Over the past year, according to Avito analysts, the demand for rooms in Russia has increased by an average of 13%, and in some specific regions (Crimea, Moscow) by 3 and 1.5 times, respectively. The main reason for the popularity of such housing is its affordability (for example, in the capital, the average cost of a room starts at 1.5 million rubles). This is significantly cheaper than the cheapest option among apartments.
It is important to remember that purchasing a room in an apartment (both communal and regular) has some nuances. In this article we will talk about three important rules for purchasing this type of housing.
Features of buying a room
The future owner has the opportunity to buy both a room in a communal apartment and in a living space that does not have such status. In the first case, he can practically freely dispose of the privatized room, in the second - over time, he can buy out their shares from his neighbors and become the full owner of the home.
It must be remembered that every owner has the right to pre-emption in accordance with Article 250 of the Civil Code. Before concluding a purchase and sale agreement, you should make sure that no one is against it, otherwise the neighbors may challenge the deal. It will also not be possible to register someone in a room without the consent of the neighbors.
People often wonder if it is possible to buy a room in a dorm. Officially, this housing cannot be purchased, since dormitories belong to a specialized fund. In addition, the law prohibits transactions with municipal property. To purchase such living space, it is necessary that the authorities transfer the building to private housing.
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Stanislav Ershov
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A dorm room can be purchased if it is owned and previously privatized. Otherwise, you need to go to the municipality and find out if anyone is registered there. This also applies to communal apartments. Fraudsters often try to sell rooms in communal apartments and dorms without ownership status. All this can be easily checked through the MFC or Rosreestr. The certificate from the Unified State Register will indicate the legal owner. The certificate is issued to anyone upon request. In about 5-7 days you will have the certificate in your hands. Cost 250 rub.
The most common option of all of these is buying a room in a communal apartment. Such housing has the following characteristics :
- As a rule, the owners of rooms in communal apartments are not relatives; each of them has a personal personal account.
- The right to the room arose as a result of the conclusion of an agreement to which the other residents had no relation.
- A person has both ownership of a secluded room and a common interest in public areas.
A particularly attractive deal is the purchase of a room in a communal apartment in a house for renovation. Owners of such housing have the right to apply for a separate apartment instead of the old room. Now such a program operates in Moscow. But the prices for utilities in houses undergoing renovation are artificially inflated and are approaching the prices for separate living space.
We check whether the right of priority acquisition is respected
The right of first refusal to purchase a room is an important subtlety that does not exist in apartment transactions. The bottom line is that before starting to look for a buyer on the side, the seller is required by law to first offer to buy the room to the owners of other rooms in the same apartment. This must be done in writing, specifying the cost and other conditions. The neighbors have a month to think about it, and if after this period they do not want to buy this room, then it can be offered to everyone (but strictly on the terms that were offered to the neighbors).
The same applies to rooms in communal apartments. Please note: it is only necessary to provide neighbors with a waiver of priority purchase when applying for state registration of the transfer of ownership rights when the contract with the buyer is drawn up before the expiration of the above-mentioned period of 1 month.
The owner of the room may be a minor - in this case, permission from the guardianship and trusteeship authorities must be issued to obtain a waiver from such an owner. And in this situation, the contract will definitely need to be certified by a notary.
Required documents
The transaction is completed according to the usual purchase and sale scheme with mandatory state registration. When purchasing a room in an apartment, you need to carefully check the list of documents provided by the owner. Here is their general list:
- Extract from the Unified State Register or certificate of ownership.
- Document of title (for example, a gift agreement).
- Certificate from the BTI indicating the shares.
- An agreement on the distribution of shares certified by a notary with the signatures of the owners.
- Certificates of absence of debts for utilities.
- Refusal of each neighbor's right of pre-emption.
- A document confirming the presence or absence of children’s right to living space.
- Extract from the house register with information about the residents.
To enter into a contract, the buyer only needs a passport and the consent of the husband or wife to complete the transaction. If the documents are in order, an extract from the Unified State Register on the transfer of ownership rights will be issued within 2 weeks from the date of registration.
We check the seller's ownership
First of all, it is recommended to study the title documents and personal documents of the owner - we are talking about a purchase and sale agreement, equity participation, etc. and a passport, respectively. To check the ownership of any real estate object, including a room, you need to order an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate (USRN)
Having this document in hand, the buyer will be able to understand whether the owner of the room is its owner as an independent piece of real estate or whether he has the right to common shared ownership of the room.
An extract from Rosreestr is a publicly available document that you can request yourself. It is best to do this as close as possible to the transaction, because the relevance of the information will be provided at the time the document is issued.
Is it possible to buy a room using maternity capital?
The question of whether it is possible to purchase an apartment using maternal capital is resolved on an individual basis. The law allows budget money to be spent on the purchase of separate residential premises. According to the Residential Code, the room belongs to such premises. But the buyer will have to prove that the room being purchased is separate. That is, for example, it will not be possible to buy part of it with public funds. After the transaction is completed, the room must become the property of the buyer, and it must also have a separate entrance.
