Mat capital buying an apartment from relatives

Is it possible to buy housing from parents and close relatives?

The state supports families with children and strives to protect the interests of the latter and the targeted use of maternity capital.
Federal Law No. 256-FZ of December 29, 2006 (Article 7) provides a detailed explanation of what family capital can be used for and under what circumstances a subsidy is issued for improving housing conditions (for example, money will not be provided for the purchase of a plot for future development).

As for buying a house or apartment from parents, such transactions can be legally carried out, but family capital cannot be used. The reason is simple: there is a high probability that such a transaction is fictitious, and the owners of the certificate for maternal capital simply convert the funds due to them into hard currency. And it is quite possible that the money will subsequently not benefit the young family and child.

This is also true for transactions with other close relatives. Article 14 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation indicates that close relatives include (for a family):

husband, wife and their children;
parents-in-law;
blood brothers and sisters, both full and not full (who only have a common father or mother), along the line of husband, wife, and child;
grandparents of both husband and wife;
grandchildren.

Therefore, the answer to the question of whether it is possible to buy an apartment with maternity capital from your parents is obvious - no. The transaction can only be carried out using the buyer’s personal capital.

What is maternity capital?

Maternity capital is a special certificate in the form of state assistance to young families after the birth of a child. Money from it can be used to buy housing from relatives, a mortgage, a child’s education, and the like. But most often parents use it to buy a house or apartment. To do this, there is absolutely no need to wait until the child turns three years old, although previously this was a prerequisite. But even here there are conditions and restrictions. The current provisions of the law and regulations are such that you can spend part of your maternity capital on buying an apartment or house on credit, paying off previous mortgage debt until the child is three.
And after his birthday, you will be able to manage the amount at your discretion and buy suitable housing even from your parents.

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But here there are several conditions regarding the purchase of a house or apartment:
You can buy this property only on the territory of the Russian Federation;
the purchased house and apartments must be insulated and in good condition;
real estate must comply with sanitary and technical standards.

The amount of maternity capital for the purchase of real estate in the form of houses and apartments is credited for a period of up to 2 months and is carried out by the Pension Fund. Therefore, experts advise you to immediately calculate when it is better to make a mortgage payment or draw up the necessary documents for this.

An important point can be considered that the law prohibits the purchase of a plot of land or a dacha with money from capital, because they are not used for permanent residence.

Deal with other relatives

If the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation refuses a real estate transaction, then you will either have to cover the entire cost from your wallet, or terminate the contract and look for new options
. For relatives who are not close, you can purchase real estate using family capital, there are no restrictions either from the RF IC or the Civil Code RF, nor the RF Housing Code is provided for.

You can even purchase not the entire apartment, but only its share using maternal capital, but only if the following conditions are met:

we are talking about an isolated part of the premises, to which the owners of the other part of the housing will not have access;
after purchasing the share, the entire premises will become the property of the family (that is, the husband or wife already owns some part of the residential premises).

In other cases, such transactions are impossible.

How to make a deal correctly

The legality of the purchase with maternity capital will definitely be checked, as well as the extent to which the obligation to allocate shares to children has been fulfilled.
There is no need to prove to the Pension Fund that the buyer and seller are not close relatives (this body independently conducts this check). So, buying real estate from relatives for capital is done in exactly the same way as from another owner who has no relationship with the buyers. The child (after whose birth the certificate was received) must already be 3 years old at the time of such a transaction. The general algorithm looks like this:

Concluding a purchase and sale transaction. The agreement specifies that family capital will be used partially (or fully) as payment, that is, the transaction will be partially closed with money from the Pension Fund (it acts as the manager of funds provided by the state). Each family member must be allocated their own share in the purchased real estate (mother, father, all children).
Submission of an application by the buyer to the Pension Fund. A certified copy of the real estate purchase and sale agreement (indicating the details and personal data of the seller) must be added to it.
Waiting for approval. The period for making a decision on issuing (or not issuing) a certificate for maternity capital has been reduced from 1 month to 15 days since 2020. And the time frame for checking the accuracy of information provided by citizens has been reduced from 14 to 5 days.

Once the money arrives in the seller’s account, the transaction is considered completed. Next comes the transfer of keys and registration of ownership.

Is it possible to buy a share in an apartment with maternity capital?

The law on maternity capital does not prohibit the purchase of a share in an apartment. The main condition is that it must be large enough so that it can be allocated in kind in the form of one or several rooms, or after its acquisition the entire living space .

Housing purchased using maternity capital must be located on Russian territory.

Acquiring a share in an apartment should not be contrary to the law . Illegal transactions include:

imaginary and feigned transactions (Article 170 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation);
void and voidable transactions (Articles 168-179 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) - directly contrary to the law or the principles of morality, concluded by persons who do not have the right to do so (children under 14 years old, incompetent, etc.), concluded under the influence of deception, threat or misconceptions, etc.;
acquisition of a share in a dilapidated house that is subject to demolition, or in premises unsuitable for habitation (Clause 8, Part 2, Article 8 of Law No. 256-FZ, introduced by Law No. 37-FZ of March 18, 2019).

