New measures to help defrauded shareholders. How deceived shareholders are changing Russia
The regions will draw up “road maps” for solving the problem and will report quarterly to the Ministry of Construction.
Regional authorities will report to the Ministry of Construction on how they are solving the problem of defrauded shareholders. The corresponding order was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Governors will have to send reports quarterly, and the ratio of the number of equity participation agreements (EPA) in problem facilities to the total number of agreements will be taken into account when assessing the effectiveness of regional authorities. In turn, the Ministry of Construction will send reports to the government once a quarter, said the head of the department, Mikhail Men.
The obligation of the authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to report on the solution to the problem of defrauded shareholders is recorded in government order No. 1063-r, which Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed on May 26. According to the document, regions must draw up schedules (“road maps”) of work in this direction by August 1 in an approved form. The plan should contain a list of problem objects, the number of defrauded shareholders, and a list of unscrupulous companies. Local authorities will also need to indicate what legislative, organizational and financial measures they plan to take, and what results are expected from them. Deputy governors are appointed responsible for the implementation of road maps.
According to the order, reports on the work done and updated plans must be sent to the Ministry of Construction on a quarterly basis. The department is charged with monitoring the implementation of road maps and reporting to the government on how regions are easing the situation of shareholders.
The professionalism of regional authorities will be assessed when working with problem objects. As Mikhail Men, the Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the ratio of the number of equity participation agreements (EPA) in problem facilities to the total number of agreements was included in the list of indicators by which processes in the real sector of the economy are monitored, financial, banking and social spheres of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. It will be used in the future to evaluate the effectiveness of the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
It is important for regional authorities to strengthen control over the timing of the construction of houses that are being built with the involvement of citizens’ funds, as well as over the implementation of measures aimed at restoring the rights of defrauded shareholders, emphasized Mikhail Men.
According to the Ministry of Construction, the number of preschool institutions in problem houses out of the total number of such agreements concluded by citizens on average across the country is 5.43%. In some regions it exceeds 20%, and in a number of regions, on the contrary, it is below the average.
President of the Association of Developers of the Moscow Region Andrei Puchkov believes that the participation of regional authorities in solving the problem can significantly improve the situation of defrauded shareholders throughout the country.
Our experience of working with the government of the Moscow region confirms that if the region actively participates in the fate of defrauded shareholders, then the problem is solved. In the Moscow region, they began to actively make efforts, and out of 20 thousand deceived, 5.5 thousand remained. Much depends on the position of the local authorities; if this approach is applied throughout the country, then, naturally, the reliability of the market will increase, Andrei Puchkov is sure.
The head of the working group of the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia for the protection of the rights of shareholders, Alexander Sidyakin, said that there are currently about 900 problematic shared-equity construction projects in the country. He called the idea of monitoring correct and noted that its introduction will make it possible to “understand where the authorities have done everything they should.”
Alexander Sidyakin noted that in a number of regions, governors cannot offer a solution to the problem of defrauded shareholders on a number of objects due to the lack of the required amount of funds in the regional budgets.
On January 1, 2017, a compensation fund for shared construction was created in Russia. The fund was created “for the purpose of compensating citizens for losses and completing the construction of facilities in the event of developers’ failure to fulfill their obligations under the agreement for participation in shared construction.”
Governor Andrei VOROBYOV asked for help from the federal authorities to solve the problems of defrauded shareholders in the Moscow region.
During the visit to the Moscow region of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Central Federal District Alexey GORDEEVA the governor stated that the regional authorities would not be able to help the remaining five thousand shareholders on their own.
In his speech, Vorobyov complained that due to "bureaucratic delays" the solution to the problem of shareholders is being delayed, even despite Vladimir Putin’s demand to deal with long-term construction as quickly as possible: “ Contrary to instructions, ministries and departments are not in a hurry with the necessary approvals and do not contribute to the process of resolving the problems of shareholders":
In the Moscow region there were a lot of defrauded shareholders, we solved the problems of 20 thousand. Five thousand remained, and here we will not be able to satisfy the rights of citizens without federal support, a federal decision.
Today there were representatives of shareholders, the Lukino district in particular. A number of objects require compensatory development, in particular, “Vysokiye Zhavoronki” in Odintsovo.
Residential complex "Vysokiye Zhavoronki", September 2017
However, Andrei Vorobyov did not specify the reasons why federal ministries and departments are not in a hurry with approvals and do not contribute to the process of resolving the problems of shareholders. Are we talking about the fact that departments identify violations during the construction of facilities and the preparation of documentation at the regional level, after which they refuse approval?
The regional authorities did everything to worsen the situation
Also in his speech, Andrei Vorobyov described the situation with shareholders "difficult inheritance", which regional authorities are trying to eliminate, but lack the powers. But here it is worth noting that one of the main culprits in the current situation is the Moscow Region Ministry of the Construction Complex, which has been issuing and renewing all construction permits since 2014.
