Share in an apartment
, this is some part of the apartment that has an owner. Which assumes that there are other parts in the same apartment and they also have their own owners.
A share in an apartment can be allocated “in kind” through the court, at the request of the owner, that is, the owner of such a share can occupy a room or several rooms. If one of them is passable and the rest are passable.
Basic Concepts
But most often there are unallocated shares.
The procedure for using rooms in an apartment consisting of such shares will not be determined. And the owners of such shares will experience constant inconvenience associated with the division of territory inside the apartment.
Some co-owners will believe that their neighbors (neighbors in an apartment in shared ownership are called “ Co-Shareholders”
") they put their closet in the wrong place.
And other sharecroppers may be against arranging dishes in the kitchen. Considering that they should have a place at the sink, and not at the window.
Sometimes even the Court cannot determine the procedure for using shares in an apartment.
This happens if the shareholders are members of different families and their number exceeds the number of isolated rooms in the apartment.
Or when the rooms in the apartment are adjacent. In this case, the order of use is simply impossible to determine.
This is why scandals occur between co-owners of such housing.
They cannot independently agree on who will occupy what room, and the Court is also unable to help them.
In this case, the easiest way out would be to sell the apartment that is in shared ownership.
And divide the money between all shareholders. Into parts corresponding to the size of their shares in the apartment.
Common shared property
Inheritance, donation, privatization or purchase and sale by several citizens are situations when real estate becomes shared ownership. The portion owned by each participant is shown as a percentage or fraction of the total property. The size depends on the grounds for acquiring ownership and is determined as follows:
- by law during inheritance or privatization;
- agreement of all participants in the purchase and sale.
If the dimensions of the parts are not documented, they are considered equal. But at the same time, the rights of owners differ from the rights of participants in joint ownership.
The topic is covered in more detail in the material “Difference between shared ownership and joint ownership.”
How to determine the order of use in shared ownership
The procedure for determining the order of use is as follows:
The co-owners can determine the order of living in the apartment by oral or written agreement among themselves on a voluntary basis.
Even if the co-owners are not members of the same family, good human relations have not been canceled.
And you can always reach an agreement through negotiations without any negativity. It's all simple. Someone occupies one room, and someone else.
Or, during a divorce, the former spouses divide the apartment in half, and each of them becomes the owner of ½ share in the apartment.
But if there is a child and he stays with his mother, then the court usually decides to give them most of the apartment.
And the distribution occurs in the following proportions: the former spouse will receive 1/3 of the apartment, and the former spouse and child will also receive 1/3 each. Which in total is 2/3 of the apartment or most of it.
In this case, if the apartment is two-room, then the ex-wife and child will occupy a large room with a balcony, and the spouse will occupy an isolated small room.
If a three-room apartment is divided, then the former spouse will get a large room with a balcony, and the wife and child will get the remaining two smaller rooms.
The kitchen, hallway and bathroom will remain in shared use.
After all, by dividing an apartment into shares, people receive the same communal apartment that residents of big cities tried to get rid of in the late nineties and early 2000s.
At that time, communal apartments located in the very center of any large city.
They were actively bought by the “new Russians”. And their residents received a full-fledged apartment in exchange for their little room, but on the outskirts of the city.
This suited everyone. Because residents of communal apartments could not even dream of such happiness in the form of a separate, isolated living space.
Therefore, they literally accepted the apartment that literally fell on their heads in a residential area of the city as a gift of fate. And they literally thanked the “new Russian” businessmen as their saviors.
But the most interesting thing will happen when the Court divides a one-room apartment between members of the same family with a child.
The court will most likely side with the parent remaining with the child.
And he will simply deny the ex-spouse the right to use the residential premises. Leaving him as the owner, but without the right to live in the apartment.
In fact, the ex-husband will remain living on the street. And it’s absolutely legal.
And most likely, when his personal savings, spent on rent, run out.
He will be forced to put his share in the apartment up for sale. Having lost significantly in its real price. Since the one who first sells his share loses the most.
After all, it is on this that those people who buy shares in apartments make money.
But having no money to support the ex-spouses, they easily take such a step, understanding. That their actions will cause a number of troubles. Both to my ex-wife and to my child.
After all, strangers who bought a share in the apartment. They may treat the seller's former family members differently. And this current situation can have a completely different outcome.
But the fact is that they will try to infringe on the seller’s former family members in their rights and persuade them to either sell their part of the apartment to new owners. Or to a joint sale and division of the proceeds according to the size of the shares.
This is a fact that is obvious from the very beginning.
After all, then why buy a share in such an apartment at all? Where it is known that people already live.
Formula
Accordingly, the formula for calculating the share in the right of common ownership will look like this:
S1=(S2 – Szh)/Kd
Where,
- S1 – size of the share in the right of common ownership;
- S2 – total area of the apartment;
- Szh – living area of the apartment;
- Kd – the number of all homeowners.
