Let's agree, we'll live: in Makhachkala, gas exploded in an illegally built house
On Tuesday, March 25, in Makhachkala, a gas explosion occurred in an apartment building at 14 Gaptsakhskaya Street. Four people were injured, several apartments were damaged, windows were broken in eight houses, and cars were smashed. At the same time, the administration stated that the building in which the explosion occurred was built illegally. Nevertheless, people lived there. There are quite a lot of such houses in Makhachkala, as well as throughout the country. Izvestia figured out how to solve the problems of their residents.
The explosion in Makhachkala
The incident occurred on the morning of March 25 in an apartment on the sixth (according to other sources — on the seventh) floor in the Makhachkala Reduktorny microdistrict on Gaptsakhskaya Street, 14. After the gas explosion, a fire started. The landlady of the apartment suffered the most, she was taken to the burn center of the A.V. Vishnevsky RKB in serious condition.
Three more people were injured. Neighboring buildings were also damaged — more than 1,000 windows in eight apartment buildings were blown out, and about 50 cars were smashed in parking lots.
The house was not fully occupied — only by 30%. There were two families in the entrance at the time of the explosion, according to the New Life Criminal Code. But according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Dagestan, 150 people were evacuated from their homes. Those whose apartments were particularly badly destroyed will be taken to a temporary accommodation facility. The head of the region, Sergei Melikov, said that all necessary assistance would be provided to the victims, and support measures would be prepared based on the results of the damage assessment.
A criminal case was opened in the SU of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Dagestan under paragraph "b" of Part 2 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Provision of services that do not meet safety requirements, resulting in serious harm to health").
"Trivial reasons"
Sergei Melikov noted that the reasons for the explosion were "banal" for Dagestan. "The building belonged to multi—apartment residential buildings that were put into operation without regulatory justification," he said.
According to Melikov, inspections on such facts of illegal construction have been carried out in the region for a long time, but "there are so many violations" that the inspectors "cannot keep up with the invoice." Illegal construction is a scourge for Dagestan, the head of the region emphasized. Moreover, new "pseudo-permits for the allocation of land and the construction of houses" are also appearing.
"But the main scourge is that many of these houses are already inhabited by citizens, who often spent their last money on it. And the dilemma is this: either evict them and demolish the house, or carry out all measures that will ensure safe operating conditions at home," said the head of the region.
The house at 14 Gaptsakhskaya was laid out as a nine—storey building, but it was built higher - even the data on the number of floors varies. Initially, they talked about 14 floors, but Melikov calls the house 17-storey: this is its actual height, taking into account the basement and attic floors.
Light, water, drainage system and gas were also not connected "normatively," said the head of the region. This forced residents who purchased apartments to resolve the issue on their own.
"Naturally, the gas was connected without any grounds, without existing rules, without registering the gas equipment, which, of course, did not meet the requirements," said the head of Dagestan.
Chief Housing Inspector Sergey Kasyanov also stressed that the house was built without permission, there is no technical documentation. The gas was carried out, but there is no information on the conclusion of maintenance contracts for indoor and indoor gas equipment.
The city administration informed Izvestia that the facility was included in the register of illegally erected buildings. It was handed over to the New Life management company so that "the vital activity of this house and the residents could be temporarily regulated." The city has not officially accepted the high-rise building on its balance sheet. And the tenants received ownership of their apartments in 2021 by the decision of the Leninsky District Court.
Alexander Moore, head of the All-Russian Center for National Construction Policy, explained to Izvestia that the court in this situation probably considered only a civil dispute, the essence of which was that people bought a certain area, but could not get it.
— The buyer, on the basis of a preliminary agreement, filed a lawsuit to have the court recognize his ownership of this area, — says the expert. — And the court only considered this dispute. Ownership is recognized because there is a transfer of money, but there is no decision to demolish the facility. Thus, the court actually legalizes this area. This is one of the settlement schemes.
At the same time, Alexander Moore emphasizes, the court does not conduct a technical examination, does not find out the condition of the object, does not check whether the foundation, designed according to the project for nine floors, will withstand a large number of floors, and so on.
As a result, people settle down and independently — with the help of a developer or directly from resource supply organizations — begin to supply gas, light and water to it.
Are there many illegal residential buildings
For Dagestan, an illegally built house is a banal situation, as Sergey Melikov put it. But there are many such buildings in other regions as well.
— The situation is typical for the Caucasus and the south of Russia, but it is possible for other regions of our country, — said Alexander Moore. — A few years ago, we made a registry of self-builders, requesting data from the regions. Someone gave information, someone tried not to show the real situation. However, we understand that at that time we were talking about thousands of such houses — and the situation has not changed much yet.
He told how two years ago Roskapstroy (a company subordinate to the Ministry of Construction) conducted an expert examination of facilities in Dagestan and identified more than 470 illegally erected residential buildings. Alexander Moore notes that this is not the final number.
Oleg Filippov, Chairman of the Opora Russia — Moscow Construction Committee, notes that housing is recognized as "illegally built" in the absence of the necessary documents. Most often, in three out of four cases, due to the fact that, according to the results of the final inspection, the construction supervision authority refuses to issue a "Compliance Report" to the developer due to errors at the design or construction stage.
The press service of the intersectoral association SRO Perspektiva notes that construction is often carried out without the necessary permits, on lands not intended for housing, or the purpose of the building is changed without approval. There are also cases of connecting to public utilities without official permits.
One of the schemes that developers often resort to is the construction of a house higher than expected by the project.
— When colleagues from Roskapstroy worked in Dagestan, they came across such a case: they conducted an expert examination of an illegally built nine—story house, returned to it 2.5 months later for additional information - and there were no longer nine floors, but 14, — continues Alexander Moore.
Dmitry Kotrovsky, CEO of Investment Technologies LLC, also notes that the situation with illegal construction of houses is typical for the south of Russia. According to him, the frequent change of mayors in Sochi was precisely due to the inability to resolve these processes. At the same time, the building in Makhachkala cannot be called "self-building", says Dmitry Kotrovsky: after all, residents received the right to live there through the court, they were supplied with light, gas and water.
— But you can't just finish building several floors to the building, — says the interlocutor of Izvestia. — There is a large list of things that designers and architects need to coordinate and keep in mind before the project is proposed at the urban planning land commission in the city. I think the procedures in Makhachkala are "simpler", and the attention to what is happening on earth was not as serious as in the capital region. However, this was also happening in Moscow.
How to solve the problem
At the same time, Dmitry Kotrovsky says, it has recently become much more difficult to build a house in this way — now most developers are selling housing within the framework of FZ-214 "On participation in shared-equity construction." And they will be able to receive funds only after they register an equity participation agreement with Rosreestr.
— Therefore, first of all, there remains a problem with people who already live in such houses, — said the expert. — It's not easy to resolve it: if a house is recognized as an emergency or illegal, it needs to be demolished, but to do this, first decide how not to leave people on the street. Usually, the decision on such houses is made at the governor's level.
The National Research Council proposes to conduct an expert examination of all such facilities in order to find out whether this house is safe to live in within the framework of current legislation. If so, then put it into operation, having previously obliged the developer to bring it into compliance with fire regulations and fulfill all necessary conditions.
— While we are waiting for a decision on our proposals, the situation remains the same. The illegal houses are still standing," said Alexander Moore. — However, there are noticeably fewer new self-builders.
And Oleg Filippov emphasizes that people should not purchase apartments in such buildings, at least until all problems are fixed and it is put into operation. From a legal point of view, it is impossible to live there, but in fact it is dangerous.
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