Problems with shareholders were largely created by the regional authorities themselves, which are now asking for help from the federal authorities in order to carry out the instructions of Vladimir Putin. And he complains about the lack of authority. It turns out that the disease has affected the region so deeply that even emergency shock therapy in the form of providing land without tenders no longer helps.
How much more taxpayer money will be spent on treating a chronically ill patient?
But the main thing is not the “bureaucratic delays” and interaction with ministries that Andrei Vorobyov talks about, but how much it costs taxpayers to save shareholders.
According to experts, only last summer the presentation of keys 12 thousand shareholders cost the regional budget . - near 4 million rub. for everyone! Based on this, it can be assumed that the remaining 5 thousand victims Vorobyov will spend more 20 billion
The state has been helping defrauded shareholders for at least the last ten years. And judging by the fact that the robbed people still want what they want, and in the end they get what the legislator offers and, at the same time, continue to hope that the authorities will solve their problems, the government is successfully coping with its task. There is stability and order in the country.
Russian citizens, after 70 years of totalitarianism, under which their rights were terribly limited by the Soviet state, finally received freedom and began to live in a rule of law state. And this is actually true. Russians began to have many different rights, because in a democratic state everyone is free. Everyone is free - both the people and the government, which freely promises everything the people want and is not responsible for its promises. All this is done for the benefit of the entire people. Although for some reason people don’t like this kind of concern. People do not understand that now only those who can ensure their rights without restrictions can afford to have everything at once.
And in order to leave the rest the right to fulfill their desires only in a bright future, the main task of the authorities becomes the creation of conditions that do not allow every citizen of a legal state to exercise their rights freely here and now. An equally important task facing the authorities is to prevent social tension, which necessarily arises when the rights of a free person are infringed. This task is extremely difficult, but as practice shows, it is doable. To do this, it is necessary to maintain the confidence of the average person that the state is tirelessly taking care of him. But it doesn’t have time to give everyone everything they rightfully want, so the free citizen has to wait for it. And in order for such concern to be realized as quickly as possible, it is necessary to reach out to the authorities by any means offered by the same state. 
Through the efforts of the authorities, the majority of defrauded shareholders continue to live in such an illusion. In reality to Both the federal and regional authorities do not consider defrauded shareholders to be defrauded at all. After all, no one will believe that the opinion of officials appointed by the federal center may contradict the opinion of their superiors, and a subordinate will defend his opinion, contrary to the will of his superiors. The state passes laws, and subordinates carry them out, that is, they express the will of the state. For this purpose, the Federal Law No. 214 was invented. And if everything is done according to the law, then, in the opinion of the state, the shareholder who is left with nothing is not considered defrauded. Those who are deceived think differently. It's their right. Nobody forbids you to have your own opinion. After all, we have a rule of law state... 
Some of the deceived shareholders manage to break out of the captivity of their own illusions. It is then that we can observe that shareholders, placed on equal terms with the rest of the defrauded, achieve the apartments promised to them, without any additional conditions from the developer or local administration. It cannot be said that something has changed around them, but a certain reassessment of their own experience has occurred. This is normal for those who managed to act continuously and long enough to see what the results of certain actions led to. For those who have enough courage to look at themselves and their past impartially. This is normal for smart people. If you did everything correctly, the overestimation will be minimal and the lost time will not be critical. 
There are such examples, but no one really thinks about why they happen. It is not typical for our citizens, as well as not ours, to delve into details. Well, they achieved it and achieved it, they were lucky, they finished shouting, finished writing, complained, heard their authorities and felt sorry for the unfortunate people. It's simple. We do the same thing and we should be lucky. Why are we worse? So they continue to walk year after year in the same circle created for them by the puppeteers. They continue to walk until they completely lose faith in everything and completely give up. After all, they created all the conditions for deceived people to fight as if against a concrete wall. 
Until people were able to overcome their fear - EVERYTHING'S UNDER CONTROL. The sad and hopeless action continues, which for some reason the deceived people call the fight for their apartments. It is not surprising that such victims continue to wait decades for help. They still couldn't understand that their main problem is that it only seems to them that they are doing the same thing.
The shareholders waiting for help from the authorities will never understand that there will never be any help, and those who have achieved their apartments or are just really moving towards this goal have done the most important thing for their victory. They realized that there would be no help FROM THE STATE and stopped waiting for it. Agreeing to destroy the illusion is always the most difficult thing. If you were able to do this, then further actions are a matter of time, not difficulties. They are done deliberately, and the difficulties that arise are much easier to overcome. 