Example. Ivan and Mikhail jointly own a three-room apartment, the total area of which is 90 square meters, of which the living area is 70 square meters. Moreover, Ivan’s share is 2 times greater than Mikhail’s share. After three years of living, the neighbors started a major renovation and they were faced with a financial question. Ivan argued that they use the kitchen, bathroom and hallway equally, and accordingly, they should contribute equally to their repairs, while Mikhail, who owns a smaller share, argued that he would pay only in proportion to the size of the parts. Using an online calculator and entering the necessary parameters into it, the co-owners calculated that the size of the shares in the common property right was the same and amounted to ten square meters: (90-70)/2=10. Mikhail had no choice but to agree with Ivan and pay for the repairs equally.
Why sharecroppers can’t go to isolated apartments
This situation can be easily avoided by reaching an amicable agreement with your former family member. And having sold the apartment together, divide the money equally.
Then buy two isolated apartments with a smaller area. And continue to live separately from each other, remaining friends.
But often people are overcome by greed, often by the desire to take revenge on a former member of their family.
And sometimes the cost of the sold apartment will not allow you to buy a full-fledged isolated housing of a smaller area.
After all, when there is a minor child in the family. The conditions of his detention are protected by the state represented by the guardianship and trusteeship authorities.
And this authority will not allow parents to worsen the child’s living conditions.
Therefore, if the child had an isolated room in the apartment.
He should also have an isolated room in his new home. Moreover, it should be no smaller in size than in the sold apartment.
And it will not be possible to leave a mother and a minor child to live in a purchased one-room apartment (three rubles are usually exchanged for two one-room apartments).
Since this would be an obvious violation of the child’s rights and non-compliance with his living conditions.
Therefore, even with all the desire, people cannot move from an apartment that is in shared ownership to isolated housing.
Unless, of course, they live in a four-room apartment, which is exchanged for a two-room and a one-room apartment when they travel.
The procedure for allocating shares
The main goal of owners when allocating parts of an apartment in kind is the opportunity to obtain a separate property. According to, rooms and parts of the apartment intended for living can serve as separate living quarters.
If it is technically possible to allocate parts, the participants enter into an agreement and make changes to the Unified State Register of Real Estate. After receiving the extract, the citizen is considered the owner of individual property. To change the mechanism for paying for utility services, residents initiate the division of personal accounts.
The process of dividing property is discussed in more detail in the material “Allocation of a share in an apartment.”
How apartment raiding began and how it was defeated
Since the early 2000s, expensive apartments. Shared property of hostile spouses.
They became easy prey for enterprising citizens who began buying shares in such apartments en masse. And resolve the issue of their resettlement with the spouse who remained in the apartment.
In all major cities of Russia, enterprising citizens began to unite in small groups consisting of:
- Our own lawyers who searched for profitable options for purchase and checked the title documents for the purchased property;
- Professional neighbors who were moved into the apartment for visibility. To create inconvenience for the sharecroppers living there.
- The organizers of this simple business, who acted as investors and gave money to buy out the disputed shares in the apartments.
- Real estate lawyers who defended the interests of this group in the Court.
- And persons involved in force support, which could be required if necessary.
People suffering from the activities of apartment raiders began to panic and knock on all doors and contact law enforcement agencies.
But they just shrugged it off and recommended going to court. Since the situation looked like a domestic quarrel between neighbors living in the same territory.
No criminal cases were initiated, and district inspectors dismissed the case for lack of evidence of a crime.
But everything changed when Russian TV channels began to cover this problem. Who conducted their own investigations and filmed full-fledged programs about it.
Then this problem began to be actively discussed on the popular video hosting site YouTube, and the upper echelons of power became involved in solving it.
By forcing local structures to act and giving them all the powers necessary for this.
It was impossible to remain silent any longer and it was necessary to act.
The situation with share-share businesses has so quickly overwhelmed all major cities of Russia.
That the law enforcement agencies decided to create special departments dealing only with apartment raiders.
Immediately, work began to boil in all Courts in the field of exposing the new evil.
And the mechanism of Article 179 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, almost forgotten until that time, began to work (Forcing to complete a transaction or to refuse to complete it).
This is why numerous small groups of apartment raiders were brought in.
Finally, business based on the shares of enterprising citizens began to collapse everywhere, like a house of cards.
And thanks to the united actions of the police officers, evil was once again defeated.
How to allocate shares in kind
As we found out above, the allocation of a share in kind means that the owner will receive the official right of ownership, use and disposal of a separate room. This will help, among other things, for easier sales, rentals, and resolution of conflict situations with other owners.
The main problem with allocating a share in kind is that there are practically no identical or equivalent rooms in apartments. In other words, it is difficult to divide a two-room apartment in half with rooms of 17 and 13 square meters.
Therefore, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes a rule: if, due to the characteristics of the apartment, it is impossible to allocate premises exactly corresponding to the owner’s share, a compensation mechanism is introduced.
If the room allocated in kind is smaller than the share of its owner, he receives the right to compensation for the lost space, and vice versa. The law does not establish specific calculation rules - it is assumed that the difference can be paid with another equivalent by agreement.
