronic version. For this purpose, it will be enough to log into the official portal of Rosreest. This act helps the citizen to find out whether the allotment was previously formed or not.

Initially, you need to find an area on the map that belongs to the citizen seeking information. This action is not difficult. Required:

in the upper left corner indicate the number assigned to this territory in the cadastre;
find your site;
find abandoned land.

Searching for information about an allotment is carried out using documentation confirming ownership of it. If a citizen, after carrying out these actions, sees red lines around the desired territory, this indicates that the area was previously registered. This is a definite plus in the process of registering ownership rights to the plot.

Information!

If there are no such boundaries, then initially you will need to form an allotment. In this case, land plots owned by the city or state will be used. From a legislative point of view, allotments act as real estate. This means that rights to it arise only after the appropriate registration has been carried out. To do this, you will need to contact the Rosreestr office.

Another important point is that the law indicates the impossibility of classifying plots as ownerless. This means that if a site is not subject to the right of ownership of a specific citizen or municipal entity, then the state body is recognized as its owner.

Initially, you need to find out who has ownership rights to the site . When it is a municipality or a state, the citizen will need to pay a certain fee to obtain land rights. Bidding is used for this purpose.

Is it possible to register ownership of an abandoned plot without going to court?

Depending on the specific situation, municipal ownership of an empty land plot can be registered without going to court.

Situations are common when, after the death of the owner of a neighboring plot many years ago, the board of SNT and the neighbors have no information about his heirs.

In such cases, the Register of Probate Cases, located on the website of the Federal Notary Chamber https://notariat.ru/ru-ru/help/probate-cases/, can help, where you can find out whether the inheritance case was opened by the heirs of the deceased gardener, and also from which namely a notary.

It is possible that the land plot you are interested in is escheated, since the inheritance case was not opened after the death of the gardener-testator, and all inherited property became the property of the Russian Federation (Part 1 of Article 1151 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

In this case, the land plot, as well as the buildings and structures located on it (as escheated property) pass by inheritance by law into the ownership of the urban or rural settlement, municipal district (in terms of inter-settlement territories) or urban district where the land plot is located ( Clause 2 of Article 1151 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation)

“Escheated property, in the case of inheritance of which refusal of inheritance is not allowed, from the day the inheritance is opened, passes by inheritance according to the law into the ownership of the Russian Federation, as well as regardless of the formalization of inheritance rights and their state registration. A certificate of the right to inheritance in relation to escheated property is issued by the Russian Federation in the same manner as to other heirs, without issuing a special court decision recognizing the property as escheat.” (Paragraph 50 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court No. 9 of May 29, 2012 “On judicial practice in inheritance cases”).

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How to legally take over an abandoned plot in SNT. Step-by-step instruction

What does the concept of “squatting of land” mean?

If one citizen (or group of citizens) arbitrarily occupies an area of land, then this is considered squatting.

Self-capture is expressed in the following actions:

illegal construction on the site;
the presence on the site of things belonging to the invaders;
seizure of land from neighboring plots by expanding the boundaries of one’s own plot.

Such “owners” do not have documents for this land plot from local authorities, which are issued in the event of transfer of land into ownership. This is a gross violation of the law, which is punishable by a fine of 500 rubles. up to 1000 rub.

Even if the land is not the property of another citizen or company, it belongs to the state and the state is its owner.

It is impossible to legitimize buildings erected on such land, and, therefore, to sell, exchange, donate or make any other legal transaction.

How do local governments register an escheated land plot?

In this case, municipal property is registered without a judicial act.

Local authorities:

receive from a notary a certificate of the right to inheritance according to the law for the land plot and the buildings located on it
register municipal ownership of these real estate properties in Rosreestr. And after the state registration of municipal ownership of land in Rosreestr...
makes a decision on concluding a purchase and sale or lease agreement with the applicant, makes a decision formalized in the form of an act,
then offers the applicant a draft of this agreement for review and signing. After concluding an agreement with the applicant...
within the framework of interdepartmental interaction, the local government body is obliged to independently apply to Rosreestr no later than 5 (five) working days from the date of adoption of the act or completion of such a transaction, providing the necessary documents there.
The result of registration of the applicant’s right will be a special registration inscription on the contract and the issuance of an extract from the Unified State Register to the applicant.

How is the search for the owner of the plot carried out?

Warning

At the initial stage, a citizen who has decided to buy an ownerless plot needs to find out who its owner is. You will need to contact the Rosreestr office and ask for an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate.

There are several methods available to obtain this information:

Personal appeal to the specified organization. You need to take a ticket and wait for your turn. When the required number lights up on the display, you will need to approach a specialist and explain the purpose of the call. It is best if the state fee is paid at the time of registration. You can find the details for making payment on the official portal of the specified body or at the stand. However, in the latter case you will need to visit Rosreestr. The fee is 200 rubles, this does not include the commission that must be paid to the banking organization making the payment. An employee of Rosreestr helps to draw up an application and documents for the site will be issued within five days.
Applying through the post office. You can also send a letter in electronic format. In this case, you will need to pay the state fee and write an application. The fee does not change. Additional costs in this case are associated with the fact that the applicant’s signature needs to be certified when contacting a notary’s office. If an electronic submission form is used, an appropriate signature is required.
You can apply using the official website of Rosreestr. You will need to enter the section in electronic services and create a request for an extract. Then a letter is sent to the specified email address containing details for making payment of the fee.

Attention!

