⇒ Recognition of a house as residential, recognition of a building as a residential building

Requirements for registration of a residential single-apartment building

The main group of requirements are technical:

number and purpose of premises (minimum - 1 living room, kitchen, bathroom, room for a heating boiler (in the absence of central heating);
area of premises, their width;
ceiling height (depending on the climatic region, at least 2.5 m for the first floor);
compliance with insolation standards (the area and characteristics of glazing are determined);
availability of communications, engineering systems (water supply, sewerage system, electricity, heating, ventilation);
the object must be capital, placed on a foundation.

Technical standards are specified in SNiP 31-02-2001. Additionally, fire safety requirements and hygiene standards (SanPiN) are taken into account. In some cases, it is necessary to prove that the building is already used as housing (the owners permanently reside in it).

Demolition cannot recognize ownership

Co-author: Alekseev Anton

Senior lawyer at EPAM Law Firm

Co-author: Maltsev Vladislav

Trainee solicitor

On August 3, 2021, the President of the Russian Federation signed Federal Law No. 339-FZ “On Amendments to Part One of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Article 22 of the Federal Law “On the Entry into Force of Part One of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation”” regarding clarification of provisions on unauthorized constructions (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 339-FZ) and Federal Law No. 340-FZ “On Amendments to the Urban Planning Code of the Russian Federation and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 340-FZ).

How to recognize a house (building) as suitable for habitation

Registration actions are carried out at the local administration. To do this, prepare a package of documents:

BTI conclusion. To register it, BTI engineers must inspect and measure the house. If there is a construction permit and design documentation, engineers are familiarized with them. The conclusion is prepared within the established time frame, the customer (real estate owner) picks it up independently;
certificates from fire inspection services and SES on the facility’s compliance with fire safety requirements and hygiene standards;
documents for the plot on which the house is built (certificate of registration of ownership, lease agreement, passport, etc.).

This is the main documentation. It is accompanied by a written statement recognizing the building as a residential building. Additionally, the administration may require other documents.

The described procedure takes a lot of time and does not always give a positive result. Therefore, residential buildings are more often registered through the court:

the owner needs to order an independent examination. During it, it is determined whether the building meets the technical requirements for a residential building;
a copy of the expert report is sent to the administration along with the application and other documents: perhaps already at this stage the dispute can be resolved pre-trial;
if the administration refuses to register the building, the documents are sent to court.

When considering a case in court, the owner of the property must prove that it can be used for permanent residence. If during construction the provisions of SNiP and other standards are met, the court will satisfy the requirement for registration. Next, the court decision is sent to the administration. Real estate registration is carried out on its basis.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation made a useful clarification when it reviewed a civil dispute that concerned the relationship between neighbors living in the same house. According to the Supreme Court, low-rise buildings cannot be considered apartment buildings.

So, a certain citizen from Primorye, living in a two-apartment house, decided to expand his housing and added a second floor. He received permits for reconstruction not before the start of his work, but later. And I didn’t agree on the redevelopment with the neighbor. Local courts considered this transformation an unauthorized construction and decided to demolish the second floor. But the Supreme Court did not agree with the opinion of its colleagues.

The dispute began several years ago, when one of the residents dismantled part of the gable roof, built himself a second floor, and added new premises to the first. To legitimize his reconstruction, the citizen filed a lawsuit that same year against the administration of his municipal district. He asked that he be recognized as the owner of the expanded and improved housing, and that the updated part of the house be registered as part of a residential building. Granting the latter request would have deprived his housemate of the right to challenge his renovation.

The plaintiff presented the results of the examination of the local Primorsky Expert Legal Center. Judging by this conclusion, the plaintiff's alterations to his part of the house met all the necessary requirements. But the district court rejected the plaintiff, deciding that the plaintiff never presented the necessary permits for the reconstruction and redevelopment of the apartment.