Sometimes it happens that the share of a particular owner is too small, or the owner is not interested in exercising his rights; by a court decision, he will be awarded compensation even without his consent.
As in the case of dividing property into shares, the allocation of a share in kind can also be made through an agreement or by going to court.
If all owners of the remaining shares agree with the allocation of the share, then there is no need to go to court - the allocation of the share is formalized by agreement. This document is more complex
than an agreement on the division of property:
- signed by all apartment owners;
- certified by a notary;
- subject to registration in Rosreestr - both the agreement itself and the direct change in the ratio of parts in the remaining property.
An agreement on the allocation of a share in kind must, in addition to the standard document details, contain the following information:
- data on the shares of all apartment owners;
- data of title documents of all owners;
- absence of mutual material claims upon conclusion of the agreement;
- data on the presence or absence of encumbrances;
- the period during which all parties to the agreement must register changes in Rosreestr.
After the agreement is signed and registered with Rosreestr, the share allocated in kind will become full property.
It is not always possible to reach an agreement, since the amount of compensation for “non-matching” meters is a controversial amount. If the parties have not reached a compromise, all that remains is to go to court
.
The person who plans to allocate his share in kind files a claim. The statement of claim must include the following information:
- information about the property (apartment);
- technical justification for the possibility of allocating a share in kind (so that it meets the requirements);
- amount of compensation (and indicate how it is formed);
- request to the court to carry out the separation procedure.
The statement of claim will need to be accompanied by documents - a technical passport of the premises, an expert opinion on the possibility of allocating a share in kind.
After the court makes a decision, you can contact Rosreestr for state registration of ownership of the allocated share of the apartment in kind.
What steps have already been taken to solve the problem of shared ownership?
But the problem of shared ownership itself has not gone away.
And our government is trying in every possible way to remove the sale of shares from civil circulation. But so far it’s not working out very well.
Theories were put forward to prohibit the sale of shares to people who are not members of the same family, but these initiatives were never supported.
Although part of this idea, the state still managed to implement it profitably. Obliging citizens who make transactions with shares through donation. Pay any tax that arises.
- Now the donee must pay 13% of the cadastral value of the share in the apartment accepted as a gift in the form of tax.
If he is not a close relative or family member of the donor.
Since this is regarded as enrichment and payment of personal income tax is required.
Do not forget that the gift transaction can most often be challenged by the interested party, since the fact of the transfer of money may be revealed.
If a receipt is provided to the court regarding the transfer of money from the donee to the donor. Then all the facts of concealment through a gift transaction of another sham transaction are revealed.
For the purchase and sale of an alienated share, in order to bypass the notification of co-owners and infringe on their right of priority to repurchase the alienated share.
After all, according to the law, a person who decides to sell a share in an apartment is obliged to notarize all other co-owners.
Offering them to buy out their share. Notice must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested. Otherwise, the transaction will be considered invalid. And it can be challenged in Court.
And only if each of the co-owners renounces their primary right of redemption. The seller can sell his share to third parties.
But for a price not lower than that which was stated in the sent notarial notice of the sale of a share in the apartment.
It is also worth noting that in the current real estate market. When selling a share that was received as a gift under a gift agreement. The liquidity of such a share is lost.
And the price for it will have to be reduced, since buyers are not eager to deal with shares. Where property rights arose in a similar way.
Another significant step in resolving shared ownership was the possibility of forced purchase of a micro-share in an apartment, which was recognized by the Court as insignificant.
Shares may be considered insignificant if physical living on them may be difficult due to the established principles in an apartment that is in shared ownership.
Excessive overcrowding of the apartment or the impossibility of living in a micro-share due to its small size.
That is, when in fact even a folding bed cannot fit into the area of such a share.
The measure of forced redemption of shares is currently in great demand and has helped a large number of owners avoid conflicts with buyers.
Those who make their living by buying out micro-shares and causing minor troubles. In order to offer the main owners to buy out their micro-share at an inflated price.
- The next factor that reduced the uncontrolled turnover of shares in apartments on free sale.
A law passed in 2021 was introduced.
That a share owned for less than 5 years. Must be subject to personal income tax upon sale. Which is paid in addition to the annual tax deduction amounting to 1 million rubles.
- Also, now all transactions for the purchase and sale of shares are now carried out only by a notary.
And the notary bears financial responsibility in the event that, through his fault, the buyer loses the acquired right of ownership.
Associated with the forced withdrawal of the share itself or the termination of the transaction due to circumstances beyond the control of the buyer.
Rules regarding improvements made to common property
As improvements, the law means the results of changing the parameters of property, ensuring an increase in its value or improving its essential properties.
The following actions are not:
- performing both routine and major repair operations. These costs are considered to be associated not with improving, but with maintaining the required characteristics;
- implementation of actions, although they are improvements, are characterized by excessive high cost and luxury in comparison with similar cases. This exception is made to protect other co-owners from possible unfair acts on the part of a more economically powerful entity.
