Challenge the privatization of an apartment

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Published: September 16, 2016

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Housing privatization is a complex and lengthy process that requires a serious and precise approach. It happens that privatization for one reason or another may be considered illegal and in this case you will have to challenge it in court.

In our article we will tell readers in detail about the reasons why privatization may be considered illegal, about the process of challenging it in court, as well as about its cancellation and suspension.

• When can privatization be declared illegal?
• The process of challenging in court
• Cancellation of privatization
• Suspension of the privatization process
• Re-registration to yourself

Main aspects

Recently, citizens have been paying special attention to the privatization of housing ownership.
In this case, we are often talking about municipal housing, which was allocated for certain circumstances. However, the legislation establishes certain deadlines within which the re-registration of real estate into direct ownership can be carried out.

Citizens are given a certain period of time during which they can privatize real estate and dispose of it in full due to its ownership.

If a citizen does not register the privatization of real estate in a timely manner, and he acquires other property where he can live, then he is subject to eviction from the municipal property.

Privatization	Registration of a real estate property as your direct property with the subsequent possibility of resale
Own	Form of ownership of certain movable or immovable property, which is confirmed in documentary form
Contract of sale	A document confirming the resale of certain property for a specified amount of funds to another party to the transaction
Statement of claim	The plaintiff’s demands put forward to the court in the form of a written statement drawn up according to established rules and submitted in a certain order
Judicial authorities	Government apparatuses authorized to resolve controversial issues, conflict situations and call for accountability when identifying offenses
Defendant	An individual or legal entity who acts in a civil procedural case as a responsible person for committed violations of the rights of another citizen or organization

Taking into account these concepts, it will be much easier to understand the essence of the issue regarding the establishment of a statute of limitations for filing a claim for the privatization of an apartment.

What does it affect?

Privatization of an apartment is the registration of a property as your direct property. These actions have a direct impact on the following:

• the apartment becomes the full possession of the citizen;
• it can undergo redevelopment or reconstruction;
• the apartment can be sold without any difficulties;
• if previously the property was municipal, after privatization the state will not be able to seize the property.

These points are directly affected by the privatization of real estate and the transfer of property into full ownership by a citizen.

The settlement of the issue regarding the establishment of a limitation period for the privatization of real estate into ownership is based on the following regulatory legal acts:

• Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated December 11, 2012 No. 29 “On the application of civil procedural legislation by courts”;
• Federal Law No. 178 of December 21, 2001 “On the privatization of state and municipal property”;
• Law of the Russian Federation No. 1504-1 of July 4, 1991 “On the privatization of the housing stock of the Russian Federation”;
• Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, Article No. 131;
• Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, Article No. 132.

On the basis of these laws, the privatization of property objects is carried out, as well as the calculation of the statute of limitations for these actions.

Limitation period and consequences of invalidity of privatization

Article 181 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation regulates the time limits for filing a lawsuit with a demand for the invalidity of transactions. Since the privatization of residential premises in violation of the requirements of the law is recognized as a void transaction, the court will apply a three-year statute of limitations.

Its beginning is associated with the moment when the subject learned about the violation of his rights or should have known it. The rule also applies that the specified period begins from the moment the transaction is executed - this will be of significant importance when filing a claim by authorized state or municipal bodies in the interests of citizens.

Only part of a privatization transaction may be declared invalid, and the consequences of challenging it may be:

• termination of the privatization contract and transfer of housing back to municipal ownership;
• registration of rights by court decision for an additional circle of persons, or exclusion of citizens from the number of rights holders.

If the rule of restitution is applied, i.e. By returning the parties to their original state, citizens may not lose the right to participate in the privatization program. Such a provision must be provided for in the act of the court considering the claim for the invalidity of the privatization transaction.

When is it considered illegal?

In what cases is it possible to invalidate a process? Not every privatization procedure is considered illegal.

The legislator has established only a number of factors that, one way or another, may influence the consequences of the procedure to be rejected. So, let's look at some of them:

1. If it was carried out on behalf of a minor citizen, then it is likely that such an action could be challenged in court, but for what reason? The fact is that a minor, due to his age, cannot fully understand the full responsibility of the decision, and his representatives can make a transaction, guided not by the interests of the child, but by their own benefit. If this fact is proven in court, the procedure will be considered invalid.

