Garage Amnesty: Who Will Be Allowed To Register The Old Garage And How To Do It

2023 Author: Natalie MacDonald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 02:36

In September, a law on the so-called "garage amnesty" will come into effect in Russia. Garage owners will have the opportunity to issue title documents in order to legally use the buildings and receive adequate compensation if the garages have to be demolished for some reason. However, this does not mean at all that all current buildings will acquire legal status.

Why is it needed

The problem of garages is especially acute in large cities, where they are being demolished due to new construction, regardless of the interests of the owners. And if the proceedings reach the courts, then they most often side with the state or builders, because legally, many garages simply do not exist!

Until December 2004, when the current Urban Development Code was adopted, the legislation did not contain a definition of a garage and did not regulate in any way the activities of garage cooperatives and associations.

The new law will give garage owners a chance to secure the legal status for their real estate and the right to defend this property in court if it falls into the sphere of interests of the state or developers. In addition, the garage can be sold, donated, bequeathed, and so on. The opportunity to arrange garages will be valid until September 1, 2026.

What's wrong with garages now

The problem is that a significant part of garages does not have any legal status at all: they are not formalized. This applies to both individual buildings and boxes in garage-building cooperatives, whose users, at best, have a membership card or an old Soviet document on the allocation of a garage - for example, to a veteran or a disabled person.

At the same time, neither the box itself nor the land under it were ever registered as property or rent, and the garage user usually paid only electricity and a penny land tax. As a result, the state or the owner of the land has the right to simply demolish the interfering structures, or even oblige the actual user to do this.

The new law introduces descriptions of garages and garage associations. For example, a one-story building for storing a car and related items will be considered an individual garage. There is the concept of a non-capital garage without the granting of ownership of a plot of land, as well as a collective garage, that is, buildings with parking spaces, which themselves are separate real estate objects.

How many such garages are there in Russia

According to officials, there are up to 3.5 million unregistered garages in Russia, but in reality there may be a million or two more: a significant part of such buildings cannot be counted. However, the announced "amnesty" does not guarantee legalization for everyone. Each case will be studied individually from a legal point of view, and it is not at all a fact that it will be possible to arrange a garage, which the owners have been using for, for example, the last forty years.

Who will be affected by the amnesty

It will be possible to legalize (or rather, try!) A garage built before December 29, 2004 - it is assumed that after this date such buildings have already been erected in accordance with the provisions of the new City Planning Code. The garage must be obtained legally, and its owner must have at least some documents confirming the legality of the disposal of this building.

These can be decisions of local authorities on the allocation of land, documents on membership in a garage cooperative, a sales contract, papers on technical inventory, and even receipts for payment of tax payments. Those who do not have any documents will have to go to court with witnesses and prove there that they have owned a garage for many years.

You will have to forget about "shells" and other metal awnings. However, even now they have remained only as non-capital shelters in open parking lots. They will definitely not register garages built without permission. Finally, garages built on and converted for housing, which do not fit into any norms at all, will be outlawed. They will not be issued and, most likely, will simply be demolished.

How to arrange a garage

After collecting the documents, you will need to contact the Rosreestr or the local center of public services with an application for registration of ownership. If the package of documents is enough, then the department will formalize the property, put the object on cadastral registration and send the owner an extract from the Unified Real Estate Register (USRN). This is when it comes to a separate building. In the case of GSK, the application will have to be submitted from the cooperative with the minutes of meetings attached and the signatures of all members of the association.

In addition to the ownership of the garage, the owner can receive ownership of the land, but only if it has no restrictions. And they met all the time when allocating land for garages. For example, land was given under power lines, above heating mains, or, for example, next to the ventilation pavilions of the subway. In this case, the land may be leased (or may not be issued if the status does not allow).

Sounds good, but in practice, all this is unlikely to work easily and quickly - in most cases, garage owners may not have any documents, and the land will most likely be encumbered or owned by someone. In this case, there is little chance of legalizing the garage.

And if you did it, then it will definitely not be demolished?

Is not a fact! Everything will depend on the status of the land plot. If the land under the garage (or garage cooperative) is registered as property, then this site is protected by law in much the same way as a residential building. That is, it is almost inviolable. “Almost” because if necessary, for example, for the construction of a road, the site can still be withdrawn - but only on condition that adequate market compensation is paid.

If the land plot is in lease (or temporary use), then all rights to it will expire at the end of the lease term, and it can be either 50 years or one or two years. After that, the owner of the land has the right to expel the tenant, and he will have to clean the building at his own expense. Another option is to buy land from the state with a transfer from municipal to private (or shared in the case of GSK) or from the owner, who has the right to set any price.