The citizen who built the second floor nevertheless received permission from the administration of the municipal district for the reconstruction that had already been carried out. But the plaintiff’s neighbor made changes to the Unified State Register, on the basis of which his apartment began to be called part of a residential building. Having received such documents, he began to claim that the house they shared with their neighbor was an apartment building. In his claim to the district court, he indicated that his neighbor, the builder of the second floor, violated the provisions of Part 2 of Art. 40 of the Housing Code (“Changing the boundaries of premises in an apartment building”). Simply put, he pointed out that the defendant did not agree on the addition of the second floor with the neighbor, that is, with him. The defendant (that is, the neighbor - the builder of the second floor) did not admit the claim and insisted that the house consists of only two apartments and cannot be recognized as a multi-apartment building - after all, it has no common areas. He also pointed out that his neighbor personally registered the apartment as part of a residential building, and in this case there is no need to coordinate the reconstruction with the person who lives behind the wall.

The district court decided to order the housing to be returned to its previous condition. The appeal agreed with the findings of the first instance. With one "but". There they decided that the district court went beyond the scope of the claims, in which the citizen challenged only the legality of the second floor addition. Therefore, all other home renovation work can be considered legal. Both decisions were based on the thesis that a two-flat building is considered an apartment building. The aggrieved second-floor builder disagreed with both decisions and went all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court decided that the disputed object is a blocked building. There is this type of low-rise residential development, and it is mentioned in Art. 49 of the Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation. According to sub. 2) clause 2 art. 49 of the Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation, residential buildings of blocked development - residential buildings with no more than three floors, consisting of several blocks, the number of which does not exceed ten and each of which is intended for one family, has a common wall (common walls) without openings with adjacent block or adjacent blocks, located on a separate plot of land and has access to a common area. And such a house cannot be considered an apartment building. The Supreme Court emphasized that one of the neighbors wanted to legalize the superstructure and received permission to do so. The Collegium for Civil Cases also considered the examination ordered by the plaintiff acceptable, which approved the reconstruction. The Supreme Court overturned both decisions and ordered the case to be reconsidered anew, but taking into account its clarifications. Source: Rossiyskaya Gazeta - Federal Issue No. 7013 (145)

Examination of recognition of a house as residential to recognize the house as suitable for habitation

Order an examination: +7

You can order such an independent examination from Invest Consulting. When inspecting a building, the expert performs:

assessment of the house for compliance with current SanPiN, SNiP, fire safety standards, etc.;
photographic recording - general plans of the house, individual rooms, building structures, etc.;
description of materials and characteristics of building structures (foundation, walls, floors, roofing, etc.);
fixation of the configuration and relative position, area, size, height of the premises;
assessment of connected communications (quality of electrical installation, characteristics of heating, sewer, water supply, ventilation, and other systems);
assessment of the location of the house on the site, in some cases - the characteristics of the site, its location.

We offer:

travel of an expert to any point in Moscow and the Moscow region;
fixed prices for independent examination;
extrajudicial examination (the report is used to register a house with the administration or when filing a claim as an appendix to it);
conducting a forensic examination (appointed by the court, which determines the list of issues, selects an expert organization, and determines the time frame for preparing the report).

"Invest Consulting" will prepare a detailed, detailed report that will contain all the information necessary to recognize the building as a residential building. Additionally, in our company you can receive legal assistance on any issues related to the registration of residential real estate.

The procedure for recognizing premises as residential

What algorithm must be followed in order to recognize a premises as suitable for human habitation?

Today, there is a special procedure for recognizing a house as a residential premises, but at the moment the norms for such compliance are not established in the Code, but it must be observed in any case. Recognition or non-recognition of residential premises is established by a specially authorized body - an interdepartmental commission, which is formed from the local administration and other regional bodies.

To do this, a person who has expressed a desire to recognize the premises as residential must submit a corresponding application to the local administration. If a person is in need of housing due to his absence, then he needs to get on the queue with the same administration, and if she refuses, sue her for reinstatement in the queue and force the municipality to forcibly provide housing.
After the formation of the commission, an inspection of the premises is scheduled for the purpose of recognizing it as residential, in accordance with the procedure established at the government level. When determining whether a premises is suitable for residential purposes, the commission is guided by special criteria, which are described in more detail below. After the inspection, a special conclusion is drawn up, in which the commission members vote to recognize or not recognize the premises as residential. The law also provides for the administration's rights to seize residential premises in connection with the seizure of a land plot for state or municipal needs.
The act on recognition or non-recognition of the premises as residential shall indicate in detail the rationale for this decision. If the applicant disagrees, he can always seek protection of his rights in court or appeal the decision administratively.