When it comes to repurchasing a share, there is one limitation. The Pension Fund of Russia will give permission to use the certificate if, as a result of such a transaction, the housing will be purchased in its entirety.
If you need to buy a room with maternity capital from relatives, then there are also special features. Thus, it is legally prohibited to buy a room from a spouse. Both the buyer and the seller need to take into account that such transactions are carefully checked for fraud. It does happen: sometimes people enter into imaginary transactions just to cash out maternity capital.
Features of the design of a room in the property
Let's take a closer look at the issue of buying a room, what difficulties and pitfalls may arise.
Deals to buy a room in an apartment are most popular in large cities due to the lower price, and young families without children and students can afford such a purchase. If necessary, the room can be rented out for additional profit. In the future, you can sell the room and add more money to buy a more spacious home. When purchasing a room, all documents must be carefully checked, so there should be no problems with selling the room in the future.
From a legal point of view, a room in an apartment can be either a share in the whole apartment or registered as a separate room. There will be a difference in the execution of the purchase and sale transaction.
Notice of sale
If you are going to buy a room in an apartment, then you will need to check whether the seller, that is, the owner of the room, has notified other apartment owners about the sale of the room. If the seller has not sent written notice to other owners of living space in the apartment, then in the future one of the neighbors may claim a pre-emptive right to purchase a room or share. The seller must send notices to neighbors or other owners of the living space and obtain refusal or consent to purchase the room.
Important! If you do not follow the procedure for notifying neighbors, then in the future the purchase and sale transaction may be declared invalid.
Therefore, the buyer must see for himself the written refusals from other apartment owners, and only after that can he begin to formalize the purchase and sale transaction.
Quite rare, but there may be situations where the apartment has both privatized rooms and rooms that the municipality has transferred for living under a social rental agreement. That is, the owner of one of the rooms may be the municipality. All homeowners, including municipal authorities, must receive the notification.
The buyer of the room cannot buy the property at a price lower than the one specified by the seller in the notices to neighbors. It is advisable to issue all notifications through a notary.
If one of the neighbors agreed to buy a room put up for sale, then it is better for an ordinary buyer to immediately abandon this purchase and find another option.
It is also important to remember that when purchasing a room, the new owner, along with the room, also has the right to part of the total area, which includes the kitchen, toilet, bathroom, and corridor. Accurate information about the size of the total area of the apartment can be obtained from the documents of the apartment seller. There are situations when shares in an apartment are not allocated; in such a situation, it is necessary to distribute the rooms between the owners of the common areas before the sale. Information about the numbers must be defined and stated in the agreement, which then must be certified by a notary.
Important! You cannot place an incapacitated person or a person with serious illnesses in a room where other neighbors live, as this will worsen living conditions.
It must be said that given the small amount of investment in the purchase of a room, you should not expect to receive a large profit when using it. However, investing in real estate, if used correctly, will in any case bring profit.
Analysis of the real estate market when buying a room
When buying a room in an apartment, you can spend money on hiring an experienced lawyer who will check all the nuances of the property so that problems and difficulties do not arise. The specialist must take full responsibility for the legal support of the transaction. On the buyer's side, it is necessary to decide what kind of room he wants to buy, small or large at a higher price. It is better not to buy an expensive room if you plan to rent out real estate in the future, in the middle price range, so that you can sell it later without any difficulties.
Buying a room on credit
There are people with an entrepreneurial spirit who don’t just want to save up for an apartment or a room. Now you can get a loan to buy a room in an apartment, then rent it out to third people and pay for the loan with money received from renting out the room. Until the loan is repaid, the property is encumbered by the bank as collateral. After repaying the debt to the bank, the room can either be sold or exchanged for an apartment with an additional payment. This scheme can be applied to several rooms.
There is no point in buying an expensive room for resale or rental; due to its high price, there will be less demand for it. You need to buy such a more expensive room for yourself, for example, in the city center, near work.
To summarize, we can say that buying a room for investing money is profitable for the purpose of investing money as a start for increasing it.
Verification of documents
One of the most important points when buying a room is checking the documents that the owner of the room presents to the buyer.
Required documents include:
- certificate of registration of ownership of the room;
- an agreement that the property is transferred into ownership of the buyer;
- an agreement signed by a notary stating that the owners have agreed on the distribution of shares of common property;
- a certificate from the BTI, where the shares of the apartment will be registered, also in value terms;
- documents with refusals of other owners from their pre-emptive right to purchase;
- certificates that will confirm the absence of arrears in payment for electricity, telephone communications, and utilities;
- a certificate stating that minor children do or do not live in the apartment and room, and what rights they have to the property. You can obtain a certificate from the guardianship and trusteeship authorities;
- if the owner is married, then a certificate of consent of the second spouse to conduct a purchase and sale transaction is needed.