2. 
   If a citizen was declared incompetent, and this procedure was also carried out on his behalf, there is every reason to try to recognize the process as illegal, since the person cannot fully understand the full responsibility of the actions he carries out.

3. If there is a limited capacity, then such a procedure is also called into question. The last reason, which somewhat stands out from the general series, is due to the fact that the person, agreeing to the transaction, could not and for certain reasons was not at all aware of all the consequences of the action being taken.

The reasons do not end there; there are many of them, depending on the specific situation. Within the framework of this article, you and I have examined the main ones cited in judicial practice.

Another case when privatization may turn out to be illegal is due to the fact that the procedure itself was directly violated.

This is manifested in the fact that the papers were drawn up in an invalid manner, incompetent persons were involved, as well as other dangers.

Another case of illegal appropriation of housing is the implementation of actions that privatization simply does not have the right to carry out.

One of the most significant violations is the signing of all available papers by a person who is incompetent in this matter.

Find out from our articles about the rights and obligations of the owner and those prescribed in a privatized apartment, what the owner of privatized meters will have to repair at his own expense, as well as how to refuse to participate in the procedure.

How to challenge the privatization of an apartment based on the statute of limitations?

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The statute of limitations for the privatization of an apartment must be taken into account if the question of challenging or changing the terms of the transaction arises. In this case, the rules on recognizing transactions or their individual provisions as invalid, which are enshrined in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, must be applied.

What it is

The essence of privatization transactions is the re-registration of rights to residential real estate (apartments or rooms) into the ownership of citizens. The conditions and procedure for this procedure are regulated by Law of the Russian Federation No. 1541-1, and the basic principles of the privatization program include:

• universal accessibility - every citizen living in an apartment on social rent has the right to apply for the transfer of housing into his ownership;
• one-time use - the opportunity to participate in the privatization program is provided to each citizen only once, and repeated applications for re-registration of rights to an apartment are available only to minors;
• gratuitousness - legislative acts do not provide for payment of the cost of real estate transferred into the ownership of citizens.

As a result of privatization transactions, the interests of all citizens who have the right to permanent use of housing are affected. In addition, in some cases, citizens who do not actually live in the apartment will have the right to re-register real estate (for example, those sentenced to serve a long prison sentence).

Based on the features of the privatization program, the following most pressing causes of disputes can be identified:

1. unlawful exclusion of a certain circle of persons from the number of owners of residential premises (for example, non-inclusion in the list of owners of citizens who have not lost the right to use housing);
2. violation of the rights of minors, i.e. failure to include them in the application for re-registration of rights;
3. identifying cases of unreliability of information provided by citizens when applying for privatization;
4. establishing facts of repeated application for participation in the privatization program;
5. transfer to the ownership of citizens of a property excluded from privatization under Law No. 1541-1.

Based on the listed situations, various grounds will be established for challenging privatization, and in some cases it is allowed to change the terms of the privatization agreement forcibly.

Challenging privatization transactions is carried out only in court, and the right to go to court may arise for any entities whose rights are violated by the illegal transfer of housing into the ownership of citizens.

Dispute Rules

The privatization procedure is recognized as a gratuitous civil transaction, therefore all conditions and principles of contestation will apply to it in full. First of all, this concerns the recognition of the invalidity of a transaction or part of it. The general grounds for filing claims for the invalidity of a transaction are as follows:

• a significant violation of the norms of legislative acts, as a result of which the rights and interests of citizens, as well as state and municipal bodies are infringed;
• execution of a privatization transaction by a person who does not have the appropriate authority;
• conclusion of a privatization agreement by a citizen recognized in court as incompetent or partially capable;
• completion of a transaction as a result of deception or abuse of trust, as well as under the influence of violence or the threat of its use;
• other grounds recorded in the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

In each of the listed cases, the right to go to court may arise among various interested parties - other tenants of the residential premises (for example, family members), municipal authorities, guardianship authorities (if the rights of a minor citizen are violated), etc.

Proving the facts to challenge privatization is the responsibility of the person making such a claim. For this purpose, various written evidence can be used - forms, forms, certificates, judicial acts. Based on them, the interested party must confirm the violation of his rights and demand the cancellation or modification of the terms of the privatization transaction.

