9 reasons why your apartment may be taken away from you

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

From debts for housing and communal services to the suddenly appeared heirs.

1. Illegal redevelopment

The state prohibits cleaning and erecting walls in apartments as it pleases. Otherwise, someone's initiative can lead to the destruction of the whole house. Therefore, you must first make a redevelopment project and coordinate it with the local administration.

Something you will most likely be allowed to do, such as combining a bathroom and toilet, or furnishing a dressing room. And something is strictly forbidden: demolish supporting structures, dismantle ventilation boxes, and so on.

In case of unauthorized redevelopment, which endangers the safety of residents, you will be asked to return everything as it was. If you refuse, you may be evicted from the apartment. At the same time, housing will be sold at a public auction, and you will be given the money minus legal costs.

Therefore, if you decide on redevelopment, act in a legal way.

2. Construction of a house with violations

The problem is much more common than one might think. Here is a common scenario: an entrepreneur builds not a private cottage on a site for individual construction, but an apartment building. Residents pay money, transport things. And then they are evicted by the bailiffs. So it was in Saratov, Kirov, Volgograd. Often, local authorities try to somehow legalize houses and eliminate violations committed during their construction. And sometimes they are demolished.

Therefore, it is important to check all the documents of the developer and not to chase too low prices - they, as a rule, give out a catch.

3. Debts secured by an apartment

The most common mortgage lending scheme is when you buy an apartment and immediately mortgage it in order to guarantee the repayment of the loan to the bank. She is popular, but not the only one. In fact, you can mortgage the apartment and on account of the loan, which will be used for other purposes. For example, to buy other real estate or start a business. Until recently, even microfinance organizations lent money on the security of housing.

And if you are hopelessly in debt on a loan, the bank can sell your apartment and take the amount due. You have to move out.

By the way, a loan secured by real estate can be taken not only from a bank, but also from a private person. The consequences of non-payment will be equally sad. Therefore, lending must be approached rationally.

4. Debts without collateral

If housing is not the only one, and you owe a lot to someone, the second (third and so on) apartment may be taken away. But only bailiffs have the right to do this on the basis of a court decision that has entered into force. At the same time, the only housing can be arrested. That is, you will not be kicked out of it, but you will not be able to dispose of it until the debt is paid off.

There is only one way out: avoid debts as much as possible, and if you cannot do without them, then pay them off on time.

5. Non-payment for housing and communal services

In practice, the chances of facing this are small, but in theory, an apartment can be taken away if you owe utility bills. For this, housing should not be the only one, and the amount of non-payment is comparable to the cost of an apartment. If both conditions are met, the property can be sold by auction. The proceeds will be used to pay off the debt. The rest, if any, will be given to you.

6. Violations in the execution of the purchase and sale agreement

You bought an apartment, pay for your communal apartment on time and do not borrow money, but housing can still be taken away. This happens if the sale and purchase transaction is invalidated. The reasons can be different:

• The object is pledged, leased with the registration of an agreement with the Federal Property Management Agency, arrested for debts.
• The seller is married and has not received written consent from the spouse for the transaction.
• The owner is divorced, but the apartment was bought in marriage and has not yet been legally divided between the spouses.
• The owner was incapacitated at the conclusion of the transaction.
• The apartment was sold by proxy, and the owner challenged this document.

Problems are likely if there are children in the salesmen's family. For example:

• The apartment was privatized, and the child was not included in the number of owners.
• The housing was purchased using maternity capital, but the children were not given shares.
• The child was one of the owners, and the guardianship and custody service did not give permission to sell the apartment.

When buying an apartment on the secondary market, you need to check a lot of documents. Don't neglect this.

7. Fraud

The apartment was sold to you by people who did not have the right to do so. Or the previous owner bought it from the cheaters. It doesn't matter how long ago fraudsters have been integrated into the purchase and sale chain. If the rightful owner turns up, the property will most likely be returned to him.

Here it will be appropriate to remind once again about the need for a thorough check of all documents.

8. Unaccounted heirs

Let's say you bought an apartment. We checked all the documents, all the owners for many years ago. But this does not insure you against the loss of real estate 100%. It is possible that earlier this housing was inherited. Let's say a grandmother bequeathed an apartment to her grandson. But suddenly her disabled son is announced. By law, he has the right to a mandatory share in the inheritance, but he was not given it. If he proves that all these years he did not know about the missed opportunities and received information about the death of his mother only now, the court may well side with him and leave you without an apartment.

So when buying a home, do not ignore this signal: if the property was once bequeathed, you need to check that everything was in order with it. Another helper is the title insurance of the transaction, when you receive compensation if the contract is invalidated. In addition, from January 1, 2020, you can go to court to receive compensation from the state if you have been taken away from your home that you bought honestly.

9. Using the apartment for other purposes

By law, the dwelling must be used for living. And if the legal rules are not respected, the court can decide to evict.

It will be a problem if you:

• We decided to open a production facility or a hotel in the apartment.
• You do not respect the rights and interests of your neighbors.
• You violate fire safety, sanitary and hygienic, environmental regulations.

It will be very difficult to evict you, but it is real. For example, in the Sverdlovsk region a DJ lost his apartment, annoying those around him with loud music. Even if this is the only housing for you, but you systematically break the rules, refuse to eliminate violations, threaten the integrity of the building, as well as the health and well-being of residents, the court may decide not in your favor. The apartment will be put up for auction, and you will be given the money from the sale.