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- Allow us to move in: the consent of the neighbors will not be required when renting a house.
Allow us to move in: the consent of the neighbors will not be required when renting a house.
Apartment owners will not need to collect written consent from neighbors to rent housing. The amendments, which were not supported by the government, were aimed at reducing conflict situations between tenants and tenants. But the novelties of the document contradicted several regulatory legal acts guaranteeing the freedom to dispose of one's property. The question of whether the landlord is responsible for the behavior of the tenants is in the Izvestia article.
Why did you want to collect signatures
The government gave a negative review to the bill on renting housing only with the consent of neighbors, Izvestia found out. The document, after being submitted to the State Duma in April 2025, caused a heated discussion in society. However, in its current form, as emphasized in the Cabinet, the bill contains a number of fundamental flaws, said Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Lawyers of Russia.
"The government points to a significant restriction on the rights of residential owners to own, use and dispose of their property," he said. — The requirement to obtain consent from all neighboring and adjacent premises directly contradicts the provisions of the Housing and Civil Codes.
In addition, the bill does not provide any guarantees for the protection of personal data. The proposed consent requirements, which include full passport details of individuals and banking details of legal entities, pose a risk of confidential information leakage and unauthorized use, Vladimir Gruzdev added.
"The text of the draft law uses the concept of "adjacent and adjacent premises," which is absent from current Russian legislation," he added. — This creates legal uncertainty and makes it difficult to apply it further. The draft law does not define the procedure for the implementation of the proposed norms by the state housing supervision authorities, and, moreover, it is unclear whether they have the appropriate authority to perform these functions.
According to the expert, the civil consequences of obtaining consent, including as legally significant, are not being determined.
One of the authors of the bill, Vladimir Koshelev, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services, explained to Izvestia that the initiative was aimed at "bringing order to the rental housing market and removing it from the "gray" zone."
"We strive to make it safe, as legal and transparent as possible for both the authorities and the neighbors, the person who rents the apartment," he stressed. — Therefore, the first thing we are talking about is control and security. The second is to protect the rights of neighbors, especially with regard to short—term rental housing. The main point of the bill is not to force the owners of apartments that they want to rent out to run around the neighbors and collect signatures, but to push them to conclude lease agreements in accordance with the procedure established by law.
According to him, with daily rent, the entrance of an apartment building turns into a courtyard.
— And tenants often behave according to the principle of "after us, at least the flood," — said the deputy. — But the safety of doors, intercoms, elevators, and the cleanliness of the entrance are the area of interest and, most importantly, the financial expenses of all the owners of the house. Our bill gives neighbors the right to protect their property at home and not be afraid that someone is sleeping in the next apartment.
Why didn't you take the initiative
The implementation of the initiative on the mandatory consent of neighbors to rent an apartment could create more problems than solutions, says Valery Tumin, Director of Russian and CIS Markets at fam Properties.
"The consent collection mechanism is difficult to apply in real life: it would create excessive bureaucracy and actually restrict the rights of owners to dispose of their homes," he said. — On the contrary, the state is trying to build more flexible and civilized regulatory mechanisms that do not interfere with the development of the market, but at the same time protect the interests of residents.
The rental market really remains heterogeneous: along with official contracts, there is a significant segment of "gray" rental housing. This leads to tax losses and often causes domestic conflicts.
"In the long term, government policy is aimed at making this market more transparent through tax incentives, digital services, and mechanisms to protect the rights of tenants and owners," said Valery Tumin.
The implementation of the initiative would create serious problems for the daily and permanent rental market, as well as violate the constitutional rights of tenant owners, said Ilya Vasilchuk, a trial lawyer and an expert on the security of electronic transactions and real estate transactions.
Expert of the Popular Front project. Analyst Pavel Sklyanchuk added that such a measure is fraught with the risk of abuse of one's right by neighbors.
"They can demand money, blackmail, give consent, and then withdraw it," he believes. — In fact, the problem of neighborhood wars exists not only between tenants and permanent residents, but also simply between neighbors who cannot work out common rules of coexistence.
According to him, in other countries, in order to avoid conflict situations, they adopt the house charter, a set of rules in which neighbors agree on how to behave. This becomes a legally binding local document.
"There is no such mechanism in Russia," the expert noted. — In the future, we need to revisit this initiative. Today we see that many apartments are being bought for investment purposes, and the owners do not intend to live there.
What kind of protection do the neighbors have?
There are still legal mechanisms in place to protect the rights of neighbors, Ilya Vasilchuk recalled.
— So, the owner of a residential building is obliged to maintain it in proper condition, preventing mismanagement, to respect the rights and legitimate interests of neighbors, the rules for using residential premises, as well as the rules for maintaining the common property of owners of premises in an apartment building, — he said.
In addition, the legislation defines the maximum noise level in an apartment, which should not exceed 55 decibels during the day, from 7 to 23 o'clock, and 45 decibels at night, from 23 to 7 o'clock.
— And each region has its own laws that establish a regime of silence, — said the lawyer. — Both the owner of the dwelling and its tenants are responsible for all violations committed. In case of violation of rights, you need to contact law enforcement agencies, the management company, the state housing inspectorate and the court.
If the housing is officially rented, then both the landlord and the tenant are in the legal field, Valery Tumin added. Legislation allows you to influence unscrupulous tenants without infringing on the rights of the owner.
— At the same time, apartment owners themselves do not bear direct legal responsibility for the behavior of their tenants when it comes to domestic violations, — the expert emphasized. — Their duty is to conclude a contract and observe tax discipline. And for violating public order or illegal actions, the one who commits them is already responsible. This balance makes it possible not to shift the blame onto the owners, but at the same time to maintain the ability to respond in case of problems.
According to Pavel Sklyanchuk, a mechanism can be used when a third party is involved in renting an apartment, for example, the housing inspectorate, which will deal with issues of legal relations between permanent and temporary tenants.
— So far, it is only important for the state to pay taxes on the rental of apartments, but this is wrong, — he said. — If legislators do not give people such a tool as the charter of the house, then it is necessary that issues related to renting an apartment be resolved with the participation of government agencies.
Experts emphasize that the issue of the rental market will have to be discussed for a long time and solutions to the problems that arise in it will have to be found.
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