How to acquire the right to ownerless real estate?

How to acquire the right to ownerless real estate?

Conclusion

1. Definition. What is an ownerless plot of land and an ownerless house?

According to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), a thing that does not have an owner, is unknown, or which the owner has abandoned is considered ownerless (Clause 1, Article 225 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Article 236 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation indicates that “a citizen or legal entity may renounce the right of ownership of property belonging to him by declaring this or taking other actions that definitely indicate his removal from ownership, use and disposal of property without the intention of retaining any rights to This is property."

However, “The relinquishment of ownership rights does not entail the termination of the rights and obligations of the owner in relation to the relevant property until the acquisition of ownership rights to it by another person.”

Please note that you can do this by submitting an application to Rosreestr. We wrote about this earlier in the article: “Relinquishment of property rights.”

It should be noted that real estate may end up without an owner if, for example, the owner died and the heirs did not take ownership at the required time or abandoned the property or the owner had no heirs at all. Also, land with or without a house may become abandoned if the copyright holder has moved and left his property unattended, “to the mercy of fate.”

2. How to find an ownerless property?

Let us note right away that there is no single list of ownerless residential buildings and land plots. However, a large amount of information can be found when ordering an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate (hereinafter referred to as USRN), if the object is registered with the state cadastral register. An extract from the Unified State Register will help you find out about the characteristics of the object, its owner and possible encumbrances.

You can also obtain information about an abandoned land plot from the public cadastral map of Rosreestr. Using this map, you can determine whether an ownerless area was previously formed.

How to do it?

Find your plot of land using the address or cadastral number, and accordingly, by location you can identify an abandoned plot with it. And the first thing to do is to determine who is the owner of the land of interest. You also need to know that plots owned by the municipality or the state can be transferred to the ownership of citizens for a fee. This action is carried out through trading.

How to find the owner of a property?

First of all, you need to order an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate about this object. The period for providing information is 5 working days. In addition, you can make a request for information through the Rosreestr website: select the “Electronic Services” section, and then fill out a request to receive information from the Unified State Register of Real Estate. Next, instructions on payment methods will be sent to your email address. After 5 days, you will receive a message here with a link to review and download the electronic document.

In addition, you should contact the local government authorities and authorities authorized to issue construction permits at the location of such a house. By determining who was issued the building permit, you can obtain information about the intended owner of the house.

If the land with the house is located on the territory of a gardening partnership (SNT), then first you need to contact its chairman. Perhaps through it you will be able to find out the address and cadastral numbers.

We would also like to note that from June 29, 2021, Federal Law No. 518-FZ comes into force, according to Article 69 of which state authorities and local governments will be able to establish the rights holders of previously registered real estate (rights to which were granted before 01/31/1998) , by sending requests to various authorities. Read the article: “Property rights will be registered without you”

Documents confirming that the land plot does not have an owner:

1. Documents issued by the state and municipal property registration body stating that a specific plot is not included in the register of federal property, property objects of constituent entities of the Russian Federation or the property complex of a municipality; 2. Documents issued by the competent authority registering the existence of rights to real estate before the adoption of the Federal Law “On State Registration of Rights to Real Estate and Transactions with It.”

3. The procedure for registering an ownerless house and land plot.

Previously, we wrote a short article on the topic: “How to obtain the right to someone else’s abandoned land.”

There are several ways to become the owner of abandoned properties. For example, find the owner and buy the property, purchase it at auction from the municipality, or own an openly abandoned plot for 15 years and subsequently become its legal owner.

When the owner of the real estate has been found, he will be able to transfer his property to you only through a civil transaction, under a purchase and sale agreement. However, before this, it is advisable to register the land plot and the house in the cadastral register if information about it is not available in the Unified State Register of Real Estate. This is necessary for you to know exactly what you are purchasing.

Let us note that, according to the Land Code of the Russian Federation, it is established that all objects firmly connected with land plots follow the fate of the land plots, that is, it is more expedient to formalize the ownership rights to this real estate object, as well as its purchase, simultaneously with the purchase and registration of rights to the plot on which such the house is located.

If the owner has not been found, you need to submit an application for ownership or lease of the abandoned site.

To begin with, send an application to the local government about your desire to receive a specific plot of land, to which it is advisable to attach documents confirming that the property is ownerless.

