Home / Housing disputes / How to find out what share in the apartment you own
Owners can dispose of property at their own discretion. If you need to formalize a transaction with shared ownership, you will have to find out the exact size of shares in the apartment. Very often, housing belongs to several people. The buyer must be aware of what share the seller owns. This will save you from problems with the purchase and challenging the transaction by other owners.
If you are interested in information about the share, you have access to:
- personal visit to Rosreestr;
- appeal through “My Documents” (MFC);
- online request on the Rosreestr website;
- registration through State Services;
- request for a certificate with a home visit.
Not everyone knows how to correctly access the necessary information. Read our article and you will learn about the algorithm, documents, deadlines and costs.
✅ In what cases do you need to find out about the share?
Interest is shown at the moment of making a transaction with a share in the apartment. The information may be of interest not only to the owner, but also to third parties. First of all, to the buyer, tenant, donee, creditor and other equity holders in the house. Especially if you need to determine the rights and obligations of the co-owners of the apartment.
Expert opinion
Semyon Frolov
Lawyer. 7 years of experience. Specialization: family, inheritance, housing law.
The need to find out about the share arises in the following cases:
- Purchases of an apartment or share - minors, incompetents, convicts, military personnel, etc.
- Rent/hire of part of the housing - the share is allocated in the form of a room, otherwise the transaction is impossible.
- Registration (registration) forms.
- Giving a share to a relative.
- Wills - it is important to separate the inherited part from the remaining shares in the ownership of the apartment.
- Mortgage/loan – a prerequisite is the physical allocation of a share (room).
*/ – a mortgage loan is issued to buy out the “last” share in the apartment, therefore it is in the owner’s interests to provide the bank with all the information.
- Calculation of utility bills, taxes, amounts for major repairs.
- Updates – Some people own shares but don't remember it until years later.
So, you want to know about your rights to an apartment. Let's figure out where to go and what a document with the necessary information looks like.
Bonus. Check the legal capacity of the owner with a notary
Sometimes the owner is an incapacitated or partially incompetent person. This includes, for example, people with mental illness and minors. They can own real estate, but do not have the right to sell it. The transaction is recognized as valid only if the guardianship authorities approve it.
Information about the incapacity of the owner is also stored in Rosreestr - in the extract “on recognizing a citizen (owner of real estate) as incompetent or partially capable.”
Such information is considered confidential and is not given to apartment buyers. But they give it to a notary. Contact him if you suspect the seller is a minor or a person with inappropriate behavior.
✅ How to find out if there is a share in a privatized apartment?
It is often necessary to find out whether the owner has a share in a privatized apartment. Many people confuse the concepts of “registration” and “property”. They are significantly different.
Regular registration (registration) in a privatized apartment gives the right to reside. And it is not a fact that the tenant has rights to the residential premises. You can find out more about this from the title document:
- certificate of ownership - issued until 2021 (currently abolished, but valid);
- extract from the Unified State Register - replaced the certificate until 2017 (not issued now);
- an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate – an up-to-date certificate of rights to an apartment (see “What does a document on the privatization of an apartment look like”).
If the housing was privatized, you need to look at whether there was registration at the time of registration?
Example 1 . The family privatized a 2-room apartment. The participants in the transaction were a father, mother and two minor children. If none of the family members renounced their share, all four will become owners.
Example 2 . The family privatized a 2-room apartment. At the time of the deal with the authorities, only the mother, father and daughter were registered in the apartment. A year later, a son was born into the family. Three participants in the privatization are recognized as co-owners of the apartment - the newborn is not included in the list of owners.
Thus, a person will have a share in an apartment or house if he:
- did not abandon it at the stage of privatization;
- had permanent registration in a municipal apartment;
- has a title document - a certificate or extract.
Even if there is no such document, it is very easy to find out about your share. It is enough to resort to one of the options described below.
Make sure the seller is the owner
Sometimes the seller of an apartment pretends to be the owner, but in reality turns out to be the owner's authorized representative or the tenant. This is how a person tries to deceive the buyer.
For example, a fraudster rents an apartment to sell. Buyers are allowed into the rented apartment, so they don’t notice the catch. People make an agreement with the scammer, give money and move into the apartment. A month later the real owner comes and evicts the new tenants. The contract turns out to be invalid, because it was concluded with a stranger. And people lose money and are left without an apartment.
To conclude an agreement with the real owner, it is important to check that the owner’s full name matches the seller’s full name in the contract. For this, an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate on the main characteristics of the registered rights to the property will be useful. The owner's full name is indicated in section No. 2.
Owner - Natalia Petrovna Stepanova. If her name is on the contract, everything is fine.
✅ How to find out what share in the apartment belongs to you?
Choose a method depending on your preferences: whichever is more convenient for you - a personal visit or online via the Internet.