Lawyer for recognition of premises as residential in Yekaterinburg

The premises must meet the relevant sanitary, technical, epidemiological and other urban planning standards.

Sometimes, if the residential premises are adjacent, and the citizens living in it are relatives, there are cases when it is necessary to receive a subsidy from the state, or in other cases, for this you need to file a claim for recognition as a separate family, then it will be possible to obtain subsidies or other preferences from the state.

Recognition of a residential premises as a residential building is possible if, according to certain parameters, it meets the current requirements of housing legislation. Our housing lawyer at the Law Office “Katsailidi and Partners” will help you with the procedure: professionally and on time. Call today!

Who recognizes houses as residential

The local administration - a village or city - is responsible for the transfer of a dacha into a residential building. To find out which locality’s administration will be converting a garden house into a residential one, you need to carefully study the address. It indicates which administrative district the country house belongs to. If you have doubts about ownership, you can seek advice from municipal specialists.

The translation is carried out by the municipality, and not by the Cadastral Chamber, Rosreestr or BTI. Documentation must be submitted to the municipal authorities.

Is a commission necessary?

The procedure for transferring a summer house to a residential building is a notification procedure. This means that the owner submits a special notice of the need to transfer the dacha to residential status, confirming this request with certain documents. Work on the application takes place in the office, without the commission visiting the site and without actually inspecting the property.

In 2021, when the new procedure was just being developed, the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation actually proposed that each country house be subject to an individual inspection by a special commission. It was assumed that the commission would be composed of officials from the field of architecture, urban planning and invited experts. However, the final version of the updated Government Resolution No. 47 of January 28, 2016 included a simpler option - they will not assemble a commission and go out to inspect the country house.

Statement of claim to the court for recognition of the premises as residential

Recognition of premises as residential premises through the court depends on the constructive and functional capabilities, as well as the availability of everything necessary to ensure that the object is suitable for people to stay in it at any time of the year, provided that it is used for its intended purpose. Living in such premises should be as safe and comfortable as possible; by establishing the listed requirements, the legislator secures the public interest and the direct interest of the employer.

If in the region where the applicant lives the issue of re-registration has not been resolved at the regional level, then you can safely go to court to recognize the property as residential.

After recognizing the premises as residential, the owners need to decide on the procedure for managing the common property of the house: hire a management company or found a HOA. If the owners are not satisfied with the management company, then filing a complaint with the management company about inadequate quality of service can help resolve the situation.

If your housing issue is not resolved in any way, then you can file a complaint against the management company with Rospotrebnadzor and then it will definitely not go unconsidered and unattended. You can also contact our housing law lawyer to resolve another housing issue: professionally and on time.

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Filing a claim

Let us immediately draw your attention to the fact that a claim is a controversial proceeding. This means that when going to court, the plaintiff does not establish a fact (as some legal sites recommend), but enters into a legal dispute with the municipality, which will be brought to trial as a defendant.

Also, a claim is not an appeal against the actions of an official, although in this case there are some similarities.

That is, you cannot appeal the actions of the head of the municipality and ask the court to oblige him to satisfy the application. These are different legal phenomena. The essence of a legal dispute to transfer a building to the residential category is to prove to the court that the house meets all the criteria for residential use, and that the municipality was wrong in refusing registration to the plaintiff.

And in order to convince the court of the correctness of the claims, the plaintiff must present all the documents he has, namely:

BTI technical passport for the building;
expert opinion, including a negative one. In this case, during the trial it will be necessary to file a petition for the appointment of an independent expert examination;
refusal of the municipality to satisfy the application.

It's worth it

Of course, the procedure for recognizing a house as an individual housing construction project is complex, and the requirements for such a house are strict. However, there is nothing impossible in it, and what is good news is that everything depends on you. When choosing a site and house design, make sure that it meets the listed requirements. If you are now looking for a place to build a house in which you will live permanently and plan to register there, our company’s specialists can help you. Call yourself or order a call, and we will advise you on where it is better to buy a plot for individual housing construction. (495) 132- Show phone number.