Deceived shareholders constantly complain that Law 214-FZ does not work. In reality, the law works, but not for them. And they convinced shareholders of the opposite solely to encourage potential buyers to take risks and give their money for a promise, and not for real apartments. After all, for the majority of completely sane and adult people, it is preferable to have a bird in the hand than a pie in the sky. The state needed to break this belief, which effective managers, judging by what was happening, successfully demonstrated to everyone.
From popular experience it is known that the law is like a drawbar, where you turn, that’s where it goes. FZ-214 is a clear confirmation of this. The law provided for the state an opportunity to evade responsibility by shifting it onto the shoulders of the defrauded shareholders themselves. Therefore, the authorities are making every effort to force robbed and homeless people to agree to this. Like, you see that we came up with a law for you, which is supposed to protect you, but you are such “fluffy suckers” that even the law did not help you. The state shrugs, as if we did everything we could for the people. What is the demand from us? You were robbed in full accordance with the law. 
Therefore, the authorities have provided three options for shareholders. The state does not care whether these options suit the defrauded shareholders or not. The task of the authorities is to force the unsuccessful new settler, outraged by the proposal, to agree with one of the proposed options. The most worthy, because it is beneficial for local officials - this is the first way to solve the problem from such an unpleasant choice for shareholders.
It is this method of solving the problem that officials insist on in most cases. This option implies a lot of goodies for “those who are in trouble.” As a consequence, an increase in problems for those who pay - defrauded shareholders who became voluntary shareholders. But this is the topic of a separate article, so we will not dwell on it in detail here.
We mean Housing cooperative, the abbreviation of which the people called in their own way, succinctly and precisely: "Live as best you can".
1
.Creation of a housing cooperative (Housing and Construction Cooperative).
It must be formed by the citizens themselves, and this can only be initiated by the bankruptcy trustee of a bankrupt developer. In the future, shareholders who have become shareholders of this cooperative, in the opinion of the state, must act as an investor to finance the further completion of the facility.
2. Sale of collateral. It only applies if the property is encumbered. But in this case, 60% of the proceeds will be used to pay off the claims of creditors under the obligation secured by the pledge. And only 25% of the funds are used to pay off the claims of shareholders. True, the same 25% is ideal.
3
.Transfer of property and obligations of the developer. This norm, according to many experts, is currently unworkable and “dead” due to lack of economic feasibility. Attracting another investor for completion is profitable only when benefits can be derived from it. But most apartments in problem buildings are usually sold out, leaving the new company with only construction costs. In a falling market, even such a theoretical possibility can be considered purely as fantasy. Therefore, even if the so-called “investor” appears, then he most often uses the site for his own commercial interests, then successfully bankrupts the company. There is also a second option, when the site is being completed under a new name, and the defrauded investors are left with nothing. 
According to the authorities, the defrauded shareholder must meekly agree with one of the options proposed by the legislator and forget about any claims to the state. Moreover, the state and those gentlemen whose interests the government protects have already received everything from the shareholder. And the fact that he was left with nothing is his problem. Do not return to him, in fact, what was taken from him. Let him, in general, be glad that he was finally not allowed around the world. Let him sit on his butt, in the kitchen of a rented apartment, and let off steam on social networks. Let him hope for the bright future that state representatives regularly promise. Let them write letters, after all, this is why there are regulatory bodies that distract citizens from unnecessary activity. Let him walk in circles and receive replies until he gets tired and is disappointed in everything. There are deputies, there is an administration, and in the end, a court. Let him retire from the race, making room for the new deceived ones to run around the bureaucratic offices. Let those who can survive as best they can. For those whose life will improve over time, the state will come up with something else. For the peace of the state, the main thing is that the defrauded shareholder does not take to the streets demanding justice.
Defrauded shareholders, of course, have rights, but the state does not give them the opportunity to exercise these rights. Or do we not live in a rule of law state? In fact. In a democratic state, the main principle of existence is the privatization of income and the nationalization of expenses. Therefore, our people are protected by law and only very few are not protected...
And they, that is, the state, have new tasks and new “furry suckers” ahead. Those who still have something to lure out. THE PROBLEM FOR THE STATE IS ONLY, that the deceived themselves do not think so and do not want, (who are not grateful, how much they were promised, how much they were told and told, wait and... wait, a wizard will appear on a “blue helicopter” and provide you with a bright future...). However, the disadvantaged do not want to agree with the opinions of government officials, and their number is constantly growing, as is social tension.
But the state does not despair and works hard with the incomprehensible population. The number of all kinds of all-Russian congresses held by various political interests is growing. B The majority of shareholders still continue to turn to officials for help, ask for attention, write complaints, sign petitions, and wait for government officials at rallies. In general, they do everything to ensure that the authorities are confident that the state has everything under control. Therefore, there is no reason to twitch and worry, and even more so to solve the problem as the deceived people ask and want.
