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- A hell of a commercial partnership: how the farming co-op turned into a cottage settlement
A hell of a commercial partnership: how the farming co-op turned into a cottage settlement
In the Kstovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region, residents of a local farming community came into conflict with the owner of land plots: he allegedly demands money for travel on public roads, threatens to disconnect houses from public utilities. The dispute has already reached the court, but it concerns, in fact, the issue: is this territory a farming community at all, or are all the owners residents of a cottage settlement built on private land? Izvestia investigated how residents found themselves trapped by the legislation.
What do residents demand from the land owner?
Residents of the Dubrovka on Volga farming co-op in the Kstovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region said that the owner of the land under this co-op allegedly demanded money for travel to houses and plots: this is the rent for the use of his plots. The amount of 1 thousand rubles from each owner was announced.
Izvestia found out that now Oleg Kuznetsov, the owner of the land in the Dubrovka farming co—op, no longer prevents passage to his plots, but he has a serious conflict with local residents.
One of the residents of the village, Maria Stefanova, told Izvestia that in 2007 Oleg Kuznetsov, together with his wife and son, formed the Dubrovka farm on their land. In the documents (available to Izvestia) It is indicated that 378 plots have been formed on the territory of about 76 hectares. Later, the plots began to be sold — the territory in the promotional materials is designated as the cottage village of Dubrovka on the Volga. You can build on them, register, and all communications are included in the price — and Oleg Kuznetsov issued letters of guarantee as confirmation.
After the purchase of the plot, according to Maria Stefanova, the owners applied to join the cooperative, received receipts for membership fees and paid them. She showed Izvestia the documents: an application asking to be accepted as a member of the cooperative, a receipt and a receipt for payment of membership fees, where the recipient of the payment is listed as the cooperative Dubrovka.
"Everyone who joined the cooperative has such documents — we are 111 people," she said. — There is even a signature of Kuznetsov on one of the applications for acceptance — he put it at the request of a citizen.
The residents of Dubrovka believed that they lived in a farming co-op, and the roads there were designated as general-purpose land. However, in August 2024, Oleg Kuznetsov organized a meeting of the members of the village Council, at which he stated that he was the owner of the roads and wanted to lease them to residents, says Maria Stefanova. It was proposed to pay 1,000 rubles per month from the site.
In response, the residents organized a meeting and re-elected the chairman. And Oleg Kuznetsov appealed to the court, challenging this decision. In court, he stated that none of the participants in the meeting was allegedly a member of the CHT. The court temporarily banned the registration of the new chairman in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
The conflict, meanwhile, is developing: residents claim that at the end of last year the owner of the land turned off the lighting of the farm, and in the spring he took ownership of the water supply and threatened to turn it off. Maria Stefanova showed Oleg Kuznetsov's April letter addressed to the members of the Village Council who have a direct contract on water supply with the Municipal Unitary Enterprise "City Vodokanal" in Kstovo. He claims that the contract with Vodokanal was concluded with violations — allegedly the cut into the water supply belonging to him was made illegally, without his consent. By May 15, he demands to obtain his written consent to connect to the water supply and renegotiate the acts, otherwise he threatens to disconnect the apartment building from the water supply networks.
To connect according to the rules, Oleg Kuznetsov suggests entering into a connection agreement. It states that for this it is necessary to conclude an agreement with the service organization, Communications LLC, otherwise the connection will be considered unauthorized. The cost of network maintenance is 1,500 rubles per month per user, locals say.
Maria Stefanova points out that people do not agree with these demands, as they are put "in a desperate situation." To be able to use water and other utilities, they are forced to pay the owner of the networks the amount that he himself sets.
"My task is to restore order in the village"
Oleg Kuznetsov told Izvestia that he did not agree with the voiced opinion of the residents of Dubrovka. He stressed that the farm, in fact, does not exist. The garden non-profit partnership was registered, but only nominally, in reality it has no registered borders and members.
— People paid membership fees, but this fee is stipulated in art. 5 217-FZ (it refers to gardening and making payments without participation in the partnership. — Ed.) — persons are obliged to pay for the use of property, — he said. — The payment was made by them voluntarily. If the initiative group believes that such a fee was collected from them forcibly and unlawfully, they have the right to file a lawsuit to protect their rights themselves.
