I am buying an apartment, there is only one owner, three of them refused privatization and left it earlier, what are the risks of challenging the transaction?

Benefits of purchasing

As for the purchase of a privatized apartment, the new owner receives all the same advantages that the previous owners had.
After the purchase, he can rent out, donate this apartment, resell it, etc.

Buying a privatized apartment eliminates the need to carry out privatization yourself, which saves money and time.

It will be much easier to sell such housing in the future. Buying such an apartment provides more favorable prospects in old age. If desired, an elderly owner of a privatized apartment can present it as a contribution when signing a rental agreement or moving to a good shelter for the elderly.

Quite often, people are not satisfied with the standard layout of their apartment and when purchasing a new home, they intend to make changes to it. This cannot be done in a non-privatized apartment.

Purchasing a privatized apartment is a guarantee that its owner will not end up on the street even if he has serious debts for utilities.

No one has the right to evict the owner from the square meters he owns without providing alternative housing and paying the corresponding expenses.

The owner of a privatized apartment will not be left without a roof over his head even if the house is demolished. In such situations, according to the law, the owner must be provided with housing with similar or better living conditions, or compensation must be made in an amount corresponding to the market value of the apartment he owns.

Is it possible to privatize an apartment a second time in 2020?

Any citizen living in the territory of the Russian Federation in an apartment under the terms of a social tenancy agreement has the opportunity to purchase this living space for personal ownership through the free privatization procedure. How many times does one person have the right to privatize housing?

In accordance with legal requirements, one person can take part in the privatization process only once. At the same time, there are certain circumstances under which the law allows the privatization procedure to be repeated.

Status of a privatized apartment

Typically, privatized housing, unlike a non-privatized apartment, is the property of the person or group of persons who participated in the procedure, and not the state.

In general, privatization of an apartment means that its owners can:

sell;
give;
bequeath;
transfer on lease basis.

People who live entirely in this housing rarely think about the need to privatize a non-privatized apartment. As a general rule, persons registered in an apartment subject to privatization have a lifelong right of residence. Not many people think about whether it is necessary to privatize an apartment.

Otherwise, after the death of the person registered in the dwelling, it will go to the use of the remaining residents or back to the jurisdiction of the authorized state body.

By privatizing housing, individuals can count on expanded powers, including sales. Thus, this procedure is optional and is carried out exclusively on a voluntary basis.

List of documents

The purchase and sale transaction of a privatized apartment is carried out in a standard manner, i.e. a package of documents is prepared and an agreement is concluded.

The main documents are:

an agreement confirming the fact of transfer of a municipal apartment into the personal ownership of the seller;
a document confirming ownership rights to the apartment being sold;
certificates confirming the absence of debts;
copy of personal account;
passports of the parties to the transaction;
extract from the house register.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with what certificates are needed to purchase an apartment.
This is a standard list, which may change depending on the conditions of a particular situation.

For example, if a minor citizen who has a share in the property is registered in a privatized apartment, the seller must obtain permission from the guardianship authorities. It is also necessary to request an extract from the Rose Register.

If the interests of the seller are represented by a trusted person, the power of attorney must be notarized.

If you need to obtain additional certificates and documents, please check directly with the situation.

If the seller inherited a privatized apartment, instead of an agreement for the transfer of municipal real estate into personal ownership, he must present:

What should you consider when buying a privatized apartment?

a document confirming the right to inheritance;
a certificate from the tax office confirming payment of taxes, if they had to be paid in his situation.

Documents are prepared in approximately the same order if the privatized apartment has been transferred to the seller under an alienation agreement.

That is, it is necessary to prepare not an agreement for the transfer of municipal real estate into ownership, but, for example, a purchase and sale agreement. The document must be registered with the relevant authority.

Please note once again that the list of required documents may expand depending on different situations, for example:

Presence of minor children.
The presence of other co-owners.
The presence of current and former spouses.
Availability of citizens who have the right to use the apartment, etc.

A person who has decided to purchase a privatized apartment must first familiarize himself with the documents for the apartment and check the status of the housing using publicly available registry information. First you need to order an extract from the cadastral authority. The cost of such an extract is only 200 rubles and it is available to absolutely anyone, even those who are not the owner.

In addition, in the public cadastral map you can check the status of housing by its address. However, the information in this source is not always reliable and does not give a complete picture of the situation. As for the documentation, you should familiarize yourself with the papers on the basis of which the current owners own the apartment:

Privatization agreement. Attention should be paid to the circle of persons who are indicated in the agreement as participants in the privatization, as well as to the marks of the government body that carried out the privatization.
Certificate of registration of ownership in the state register. According to the law, property rights that are not registered are not recognized by government agencies and are not the basis for the disposal of property.

