In Russia, more than half of housing is in shared ownership. A share in an apartment is not a specific room or square meters, it is some part of the right to own housing on an equal basis with other co-owners . And owning a share is not like owning an apartment. Of course, you can dispose of your part of the housing in any way you like, but there are certain rules fixed by law . And in order not to spend the family budget on transactions that may well be considered illegal, the rules for transactions with shares must be followed.
Share in an apartment. What it is
According to Article 244 of the Civil Code, property can be either shared or joint.
Joint ownership is when shares in an apartment are not designated in any way . For example, if housing is purchased by spouses, but is registered in the name of one of them, this does not mean that he is the owner of the apartment. By default, it is joint property between husband and wife. During a divorce and division of property, the judge will divide the apartment equally, but may deviate from equality of shares if:
- the child remains with one of the parents;
- one of the spouses invested a large part in the apartment (for example, sold pre-marital property).
Shared ownership is the ownership of an apartment divided into shares . Such property may appear for various reasons, for example:
- the apartment was inherited by several heirs;
- purchased or accepted as a gift by several people;
- separated by spouses.
In this case, the shares are always indicated in the apartment certificate, for example, ½, 1/3, etc.
Attention! A fractional number is not at all a proportional number of square meters, as many people think, it is part of the right to own an apartment .
For example, the owner of a 1/3 share of a sixty-meter apartment does not have the right to fence off 20 meters and settle there.
Who can live in which room can only be determined in two ways:
- agree among themselves;
- ask the court to decide the procedure for using the living space.
But even in the case of litigation, it is not always possible to determine the order of use of housing , for example, if a two-room apartment has three or more shareholders, the judge will not divide the rooms, he will simply refuse the claim due to impossibility. Therefore, in most cases, disputes about shares are resolved simply - by exchanging or selling the entire apartment .
Principle of calculating the minimum share
To calculate the minimum share, it is necessary to find out the standard of living space per resident in a specific locality. The standard is established by municipal legislation. The national average is from 8 to 14 sq.m. Federal legislation sets the standard at 12 sq.m.
Important! The standard is established regardless of the citizen’s age. Therefore, the size of the area will be the same for a working citizen, a child and a pensioner.
To calculate the minimum share in a specific residential premises, you must use the following formula:
MD=OP/N,
where MD is the minimum share;
OP is the total area;
N – standard area for 1 person.
How can you dispose of your share?
According to Article 244 of the Civil Code, your part of the apartment can be:
- sell or donate;
- bequeath;
- lay down
However, since this is still a share, and not the entire apartment, it will not be possible to sell it without demand. Article 250 of the Civil Code established the advantage of co-participants in purchasing a share upon its sale. For example, if you are going to sell your share, you must first offer to buy it from you to the other co-owners of the apartment at the announced price . Moreover, the proposal must be written, for example, in a registered letter with notification .
Please note: You can give, bequeath or pledge your share without asking .
If you are faced with the question of whether to sell or donate a share , you need to consider several nuances:
- if you own the share for less than 3 years, you will need to pay 13% tax on the sale;
- when making a gift, the donee will pay the tax (close relatives - children, parents, husband/wife - do not pay tax);
- a gifted share will not be divided between spouses during a divorce , unlike a sold one (this means the case when the owner of the share alienates it in favor of his child, who is already married).
But before disposing of a share that is not defined (joint property), it must first be determined .