Here's what you need to consider when going to court to challenge a privatization agreement:

1. Only a person whose rights are directly violated by the privatization transaction can file a claim in court: other employers illegally excluded from the list of owners; municipal authorities that have lost ownership of an apartment as a result of illegal actions; the prosecutor's office or guardianship authorities, designed to protect the legitimate interests of certain categories of citizens;
2. consideration of these disputes falls within the competence of courts of general jurisdiction (district or city courts);
3. to go to court with a demand to cancel or change the terms of a privatization transaction, there is no need to follow the claims procedure;
4. when considering a case, all interested parties whose interests may be affected by the invalidation of privatization are involved in the process;
5. To file a claim, it is necessary to comply with the procedural limitation periods regulated by civil law.

Determining the possibility of considering the dispute on the merits will depend on whether the plaintiff has complied with the statute of limitations, and whether other participants in the process have made a demand to skip it. Let's consider the legal basis for resolving these issues.

Nuances of applying the statute of limitations

If a claim is filed within the regulated limitation period, it is subject to consideration on its merits with the issuance of a judicial act. Various legal nuances may arise when establishing a three-year deadline for going to court:

• if the court has determined that the statement of claim to challenge the results of privatization was received outside the three-year period, it does not have the right to refuse the citizen to consider the case and terminate the proceedings at its own discretion;
• if the three-year deadline for filing legal claims has been missed and any of the participants in the process declared this fact during the court hearing, the statement of claim is left without consideration and the proceedings are terminated;
• the possibility of extending the limitation period is allowed only if there are good reasons for missing it; the court will evaluate these arguments according to its own conviction based on the evidence presented.

Thus, if a statement of claim is filed with the court after three years from the date the right to challenge arose, but none of the participants in the process declared this fact, the case will be considered on its merits on a general basis.

How to correctly determine the beginning of the period? If a citizen was excluded from the list of owners during privatization, he may not find out about this fact for a long time.

For example, while serving a real prison sentence, citizens are objectively deprived of the opportunity to receive reliable information about any actions with their apartment. In this case, he will be able to learn about privatization only from the moment of release from prison.

Under such circumstances, if a dispute arises about the limitation period, the plaintiff will have to prove the moment when he had the opportunity to learn about the violation of his right.

Restoration of the limitation period occurs only in court; for this, the interested person must submit a corresponding application or petition. At the same time, the court is presented with a complete set of documents confirming the validity of the late application for protection of one’s interests.

Based on the analysis of judicial practice, the grounds for reinstating the limitation period will be:

1. the plaintiff’s prolonged illness, during which he was deprived of the opportunity to go to court (for example, a long stay in hospital);
2. staying on a long business trip outside the region or country;
3. being in prison to serve a sentence under a criminal sentence;
4. serving in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation or other similar formations.

The court may recognize other reasons for missing a deadline as valid. For this purpose, the submitted documents, forms and certificates will be examined at the court hearing. When considering an application for restoration of the deadline, all interested parties are involved in the case and are given the right to raise objections to the stated request.

If the statute of limitations is restored by the court , the case will be considered according to the general rules and will end with a court verdict. The consequences of challenging privatization transactions may include:

• termination of the contract and return of the parties to their original state - the apartment will again become municipal property, and citizens will acquire the status of tenants;
• changing the contract by including new owners and redistributing shares;
• changing the contract by excluding individuals from it and correspondingly distributing shares among the remaining owners.

The issued judicial act will be the basis for contacting the Rosreestr service and carrying out registration actions. If the transaction is declared invalid, employers do not lose the right to re-apply for privatization, and all mandatory procedures will be carried out on a general basis in accordance with Law No. 1541-1.

Source: https://law03.ru/housing/article/kak-osporit-privatizaciyu-kvartiry-po-sroku-iskovoj-davnosti

When is the statute of limitations important?

Privatization of an apartment must be carried out in strict accordance with the law. If violations are committed, the person whose rights were violated has the right to file an application with the court demanding that the transaction be declared illegal. Let's consider the main types of violations within which this procedure can be challenged or declared void.