It is also necessary to obtain information from bodies operating in the field of architecture. The citizen's expenses will include topographic surveying.

The design of such a survey helps to resolve several issues. For example, this applies to:

If the allotment is subject to the authority of the state or municipality, then in order to understand the situation, the employee of the relevant body must understand whether objects are located on the selected territory, and if so, what kind. This filming will help the citizen indicate that the site is empty, while the state authorities have a guarantee that they will not allocate a section of the highway to a private person.
Filming helps to draw up a diagram of the allotment. This action is mandatory when there is an allocation of land from a municipal or state fund.
It will help you finally decide whether you need to purchase the selected plot or not. In some situations, different communication lines may pass through the territory. Then it will be difficult or impossible to build a house on the site.

There are several ways by which ownership of such plots is registered.

Options for obtaining land rights

If we consider the option when the right of a citizen extends to the allotment, then the sequence of actions will be as follows:

First you will need to find who owns the site. Negotiations are then held to sell the plot. The seller can be the owner himself or his legal successors, provided that he is deceased.
The agreement is marked by drawing up a preliminary purchase and sale agreement. It clearly states the powers and duties and powers of each participant in the upcoming transaction. This agreement will not allow the seller to make adjustments to the agreement in the future. This applies to the cost of the plot and other conditions.

If a citizen was unable to find the owner of the plot or his relatives, then there is an option to register the right to such land. It consists in using the concept of acquisitive prescription . This serves as the basis for obtaining rights to the site.

Information!

The Civil Code states that rights to property are transferred to a person in a situation if he has owned the plot in good faith for a certain period. In this case, only the continuous period of ownership is taken into account; it is 15 years.

The legislation does not specify the exact circumstances under which it is permissible to stop the running of the statute of limitations in relation to real estate. In this case, the vindication claim is not considered as a basis for suspending the running of such a period. The rule of good faith must be observed, which indicates the citizen’s ignorance of the illegality of his possession.

The openness of the use of property is also a significant factor. This indicates that a person should not hide the fact of ownership of a particular plot from society. The citizen must use the plot as if it were his own.

The Cadastral Chamber has revealed a scheme for obtaining abandoned summer cottages

It should be noted that the calculation of the period of acquisitive limitation regarding property that is in the possession of the person from whose possession they could potentially be claimed (according to Articles 301 and 305 of the Civil Code) starts no earlier than the end of the limitation period for the relevant claims.

It will still be impossible to get income from real estate in remote and sparsely populated villages. In this case, the costs associated with re-registration will fall on the shoulders of those wishing to acquire a house in the village. This is still significantly more economical than purchasing real estate without participating in the program.

Upon filing a claim in court, ownership rights are transferred to local authorities. They cover the costs associated with re-registration. In this regard, when there are people who want to get housing in rural areas and re-register it as their own, representatives of local authorities freely approve such aspirations.

The ownership of a plot whose owners have not been identified is formalized in court if it is obtained by virtue of acquisitive prescription. During the court hearing, you must prove that you have been conscientiously cultivating the land for 15 years and there are witnesses to this fact. The use of the land must be open and continuous.

In a situation where a previous owner appears, regardless of the date of registration of a plot of land as ownerless, he has the right to apply to the body that carries out state registration of rights with an application to take ownership of the property. In such a situation, a plot of land is considered deregistered in the status of ownerless, from the time the recording of its deregistration is made.

Registration of land rights

If the decision is positive, then the person is given an act confirming his authority to the allotment . Next, you need to deal with cadastral documentation for the land. You should contact the cadastral office. You should visit this body in person. When paying the state fee, you can use the help of a specialist. A chamber employee will help you fill out an application to receive the necessary documentation. Attached to the application is an act confirming the payment of the fee and a paper indicating the transfer of the land to the use of a citizen.

Information!

The law specifies the period during which the act in question is prepared. It is equal to two weeks.

Finally, you need to register the rights to the allotment.
To do this, contact Rosreestr. The registration duration is similar. When an extract from the Unified State Register is issued, a person can use the allotment at his own discretion. Share:

When does the acquisitive limitation period begin?

It is not permissible to begin such a countdown before the end of the period intended for the limitation period. The legislator indicates that this period is three years.

Warning

During the specified period of time, the heirs have the right to form and file a claim, in accordance with which the return of the allotment will be requested.

When three years have passed, the citizen receives the right to contact the municipal administration and submit an application for the allocation of a specific plot of property.

Step-by-step action plan

It will be easier to master a new area if you break the process into separate tasks and then complete them one after another. Then a clear picture will immediately form in your head - what is most important, where to start, what can be left for later.

This will relieve the state of some confusion in which owners of neglected areas often find themselves.

Pre-planning will also help to avoid annoying mistakes that can complicate the life of a summer resident and add more work to him.

The development of an overgrown area can be divided into the following stages:

Cleaning the area.
Removing unnecessary trees and shrubs.
Tidying up the remaining trees and bushes.
Weed control.
Preparing the soil for planting.
Keeping the soil weed-free.

Fines for non-use of land

For violation of use standards (abandonment of the site, lack of construction and economic activity, organization of a landfill or violation of fire safety standards), the owner of the site will first be given a warning, then given a fine of at least 20,000 rubles (the amount depends on the cadastral value), and then taken to court.

True, if the owner of the plot is unknown, the administration will not look for him. You will have to regularly bombard them with letters indicating the problems of the site (fire hazard, violation of environmental standards, presence of criminal or suspicious elements, etc.).