If the apartment is in common joint or shared ownership of several persons, then the written consent of each of them should be obtained for the sale. And if there are minors or incapacitated persons among the owners, the seller should be required to obtain permission from the guardianship and trusteeship authority to sell the share of such a co-owner.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the First Steps to Selling an Apartment

If the housing is in shared ownership with clearly allocated shares, it is necessary to ensure that the buyer is given certificates of ownership of the share, which are drawn up by a notary when dividing the property into shares. We recommend that you read: How to allocate a share in a privatized apartment In addition, for To complete a transaction, the following documents may be required:

certificates from authorized services stating that the apartment has no arrears on utility bills;
copies of subscriber accounts, apartment books;
copies of passports of counterparties to the transaction;
extract from the house register.

This is a standard list of documents that are necessary to complete a transaction.

After concluding a written agreement, an act of acceptance and transfer of housing is also drawn up, after which payment of the contract price is made. Only after this the buyer will be able to register the property in his name with the authorized body.

How to privatize an apartment in 2020

Citizens who are registered in housing at their place of residence have the right to privatize housing, based on a warrant or social tenancy agreement. At the same time, a person has the right to refuse to participate in the privatization process.

It is enough to simply draw up an application and have it certified by a notary. Housing becomes the property of citizens for approximately 3 months.

First of all, in order to privatize housing, you need to obtain the consent of the people who live in it, including those who are temporarily absent from the place. Then you need to contact the Bureau of Technical Inventory with a separate application, where they must issue a list of documentation that you need to independently collect in order to acquire the status of a home owner.

Such documentation may include:

An extract prepared from the house register;
A certificate serving as confirmation of payment for residential complex services;
Written consent received from citizens who are registered in the housing;
Written representation of the refusal to participate in the privatization process of a specific living space;
A certificate confirming the fact that none of the designated citizens used their own privatization right;
A copy made from a passport, a certificate confirming the fact of birth, change of name, as well as registration or divorce, death certificate;
A separate order or social rental agreement for housing;
Explication of the floor plan of the structure.

When all the documentation has been collected, you should contact the government agencies that are responsible for the transfer of living space into the possession of citizens in order to subsequently conclude an agreement. Based on this agreement, citizens are issued a separate certificate confirming the registration of property rights to the object in the Rosreestr. Only from the moment of acquiring such a certificate does a citizen acquire full ownership of the living space.

What kind of living space cannot be transferred into the possession of citizens?

The privatization process does not apply to premises:

official purpose;
housed in dormitories;
located in residential buildings classified as closed;
in houses recognized as unsafe.

The list of office premises includes separate rooms, apartments, residential buildings provided to employees of a certain institution/organization for the purpose of living while performing work duties.

From the moment of their dismissal, they lose their right to use official residential premises. In some cases, the possibility of privatization of such housing is excluded.

A dormitory is a place used for temporary residence, which is provided for categories of residents such as nonresident employees and students. In such places, all utility rooms (kitchen, toilet, shower, corridors) are used by all residents within one block, section or floor.

A gated house means houses located in a military camp where military personnel and their families have the right to live.

Emergency buildings include residential buildings that are scheduled for demolition, resettlement or reconstruction work. A building may acquire emergency status as a result of a conclusion made by a special commission. At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish between the concept of a dilapidated, emergency, requiring major repairs of a house.

What needs to be checked?

If you want to buy a privatized apartment, a potential buyer needs to pay attention to a number of important factors.

First of all, it is necessary to obtain written consent from each property owner to sell it.

Information about the owners is provided in the certificate from the BTI.

Check with the seller of the apartment if there are any minor children. If possible, it is necessary to establish the presence or absence of illegitimate children, who, under certain circumstances, can also claim their rights to the apartment.

Find out if there are people who are serving prison sentences and have an interest in the property in question.

Check if the seller is married.

Sometimes situations happen when an apartment turns out to be joint property, but only one owner appears in the documents.

That is, he can safely sell the apartment, and if certain situations arise, his spouse will file a claim for the division of jointly acquired property, which will cause you a lot of inconvenience and may even lead to the loss of your share of the apartment.

IMPORTANT: Carefully study the seller’s passport. It should not contain any erasures, blots, etc. Pay attention to the validity period of the passport.

Check out the documents for the apartment. You should especially carefully study the document confirming the seller’s right to own the property. There should be no erasures or corrections in the documents. If there are any, they must be secured with the signature and seal of a notary.

Check to see if the property in question is a foreclosed property and if the owner sold it a couple of days before meeting you. Such frauds also sometimes occur.

If possible, enlist the help of a good real estate agent. He will carry out all the necessary checks and save you from wasting time and effort.

Consequences of refusal to privatize

A person who has lived in a municipal apartment for a long time or is registered in it may not participate in privatization if he writes a refusal. But this does not mean that it will be possible to register the premises as private property without his permission.