Oleg Kuznetsov emphasizes that he considers Dubrovka on the Volga to be a village. This land is his property, but he sold the plots of 15 acres to "individual developers" — Oleg Kuznetsov considers the residents of Dubrovka to be such.
— I brought water, gas, and electricity there at my own expense. As soon as I completed the construction of the water pipeline, I took ownership of it," he explained the situation with the demand for funds for water supply. — I have to service these networks, but I'm not going to do it only at my own expense. At the same time, I ask for only 1,500 rubles per month for service — in other villages it is much more expensive! But people don't want to pay even the minimum.
The owner of the land confirms that the maintenance company also belongs to him. According to SPARK, Communications LLC is registered to Oleg Kuznetsov's wife, the company was registered in February 2025.
According to him, residents concluded contracts with Vodokanal without his knowledge, he considers such cuts into his water supply illegal, therefore, he asks residents to arrange everything according to the law by May 15. He claims that he fulfilled the promise of free connection of land plots, but demands to legalize this connection.
At the same time, Oleg Kuznetsov refused the requirement for roads.
"My task now is to restore order in the village,— Oleg Kuznetsov said. — In the Kstovsky District Court, I am challenging the decision to re-elect the chairman of the board. There will be a decision in June.
He claims that "most of the residents" have signed contracts with him, but only a few people are opposed to this decision. However, Maria Stefanova says that 93 people participated in the November meeting on the re-election of the chairman of the CHT, and 92 voted for re-election.
What is the difference between a cottage settlement and a farming co-op
Oksana Vasilyeva, associate professor at the Financial University and CEO of the law firm, notes that the legal assessment of the situation depends on whether the association of farmers and entrepreneurs is recognized or not. However, in any case, the owner of the land cannot prevent the owners from traveling to their plots, especially if this is the only road. This is usually solved by establishing an easement right to ensure passage.
The requirements for water supply and other communications are also ambiguous, Oksana Vasilyeva continues.
— Unauthorized disconnection of the water supply or the demand for additional payments for connection, if it has already been paid for when buying the land, is illegal and can be challenged in court, — said the interlocutor of Izvestia. — If it was explicitly stated in the purchase and sale agreements or related documents that connection to communications is included in the price, then subsequent attempts to charge for this service may be qualified as unjustified enrichment or violation of contractual obligations.
However, Kuznetsov's position is that the connection is "free of charge."
Oksana Vasilyeva points out that the residents of the village can create another legal entity for the joint management of common property, including roads and communications, as well as apply to the court to transfer these facilities to shared ownership. She notes that courts usually do not support the abuse of property rights if they see that it violates the legitimate interests of others.
But there will be even more opportunities for residents of Dubrovka to challenge Kuznetsov's actions if the court nevertheless recognizes this territory as a farming co-op.
Andrey Tumanov, Chairman of the Moscow Horticultural Union, emphasizes that the legislation concerning farming and cottage settlements is very confusing and can be interpreted in completely different ways. He notes that residents of almost all cottage settlements in Russia got into a situation like in Dubrovka on the Volga: the owners of the land on which private land plots appeared became, in fact, managers who could dictate their conditions.
— Many people have fallen into this trap: sometimes people pay a lot of money simply because the government does not regulate pricing for water, travel, and so on, — said Andrey Tumanov. — Now this situation is being corrected, because the State Duma is passing laws on "non-discriminatory" services: cottage settlements will begin to set prices according to certain rules.
According to him, the landowner has the right to demand money for connection and maintenance if the networks belong to him. Therefore, now everything depends on how the relationship between Kuznetsov and the residents of Dubrovka on the Volga is documented.
Oksana Vasilyeva notes that the described situation "reflects systemic problems related to insufficient control over the activities of the organizers of farming co-ops and cottage settlements."
"Often, the founders of such associations, while remaining owners of key infrastructure, use their position to establish unjustified payments," she said.
In turn, Anastasia Kudinova, a leading lawyer at the public reception of the Union of Horticulturists of Russia, believes that the problem is not in imperfect legislation, but in "the inattention of people at the stage of acquiring land": you need to immediately figure out whose land it is, what boundaries the village stands in, etc.
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