ReasonsBrief description

Incapacity	An incapacitated person cannot participate in privatization independently - only through a representative/guardian. If this rule is violated, the representative/guardian has the right to challenge the transaction.
Compulsion	In accordance with Article 2 of Law No. 1541-1, privatization is an exclusively voluntary procedure. Coercion, blackmail, deception, etc. are not allowed. If such a fact is revealed, the transaction must be declared void.
Minors	Minors must necessarily participate in privatization if they are registered in this housing. If their rights are violated, the transaction is considered void.
Fake	Forgery of documents required for privatization is punishable in accordance with Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. If this fact is revealed, not only the privatization transaction is considered void, but also the culprit is subject to criminal liability.
Re-privatization	Re-privatization can only be carried out by those persons who, as minors, have already participated in this procedure once and will carry it out again after reaching adulthood. In all other cases, privatization is possible only once in a lifetime. As a consequence, re-privatization is not allowed and is the reason for challenging the transaction.
Share in housing not issued	If any of the apartment residents participating in privatization did not receive their share or received less than others, they have every right to challenge this procedure.

Types of deadlines

There are two options for canceling privatization: challenging the transaction or declaring it void. Formally, both methods lead to a revision of the procedure, but they are somewhat different both in essence and in terms of timing.

Voidable transaction

Challenging a transaction is the recognition of part of the clauses of the contract as invalid with the subsequent conclusion of an additional agreement. In the case of registration of ownership of municipal housing, this is extremely rare. The period for such a challenge is 1 year.

Example: Privatization is completed, all residents received their shares, but one of them received a slightly smaller share. This person has the right to file a lawsuit within a year and challenge the clause in the contract that states shares, so that everyone receives equal parts, as stated in Law No. 1541-1.

A worthless deal

This option is much more common and involves recognizing the transaction as void. As a consequence, privatization is completely reduced to the previous value.

Simply put, all residents lose their property rights, and housing again becomes municipal or state-owned. After this, you can carry out the procedure again, the main thing is to avoid making mistakes again.

The statute of limitations in this situation is 3 years.

Example: During privatization, the rights of one tenant, who at that time was serving in the army, were ignored. At the end of the term, he returns and learns about the changes that have occurred. Now such a person can file a lawsuit and declare the transaction void.

Reinstatement of the limitation period

If a person missed the deadline for good reasons, he can file a claim to restore the deadline and immediately file a claim to declare the procedure for registering property rights illegal.

The statute of limitations is counted from the moment when the person whose rights were violated learns or should have learned about the current situation.

Thus, even if more than 3 years have passed since privatization, but the person whose rights were violated all this time was far from civilization and simply could not know about the accomplished fact, the period begins to count exactly from the moment the person finds out about it. As a result, the actual statute of limitations may be more than 3 years from the date of completion of the procedure.

Let us give examples of the main valid reasons under which a person can restore the missed statute of limitations.

ReasonDescription

Serious illness	A person may know about the fact of privatization and violated rights, but may not be able to file a lawsuit due to health reasons.
Business trip/expedition	A person may be far from civilization and at the same time, with the help of communications, know about the fact of privatization, but not be able to protect his rights in any way.
Military service or imprisonment	Despite the radical differences between these two options, in the case of violation of rights, they have the same features. Such persons must necessarily participate in privatization. If their rights are violated, it is logical that they can find out about it, but cannot influence it in any way until the end of their term of service or imprisonment. However, after this they can safely file an application to court to restore the statute of limitations.

The court is usually ready to consider other valid reasons for reinstating the statute of limitations, but it must be remembered that such reasons must be supported by documents.

To restore the statute of limitations, you need to prepare and send the following statement to the court:

applications for restoration of the statute of limitations

Status

Very often, the status of the property itself does not allow any transactions to be carried out.

This happens when the property has already been privatized earlier, or is in someone else's ownership.

Privatizing status. If it turns out that a person does not have any right to carry out privatization, this action becomes impossible.

Due care must be taken to determine whether there are legal rights to own and use real estate.

Illegal redevelopment. Often, in pursuit of beautiful and modern renovations, citizens carry out redevelopment of real estate that has not yet been privatized.

This action is illegal, because all changes that were made in municipal housing must be negotiated and agreed upon in advance.

You can find out whether it is possible to privatize a dorm room, as well as who has the right to repeat the procedure, on our website.

Is it possible to challenge?

Judicial procedure for challenging

Challenging involves only a judicial procedure for resolving the problem. Unfortunately, other types of permission for such a procedure are not permitted by law.

Before you decide to go to court, you need to carry out preparatory procedures. These include the procedure for determining the specific type of claim that you will file in a specific court.