He must also agree to privatization, but he will not participate in it.

The consequences of refusing privatization mean that a person will no longer be able to become the owner of an apartment.

If the rightful owners of the premises can sell it, donate it or give it as an inheritance, then the citizen who refused does not have such rights.

But the person who refused to privatize the housing this time reserves the right to register another premises as private property.

Apartments

The renunciation of a share in the apartment must be written personally by the citizen living in it. He must also be personally present when registering the refusal, even if he has a proxy.

The refusal must be attached to the main package of documents for privatization, as evidence that this citizen does not claim the share of real estate allocated to him by law.

Read whether minor children are involved in privatization. Is it possible to privatize stairs in non-residential premises? See here.

In favor of another person

In order for a certain person to become the owner of an apartment, all other family members are required to renounce their right to privatization. This fact is formalized in the form of an act, which must be certified by a notary.

Refusal to register premises as private property is not considered such in the following cases:

if the citizen has already taken part in free privatization;
He already owns part of his housing in private ownership.

Such a person is not included in the documents for privatization, but to confirm that he does not have the right to register the premises as private property, a corresponding certificate must be provided.

Minor child

In the first years of the law “On Privatization,” the participation of minor children was not expected.

But changes were gradually made to the legislation, which provided equal rights for both children and adults. This allowed children under 18 to have a share in the apartment where they lived.

If adults can refuse to privatize a premises, then this rule does not apply to children. Their parents or guardians cannot write a refusal for them, even if they themselves refuse privatization.

Buyer's risks

The buyer needs to consider the risks when buying an apartment. The main risk for the buyer when purchasing a privatized apartment is the recognition of the transaction as invalid. This is carried out only in court, so in addition to refusing the transaction, the buyer will have to lose time and money in court. Basically, the invalidity of the transaction under which a privatized apartment is sold may consist of the following:

sale of housing by an unauthorized person;
lack of consent of co-owners;
the presence of another agreement under which the housing is transferred to another person;
failure to respect the interests of minors and incapacitated persons;
the presence of encumbrances on privatized housing.

We invite you to read: Does the management company have the right to turn off electricity for debts in 2020: Can a management company turn off the lights for non-payment of rent and utilities

As a general rule, it is rare that creditors agree to accept privatized housing as collateral. However, the buyer should not exclude this option. Thus, among the encumbrances on privatized housing, it is worth checking:

fact of collateral;
the fact of having a life annuity (which happens quite often);
debts on taxes and utility bills;
the presence of an unfinished lawsuit, where the subject of the dispute is the specified apartment.

Thus, before purchasing a privatized apartment, it is best to consult with specialists. Due to the development of the real estate market, today realtors in their respective regions have complete information about real estate properties whose owners have decided to sell them. Of course, their services are not cheap, but it will save a lot of time and eliminate unwanted risks

How to dispute?

There are two ways to revoke a refusal:

judicially;
through the notary who draws it up.

A challenge to the refusal in court is possible only if the privatization transaction is declared invalid for some reason.

One of the reasons may be intimidation and threats to a person who refuses privatization. But in this case, you need to have strong evidence that such actions were carried out.

What should you pay attention to?

All aspects and facts that need to be paid attention to when purchasing privatized housing can be divided into those permitted by law and fraudulent actions. From the point of view of circumstances permitted by law, the following factors must first be established:

presence of minors living in the dwelling;
fact of common or shared ownership;
the presence of spouses of owners, including former ones;
the presence of persons who, according to the law, have the right to use housing.

Is it possible to buy such an apartment? If one of the above factors is present, it is recommended not to purchase such housing. The solution may be to eliminate each problem separately, which without the participation of a professional lawyer seems to be an extremely difficult matter. To check a transaction for the presence of fraudulent activities, you should pay attention to the following factors:

do the seller’s data correspond to the data of the person indicated in the excerpt from the cadastre as the owner;
is there consent from the seller’s spouse if he is (or even was) married;
the seller’s passport must not contain any blots or corrections;
documents for the property must be genuine, and corrections or additions must be certified by a notary or an authorized government agency.

You shouldn’t even think about whether you can get in touch if you have suspicions. In any case, the support of professionals will not be superfluous. Indeed, today there are very often cases of real estate fraud, when the same housing is sold to several persons.

Tags: apartment, purchase, privatize, risk

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Useful video

Below is a video with a lawyer talking about the risks when buying a privatized apartment:

Today, many real estate purchase transactions take place on the secondary market, where apartments were previously privately owned and may have some features. One such feature that you should pay close attention to is privatization. Is it worth purchasing such an apartment and how to do it? What needs to be carefully checked and how to eliminate risks when buying a privatized apartment? What situations should a buyer avoid to avoid being left homeless and without money? The answers to these questions will be revealed in this article.