Local authorities will register the land plot with the state cadastral register. The mechanism for registering an ownerless plot of land and the application form for registration are established by Order of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation dated December 10, 2015 N 931 “On establishing the Procedure for registering ownerless real estate.”

After this, it will be necessary to wait 12 months so that the probable owners can announce their rights to it. After one year, the municipality goes to court to recognize its own right to this land plot.

If the property is located in cities of federal significance: Moscow, St. Petersburg or Sevastopol, the executive authorities of these regions must apply to the court to register the ownerless property and then go to court. In all other cases - bodies authorized for state registration of rights to real estate, upon application of the local government body on whose territory the real estate being registered is located.

If the court decides to recognize the land as an ownerless property and places it in the possession of the municipal authorities, then you can enter into a lease agreement for such land or buy it out. How to do it? After the abandoned land plot is transferred to the ownership of the authorities, they go to auction. To purchase them, you need to win such an auction.

There are a number of cases when you can buy land with a house, including an ownerless one, without holding an auction. Order No. P/0321 of Rosreestr dated September 2, 2020 established a list of documents confirming the applicant’s right to purchase a land plot without holding a tender.

The winner of the auction is the one who offers the highest price. If only one interested party takes part in the auction, then the agreement is concluded with a single participant. Or such a plot can be leased by the municipality to a person interested in it.

Important! An ownerless piece of real estate, which has not been recognized by a court decision as municipal property, can again be taken into possession by the person who left it, or taken into possession on the basis of acquisitive prescription. In this situation, obtaining ownerless land involves submitting an application to participate in the auction, after which the plot is subject to registration of ownership. If the only application for participation in the auction for the sale of a plot of land that is in state or municipal ownership is submitted by a person who meets the requirements for auction participants specified in the notice of the auction, and the submitted application also meets the same requirements, then the sale of this plot is carried out to this person. face.

4. Registration of an ownerless plot due to acquisitive prescription

This concept is regulated by Article 234 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation: “A person - a citizen or a legal entity - who is not the owner of property, but who in good faith, openly and continuously owns real estate as his own, unless other terms and conditions of acquisition are provided for by this article, for fifteen years or other property within five years, acquires ownership of this property.”

This means that a citizen can take care of a plot of land or occupy an ownerless house and live in it openly. If legal rights holders for such real estate objects are not announced within 15 years, then the new owner has the opportunity to become a formal (legal) owner.

However, 3 fundamental circumstances must be observed:

1. bona fide ownership (maintenance of land, payment of utilities, etc.);
2. open possession (do not hide the fact that abandoned property is in your use);
3. continuity of ownership (This means that the person owned and used the real estate throughout the entire period of acquisitive prescription, that is, all 15 years).

In simple words, if you lived in an ownerless house and such a house was your only home for 15 years, then such a house can become your property. Note that ownership of such a house begins with the first fact confirming it. For example, from paying for utilities or carrying out repair and construction work.

However, ownership of property as one's own means ownership not by contract . If ownership of property is carried out on the basis of a contract, Article 234 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation does not apply.

Registration of ownerless objects into ownership through the court

In addition, you can become the legal owner of an ownerless house and land on the basis of acquisitive prescription by court decision. But for this to happen, a total of at least 18 years must pass. Because it is necessary to add 3 years of limitation to the 15-year period. After a court decision has been made to recognize ownership of ownerless real estate, you can register ownership in Rosreestr and dispose of them as the full owner.

During the court hearing, the actual owner is required to present evidence of the fact that for 15 years he continuously, openly and conscientiously owned and operated the site and the house.

Possession in good faith means that at the time of receipt of the object he believed, admittedly being in error, regarding the actual circumstances for the reasons for which he became its owner. That is, the owner did not and could not know about the illegality of his own ownership.

Open ownership means that no special actions were taken to conceal the fact of ownership of the objects.

Continuous ownership means that the possession and operation of the plot must occur without interruption for the full period established by law for acquisitive prescription.

Let us note that you must own real estate as your own, treat it in the same way as your other property (make utility payments, tax and insurance payments, make repairs, and so on).

Registration of the right to ownerless objects requires payment of a state fee and can be done regardless of when these objects were registered with the state cadastral register.

5. Registration of property rights

Registration of ownership of real estate is the ultimate goal of all of the above procedures.

In order to register your right to a building and land plot in Rosreestr, you need to prepare a package of documents that will be sent to Rosreestr (for example, through the MFC).

