Russia - No More Free Flats for Many People

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No More Free Flats for Many People

The Moscow Times
March 2, 2005

Ushering in new rules that promise to change the way people live, a Housing Code came into force Tuesday that abolishes free apartments for scores of people in need of better housing, bans unauthorized apartment remodeling and allows residents of apartment blocks to turn to private companies for communal housing services.

Supporters of the code, which was passed by the State Duma and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin in December, said it will bring order to a sector that has been largely chaotic in post-Soviet years and will give more rights to apartment owners.

Critics argued that the code restricts access to free housing for scores of families living in cramped apartments and opens the door to corruption of housing sector officials.

Some critics have also linked a recent hike in housing costs to government efforts to make sure that the new rules will be enforced, but Putin on Tuesday blamed the increases on inefficient regional policies.

"This is related not to the Housing Code but the policies of regional authorities," Putin said during a meeting with the country's human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, Itar-Tass reported.

The new code replaces a so-called socialist housing code that allowed anyone wanting to improve their housing conditions to get on a waiting list for a free apartment and get one after several years. Adopted in 1983, the old code has remained valid despite the approval of some 3,000 federal laws and hundreds of regional laws related to housing that sometimes contradict the code.

The new code abolishes all those laws and sharply restricts the number of people who qualify for free apartments, or so-called social housing. The waiting list is now reserved for low-income groups, orphans and people suffering from severe chronic diseases. A list of the diseases and a definition of "low-income groups" still needs to be addressed in separate legislation.

Pavel Krasheninnikov, a co-author of the code and the chairman of the Duma's Legislation Committee, said the new rules will ensure that only the neediest get free housing and everyone else should take out mortgages. "The meager budget funds that used to be earmarked to build free housing for everyone on the waiting list will now be directed toward low-income groups," Krasheninnikov told Interfax.

But Oleg Shein, a deputy with the nationalist Rodina faction, complained that millions of families who live in small apartments will now never see any improvement in their living conditions. Mortgages remain out of reach for most families due to high interest rates and the need for down payments, Shein said by telephone.

Under the new code, those who get keys to free municipal apartments will not be able to privatize, sell or pass them on to relatives after they die. Municipal authorities will be allowed to move those who fail to pay communal fees for six months to rooms in dormitories.

Those who received free apartments before March 1 have until 2007 to privatize them, while those who miss the deadline will automatically be considered tenants and have to pay a monthly rent to municipal authorities.

While setting stricter rules for free apartments, the code gives new rights to apartment owners, including full compensation of all costs and expenses if their apartment is in a building slated for demolition. The code also allows owners to evict former spouses or other adult relatives.

Independent Duma Deputy Galina Khovanskaya, the most outspoken critic of the new code, warned that the owner's rights go too far and that many people could wind up homeless.

"The state will not compensate people for their bad family relationships, and many people will find themselves on the street," she said by telephone.

The code also says the cost of apartment building repairs and upkeep must be passed on to residents -- meaning that the owners of privatized apartments will soon see their monthly bills grow.

The code allows private business to get involved in providing communal housing services, which until recently was a state monopoly.

A majority of residents in an apartment building must agree for the switch to be made.

The code envisions several service companies in each district.

The code imposes penalties from fines to eviction for owners who remodel their apartments without the approval of municipal authorities. This may encourage owners to offer bribes to officials in an attempt to avoid red tape, critics of the code said.

"This looks like it has been drafted especially for housing bureaucrats and opens the way for numerous abuses," independent Duma Deputy Oksana Dmitriyeva said on TV Center television on Sunday.



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