Possible risks
As when buying a separate home, there are certain risks when buying a room in an apartment. Before concluding a contract, you should make sure that the previous owners have no debts on utility bills. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for a statement from your personal account: if there is no debt, it costs the seller nothing to provide it.
You also need to make sure that other people are not registered in the living space, for example, those undergoing military service or those in the MLS . Another important point is to make sure that no illegal redevelopment has been carried out in the apartment. Cases when the technical passport does not correspond to the actual situation in the apartment often occur.
In addition, to avoid unpleasant surprises, it is worth getting to know your neighbors. You can discuss current issues with them in advance, which, for example, relate to pets or smoking in public areas.
There are other important points. So, if they offer to buy a room in which the seller is not the owner, but lives under a rental agreement, it is better to refuse. Although there is little non-privatized housing in the Russian Federation now, such cases do occur. According to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, non-privatized real estate is only allowed to be exchanged.
There is also no need to succumb to persuasion to enter into a gift agreement. The consent of the neighbors is not needed for this, but such a deal is imaginary. If the deception is discovered, it will be declared invalid. The buyer will be required to return the room and pay a fine, and the seller will also be punished with rubles.
○ Registration procedure.
The transaction is concluded according to the standard purchase and sale scheme with the execution of a written agreement with mandatory state registration. Let us consider in detail all the nuances of the agreement.
✔ What documents are needed.
To complete the transaction, the seller must provide:
- Passport.
- Title documents for the room.
- Grounds for obtaining ownership rights (sale and purchase agreement, will, gift or exchange agreement).
- Cadastral and technical passports.
- Certificate about: - family composition; - no debts for utilities.
- Notarized consent of the remaining owners (if we are talking about a room in the apartment).
- Notarized consent of the spouse.
When completing the transaction, the buyer only needs a passport and the consent of the spouse to purchase.
✔ How to draw up an agreement?
The text of the agreement must contain the following points:
- Details of the parties.
- Detailed description of the subject of the transaction (in accordance with the technical passport).
- Transaction amount.
- Method of transferring money.
- Rights and obligations of the parties.
- Force majeure circumstances.
- Additional conditions (by agreement of the parties).
- Date, signatures.
The agreement is drawn up in simple written form and does not require the participation of a notary. But it must be registered with Rosreestr to verify the “purity” of the transaction.
✔ Advance before payment.
Making an advance payment provides certain guarantees to each party. Thus, the buyer can be sure that the room they like will not be sold to someone else, and the seller can be sure that the buyer will not change his mind about concluding the deal.
The transfer of the advance payment is formalized by a separate advance payment agreement, which the parties independently conclude between themselves. It is worth considering that the transfer of funds must be recorded. To do this, the seller must write a receipt that he received an advance payment.
✔ What risks might there be?
The risks when buying a room are the same as when purchasing a full-fledged apartment. This:
- Legal purity of real estate.
- No encumbrances on housing.
- The presence of registered persons who do not live in the apartment, who can show up at any time.
Another danger when buying a room is the risk of not getting along with your new neighbors.
✔ Donation agreement or purchase and sale agreement.
If the seller offers to draw up a gift agreement and simply transfer the money to him, do not rush to agree. If for some reason a situation arises where the transaction has to be contested, you will not be able to get your money back, because the gift agreement is gratuitous. And you won’t be able to prove that the money was paid unless there is at least a receipt.
✔ Lack of consent of other persons registered in the apartment.
Under no circumstances can you sign a purchase and sale agreement if the presented package of documents does not contain written consent to the sale from other registered residents or neighbors in the communal area
apartment. In this case, they can easily challenge the deal in court. They have a similar opportunity for 3 months from the date of the transaction.
✔ Fraudulent actions.
When buying a room, you always run the risk of encountering scammers. To avoid such consequences, it is important to carefully check all documentation and personally request some documents.
✔ Fraud with advance payment.
A common scam is when a seller takes an advance from several potential buyers and then disappears. To avoid this, it is necessary to enter into an advance payment agreement, which will become the basis for going to court.
✔ Unchecked room occupants.
This is another important point that needs to be taken into account when completing a transaction. If at the time of signing the contract there is an undischarged person in the room who is serving time in prison or is declared missing, he can easily challenge the deal after returning. Therefore, buying a room in such a situation is extremely risky. Knowing this, many sellers hide this fact when concluding a contract. To avoid this, personally order an extract from the USRN, which will indicate all the persons registered in the room.
Results
By purchasing a room in an apartment, you acquire the preemptive right to purchase the rest of the living space in the apartment. Therefore, it is important to know what rights you have under the law in order to protect yourself and your transactions. If you study in detail the question of what documents are needed, how to formalize everything correctly, then you can do it yourself and not spend a lot of time on it.
If you have the intention of buying a room in an apartment, then you need to do this, because such investments in real estate will pay off and increase in the future.