Here we are talking about the difference between a void transaction and an invalid transaction. From civil law we know that invalid transactions are the result of ignorance of the law, and not of its gross violation.

Once you have decided what type of transaction you need to go to court, you need to draw up a procedural document called a statement of claim. Its preparation must be carried out in accordance with all the norms of the civil procedural code of our country.

Your application must be made using all known rules of general jurisdiction.

Also, do not forget that a certain list of Documents must be attached to it.

All documents must be photocopied and pasted in attachment format.

Do not forget that you pay the state fee.

About 30 days must pass after filing the claim. If the court approves your statement of claim, then next time you will be summoned to court.

It is there that a court hearing will take place to challenge the transfer of real estate into private ownership. Following the court hearing, a decision is made according to which the claim may or may not be satisfied.

Find out on our website also how to determine whether your apartment is privatized, where to start the registration process and whether you can submit documents through the MFC.

When does the concept of limitation apply?

Privatization of housing is the transfer of state or municipal residential property into private ownership. Although the translation process is standard, sometimes unexpected issues may occur. In particular, certain violations may be discovered during the privatization of housing. Accordingly, this privatization is subject to recognition as void, which is possible only by court decision. It is then that the need to take into account the limitation period arises.

The illegality of privatization arises on the following grounds:

1. The tenant is illegally deprived of a share of the property - if a person owned a certain part in a municipal apartment, and during privatization he was not included among the owners, this is considered a clear violation. Only a person’s voluntary written refusal certified by a notary will not be considered a violation.

2. Secondary participation of the same person in privatization - participation in free privatization is allowed by law only once in a lifetime. If a person deliberately concealed the fact of his participation in a previous privatization, the current privatization will be considered illegal.

3. Providing forged documents to participate in a transaction.

4. Failure to take into account the interests of a minor child when privatizing an apartment - the law requires a minor child to have a mandatory share in the apartment of the mother or father, even if he does not have a residence permit in this living space. This share should be equal to the shares of other relatives.

5. Actual forced privatization of an apartment - such methods of influencing direct participants in the process of apartment privatization as threats, intimidation, deception, abuse of trust, blackmail and other methods of exerting pressure are not applicable by law. In this way, they can usually impose the transfer of ownership of emergency housing. If such violations are proven, the privatization transaction will be declared void.

6. Legally recognized incapacity of a participant in a transaction.

If at least one of the grounds is established, the plaintiff has the opportunity to challenge the usefulness of privatization in court.

Duration.

The legislation has approved the mandatory duration of protection of the rights of residential property owners provided for by law during the privatization of residential property.

Transactions recognized as illegitimate – 3 years are defined by law.

Transactions, the appeal of which is allowed - the law has established a 1-year duration of action.

Void (illegal) transactions are transactions that are recognized as invalid initially, i.e. Residents are not allowed to participate in the transaction due to the lack of rights to conduct it or the status of the residential property itself. A striking example is repeated participation in the process of free privatization of an apartment.

Contested transactions are recognized by the court as those transactions to which the attention of the court is drawn as a result of the appeal of the injured person. For example, a minor citizen did not receive ownership of the obligatory share of residential property during the privatization of an apartment.

In accordance with Art. 168 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a transaction for the privatization of an apartment recognized as illegal can be challenged in court, i.e. the owner can file a statement of claim and, if he wins the case, receive an extract regarding the adopted court resolution.

The statute of limitations for privatizing an apartment is 3 years. However, the period is counted not from the moment the transaction was completed, but from the time when the plaintiff became aware of the fact of a violation of his rights. If the specified period of time has expired, challenging the transaction through the court is no longer feasible.

Cancellation

If we are talking about the cancellation or annulment of privatization, then the judicial procedure is also inherent here. It is impossible to undo a procedure that has already occurred on your own. Only the competent authority has the right to do this.

How to cancel? The claim is filed as part of drawing up a statement of claim.

It must meet all the requirements that apply to such situations.

The court considers the statement of claim and if it considers that it is drawn up correctly, factually and in accordance with the law, then it accepts it and sets a date for the hearing.

During the meeting, you meet with your opponents, discuss all the details of the cancellation, and also demonstrate to the court that you are right by providing evidence.

After considering the evidence presented, the court makes a decision in one favor or another. The court decision is mandatory, and bailiffs will monitor this.