The Pension Fund verifies the data provided by the owner of the certificate when applying for the disposal of maternal capital:

on recognition of the purchased housing as unsafe;
on deprivation and restriction of parental rights, cancellation of adoption, removal of a child from parents;
about committing a deliberate crime against the person in relation to your child.

If there are suspicions of illegal use of maternity capital, the Pension Fund will refuse to send the funds and will contact law enforcement agencies. The prosecutor’s office also regularly checks transactions that have already been carried out for legality.

What is the difference between a share and a room?

According to Part 1 of Art. 10 of the law on maternal capital, with state support funds you can purchase residential premises, which include apartments, houses and rooms in them - the share itself is not included in this list.

According to Art. 16 of the Housing Code, a residential premises, including a room, has the following characteristics:

is an isolated building or part of it;
suitable for permanent residence;
connected to engineering systems: electrical networks, ventilation and heating, as well as gas, water supply and sewerage, if such networks are installed in a populated area;
meets established sanitary and technical standards.

A share is not a residential premises because it represents an abstract part of real estate: a share in the right of ownership, and not a specific room.

Owners of housing divided into shares use it jointly and with agreement, while the law on maternal capital implies that the family must fully own the premises purchased on the MK, therefore the abstract part of the real estate cannot . That is why, when purchasing a share, it must be allocated in kind or be the last one in the apartment, so that after its acquisition the entire living space will be owned by the family.

Is it possible to buy a share in an apartment from relatives for mat capital?

The law on maternity capital does not prohibit buying a share in an apartment from relatives - you can purchase housing (including part of it) through any transactions that do not contradict the law, as confirmed by the Pension Fund.

Despite the above, there are restrictions on purchasing a share in an apartment from relatives:

In the course of purchasing housing or part of it from them using maternity capital, its funds should not be cashed out . The prosecutor's office regularly checks the legality of the use of maternal capital, and if violations are detected, initiates a criminal case under Art. 159.2 of the Criminal Code “Fraud in receiving payments.”
Buying a share from a spouse . Such transactions are prohibited by law if the apartment was in common ownership - the right to the real estate does not actually transfer, because the buyer already owned it. But when using maternity capital, you also cannot purchase real estate that was in the sole ownership of the spouse. For example, the prosecutor's office of the Saratov region opened a criminal case against a mother with many children who cashed out state support funds by “purchasing” a house from her husband.
Acquiring a share in an apartment from close relatives with participation in the transaction minor child: according to Part 3 of Art. 60 of the Family Code and paragraph 3 of Art. 37 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, that is, if a child under 18 years of age is specified in the contract, the owner of the certificate cannot buy a share from:
children;
brothers and sisters;
grandparents;
grandchildren and granddaughters.

How to buy a share in an apartment using maternity capital?

The procedure for purchasing a share using maternity capital funds will be as follows:

Agree with the seller on the terms of the transaction and that the price will be partially or fully paid by mother capital.
Draw up a purchase and sale agreement indicating what part of the share is paid for using the certificate.
Draw up a transfer deed, which is required for state registration.
Register the transfer of ownership in Rosreestr, after which the buyer will receive an extract of rights to the share from the Unified State Register of Real Estate (USRN).
Submit an application to the Pension Fund for the disposal of maternity capital with the required documents - the Pension Fund will consider the application within a month.

The most important condition for purchasing a home or a share using maternity capital is registering the acquired property as a common shared property of the family. This can be done immediately, indicating both parents and children in the agreement, or after the completion of the transaction, but then the owner of the certificate will have to give a written obligation to allocate shares, certified by a notary.

It is necessary to allocate shares to family members within six months after registering the purchase in Rosreestr or repaying the loan for the purchase of housing.

What documents are needed?

According to clauses 6 and 8 of the rules approved by Government Decree No. 862 dated December 12, 2007, it is necessary to provide to the Pension Fund:

passport of the certificate holder or other document confirming identity and registration at the place of residence (stay);
a copy of the purchase and sale agreement;
an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate on the applicant’s rights to the purchased housing;
an obligation certified by a notary to allocate shares if the property is not purchased for all family members or with a mortgage;
spouse’s passport and marriage certificate, if he is one of the parties to the transaction;
passport and notarized power of attorney for the representative, if the application is submitted not in person, but through him;
a certificate from the seller about the amount of the unpaid amount if the apartment is purchased in installments.

According to clauses 12 and 13 of the rules, if a share is purchased with credit or borrowed funds (including a mortgage), then you will also need:

credit agreement or loan agreement;
a registered mortgage agreement, if the loan or loan is a mortgage;
a certificate from the bank or from the lender about the balance of the principal debt and interest, if MK funds are used to repay them.

Possible risks

An unaccounted heir may be one who has the right to an obligatory share in inheritance under a will, but he did not know about it, but found out later.
Among the possible risks when purchasing housing from relatives, it should be mentioned only that a so-called unaccounted for share in the apartment may be claimed heir (if, for example, the husband or wife has a brother or sister who does not live in the housing being sold at the time of the transaction). But this is also true for real estate that is not purchased from a relative.

In addition, transactions with relatives are often not approved by the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, so you may not receive a positive response to your application. Otherwise, there are no risks.