This package includes: • a document proving your identity; • boundary plan prepared by a cadastral engineer; • technical plan; • receipt of payment of state duty; • agreement on the purchase and sale of a plot.

On average, it is estimated that the time required to complete the procedure for registering ownerless real estate is a little over a year.

6. Unclaimed land shares

An unclaimed land share may also be recognized as a land share, information about the owner of which is not contained in the decisions of local government bodies on the privatization of agricultural land adopted before the entry into force of the Federal Law of July 13, 2015 No. 218-FZ “On State Registration of Real Estate”, or land a share whose owner has died and there are no heirs both by law and by will, or none of the heirs has the right to inherit, or all the heirs are excluded from inheritance, or none of the heirs accepted the inheritance, or all the heirs refused the inheritance and at the same time none of them indicated that they were refusing in favor of another heir.

First of all, we advise you to start by studying Article 12.1 of the Federal Law of July 24, 2002 No. 101-FZ “On the turnover of agricultural land.”

Registration of unclaimed land shares consists of several stages. Most of the work occurs in the preparatory stage. At this stage, complete and reliable information is revealed about the legal status of land plots formed during privatization (the original land plot), information about the owners, as well as the preparation of documents necessary subsequently to apply to the court with a claim for recognition of the right to the unclaimed land allocated on account shares of plots.

The following stages of work can be distinguished:

1. Preparatory stage. Compiling a list of unclaimed land shares;
2. Carrying out the work necessary to approve the list of unclaimed shares (publication of a notice of the meeting);
3. Approval of the list of unclaimed land shares;
4. Appeal to the court with a demand for recognition of the right of municipal ownership of land shares recognized as unclaimed in accordance with the established procedure;
5. State registration of rights to land shares and land plots.

Read more here.

7. Nuances and features.

Above we talked about what ownerless, ownerless real estate is, how to register them, how to find the copyright holder.

Now let's talk about the difficulties that you may encounter.

It is necessary to understand that during the 15-year period, at any point in time, the owner of the land plot or house may appear and demand to leave his territory. In this case, you will have to move out, since the resident has not yet acquired any rights.

A situation may arise when a person has registered ownership of an ownerless piece of real estate and registered the right to it, but suddenly the previous owner appears, who claims that he did not receive notifications about transactions with his real estate from local authorities, Rosreestr and did not know that his the property is listed as ownerless. This issue will have to be resolved only through the courts.

It will be very difficult to recover funds for repairs. You will need to prove that you did everything to find the owner of the house, then prove that these repairs were necessary, otherwise the house would have collapsed. The same investments that you can “separate” - you can take away.

Conclusion

The conclusions suggest themselves. Before occupying an ownerless property, you need to be prepared for the risks involved. You need to understand that this procedure is quite lengthy and requires considerable investment, especially if the plot of land with the house you have chosen requires investment, maintenance or repairs.

Therefore, we advise you to make sure that these objects are not really needed by anyone and will not be needed in a certain number of years.

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The management authority is not responsible for the operation of utility networks outside the balance sheet boundaries

The issue of responsibility for the engineering communications of apartment buildings directly concerns the work of building managers and comes down to determining the balance sheet boundary between VDIS and external networks, for which management companies/homeowners associations are not responsible. Pavel Kuznetsov pointed out that since 2015, judicial practice has followed the path that this boundary is determined by the external wall of the building (clause 8 of the RF PP No. 491).

In this case, two concepts should be distinguished:

• “balance sheet line” – the line dividing networks based on ownership/ownership;
• “operational responsibility boundary” is the line dividing networks based on responsibility for operation.

Find out how to determine where the balance sheet line is in a house and what role the common house meter plays in this from the video from the School of Housing and Public Utilities.

Remember

Pavel Kuznetsov emphasized that there is no single way to instantly solve the problem of ownerless networks. However, there are general principles that management and homeowners associations must follow so that they are not assigned responsibility for their maintenance and operation.

Extra networks mean energy losses that residents of apartment buildings will have to pay for, and an increase in the amount of fees for maintaining residential premises, which will also affect the owners’ payments for housing and communal services. If your company finds itself in such a situation, watch the video, read the case law and take action.

You will find other issues of the online magazine “School of Housing and Public Utilities” on the YouTube channel of the “P1” Association. Subscribe and stay tuned for updates.