What are gated houses?

A residential building of a blocked development is a relatively new construction project and is a collection of individual units - independent residential blocks. The legal status of such a structure is characterized both by the presence of a separate right of ownership to the component units of the object, and by general rules for the use of its property and local area.

The definition of a house in a blocked development is regulated by Art. 49 of the Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation. A block house is a single set of residential blocks, characterized by the following mandatory features:

• the number of storeys of the house should not exceed three floors;
• the total number of blocks cannot be more than 10 units;
• each block is intended to accommodate one family;
• the blocks are connected by common walls without openings or passages;
• Each block has independent access to a common area.

In most basic parameters, houses in blocked development resemble apartment buildings, however, they have a significant difference - they do not have common property. This difference is the main problem that determines the legal status of a house in a blocked development.

What laws of the Russian Federation regulate rights?

Determining the conditions for obtaining permits for construction, commissioning and use of it for the settlement of citizens is regulated by the following regulations:

• Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation;
• Housing Code of the Russian Federation;
• Federal Law No. 218-FZ;
• Federal Law No. 161-FZ;
• Land Code of the Russian Federation;
• by-laws of relevant ministries and departments regarding the allocation of land plots for a residential building of blocked development.

Most regulations regulating legal relations in the construction of such facilities are aimed at determining the conditions for the provision of land plots and registration of the owners' rights to a share in the facility.

In terms of recognizing a house as a house in a blocked development, there are still legal gaps that can only be determined using the judicial practice of the highest courts.

Legal status of a house in a blocked development

For a long time, blocked houses have been the subject of debate due to the lack of detailed regulation of their legal status. In order to recognize a house as a blocked development, it was necessary to apply to the courts, since, as a general rule, they were equated to apartment buildings.

Blocked residential buildings are located on a separate, isolated and individualized plot of land, the right of use of which is possessed by all owners of blocks of such a house.

Such land can be allocated by the owner of each block as personal property, however, at the time of construction of a single object (house) it constituted a common unallocated plot.

The concept of an apartment building indicates the presence of not only a common local area, but also common premises. It is on this basis that the legal status of a house consisting of blocks is differentiated.

Blocked residential development implies the possibility of registering private property rights to the plot under the house, while residents of an apartment building are deprived of such rights and participate in shared ownership of common property and land near the house.

Recognition of a house as a house in a blocked building

Based on the characteristics, the official recognition of such objects as houses of blocked development will help the owners of blocks (apartments) to formalize rights to the land under the house and in the surrounding area.

For newly constructed structures, this problem does not arise, since this type of structure is reflected in the permitting design documentation.

When allocating land for development, it is provided that the owners of each block will have the opportunity to register ownership of the precisely indicated plots. For objects built during the existence of the USSR, or before the adoption of the Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation, this problem consisted precisely in the procedure for recognizing two-apartment houses as houses of blocked development.

In order to legitimize the rights of apartment owners and legally recognize a block of buildings, judicial practice has used various ways to distinguish them from apartment buildings.

It was through the analysis of judicial practice that an effective method of distinguishing between two homogeneous concepts of houses was determined.

Separate section of a house in a blocked building:

• does not have unified in-house systems for providing utilities (heating, water supply, electricity, etc.);
• has common equipment outside the residential unit necessary to service two independent sections.

Thus, if the object is a separate house with no more than three floors, and each section is intended to accommodate only one family and does not contain elements of common property, it is recognized as a block building and is considered as an independent building and is assigned a unique identification number.

Construction permit

Blocked development must be carried out on a single solid plot of land, therefore permitting documentation for construction must be issued taking this circumstance into account. If several land owners decide to build such an object. Before obtaining permission, they must combine their plots into a single unit.

This unification occurs as a result of land cadastral work and is reflected in the form of a boundary plan. This document has the right to draw up a cadastral engineer, who independently sends it to the cadastral chamber of Rosreestr.

After the construction of the house and completion of the work, the previously obtained permission to build a house in a blocked building will be the basis for drawing up a commissioning certificate.

After completing the documents for opening a house, a single plot of land is subject to division between individual block owners by preparing separate boundary plans.

In this case, the blocked house will be registered in the cadastral register as an independent property, and the owners of the blocks will receive rights only to their section.

In cadastral information, each section of such an object will be indicated together with part of a single plot of land, proportional to the area of ​​the occupied block. Similar data will be contained in the USRN data, an extract from which will be available to the owner of each apartment in such a building.

Management of houses in blocked development

Managing a block-type house is fundamentally different from a similar mechanism for managing an apartment building. The absence of common property in houses of blocked development eliminates the requirement to maintain a single object by choosing one of the forms of its management.

However, in order to streamline the conditions for the provision of a number of public services or the improvement of a single local area, block owners have the right to enter into a single agreement with a service company according to rules similar to the choice of management companies.

Since such a structure consists of separate units, house maintenance can be carried out according to the rules for the operation of private residential buildings, when each owner decides on the need to repair his block.

If repairs or reconstruction of common building structures are required, it will be necessary to obtain the consent of the remaining owners of adjacent plots.

Management of a common land plot, if the rights to it are not delimited between the residents of the sections, will be carried out according to the rules of common joint ownership. The presence of delimited rights also does not exclude the need to take into account the interests of neighbors (for example, when formalizing various encumbrances and easements).