There are, of course, those whose problem will have to be solved, but their quality has not yet grown into a quantity that worries the state. Life, as we know, is far from ideal, but the authorities have the strength, desire, and ability to become closer to the ideal. In a rule-of-law state, stability is maintained only when it acts, and does not wait for a bright future, like the majority of its citizens. This is probably why sections of the population unprotected by law already have everything in the present. Unlike the majority of defrauded shareholders, the realization of their rights was promised by the state only in a bright future.
Author: Sergey Popov, Maxim Rodionov, Vladimir Smirnov, especially for “Strength in Movement”
The Russian authorities continue to struggle to solve the problem - how to provide housing to defrauded participants in shared-equity construction. The scale is impressive. The shareholders themselves claim that at least three million people have suffered from unscrupulous companies. But official statistics show a figure one hundred times lower: the Ministry of Construction’s register lists 36.6 thousand people. Read about the most interesting regional practices in the Federal Press article.
The situation with defrauded shareholders became especially acute last summer; hundreds of thousands of people across the country attended rallies. To solve the problem radically, Vladimir Putin ordered the development of a “road map” that will gradually abandon this construction scheme. From July 1, 2019, developers will be prohibited from accepting money from citizens for apartments that have not yet been built. Payments for housing from buyers will be accumulated in special escrow accounts in authorized banks and stored until the construction of the house is completed. It is assumed that in this way shareholders will be fully insured.
Crisis or money withdrawal?
But so far in 68 Russian regions there are those who are trying to achieve justice. To be fair, we note that their problems are now being resolved. The most effective mechanism is this. The company that completes the construction of a problematic facility is given benefits by leasing a plot of land without bidding. A house is being built on this land, apartments there are being sold, and the proceeds are used to complete the construction of the problematic facility. This significantly speeded up the process of providing apartments to defrauded people.
The reasons for the appearance of defrauded shareholders in the regions are approximately the same:
Companies raised money during the construction phase of the house, but people did not receive apartments because housing construction had stopped. There are several reasons for what happened - these are both problems of the companies themselves, who did not calculate their strength, and market ones - for example, after the 2014 crisis, construction prices rose sharply, apartment sales fell, and banks stopped giving loans to borrowers, but somewhere developers tried to simply withdraw money.
There is probably no point in talking about all the cases - and we have summarized those cases where there were the most defrauded shareholders or their appearance was caused by unusual factors.
Ural Federal District: equity holders brought down the housing market
In the Ural Federal District, the Chelyabinsk region can be considered the most problematic region. According to the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure of the Chelyabinsk Region, there are currently 45 long-term construction projects in the region, with apartments in which about four thousand shareholders are waiting. There are two large problem objects here - AkademRiverside, which was built by Greenflight, and Churilovo Lake City, built by Rechelstroy.
There is a rather interesting story connected with the latter. Russian President Vladimir Putin, flying from Chelyabinsk, where he was on a visit on November 9 last year, called the representative of the initiative group of shareholders of the construction company Rechelstroy, Elena Malinina. The conversation lasted several minutes and concerned the unfinished microdistrict. After this, the criminal case against the developer intensified in the region
According to the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure of the Chelyabinsk Region, there are currently 45 long-term construction projects in the region, in which about four thousand shareholders are waiting for apartments. But the facilities are being completed quickly. Thus, in December 2017, five houses were commissioned in the AcademRiverside microdistrict for almost 1,700 shareholders, and by the end of 2018 the investor plans to move in all affected clients. Some of them will move to houses of a higher degree of readiness. At the end of 2017 - beginning of 2018, construction of the first stage of the Churilovo Lake City microdistrict of the Rechelstroy company resumed, in which, by court decision, a monitoring procedure was introduced. In 2017, the company froze the construction of 18 multi-storey buildings. One of them was still completed and delivered, housing 110 participants in shared construction.
Oddly enough, in Chelyabinsk the situation even served as a catalyst for complex market mechanisms: In the city, like nowhere else in Russia, the average price per square meter in a new building is lower than on the secondary market. Many people prefer to buy a resale or finished home rather than invest in houses during the construction phase. “There is no mass fear of new buildings, because there are developers who have a good reputation, and people still trust them. But people are wary of equity participation agreements and therefore there is a shift of interest towards ready-made housing,”- says the development director of LLC Real Estate Company "Real Estate Service" in Chelyabinsk Denis Stukalov.
In the Middle Urals they decided not to offend anyone
In the Sverdlovsk region, there are only slightly fewer injured shareholders on the official lists than in the Chelyabinsk region, but the problem for the region as a whole and for Yekaterinburg is not as acute as in Chelyabinsk. There are a total of 16 problem sites in the region. The number of victims is 3,760, mostly in little-known complexes. The region decided that the list of defrauded shareholders would include not only those who participated in shared construction, but also those who were members of the housing construction cooperative. The problem of the largest residential complex has been resolved: the Zapadny residential complex, where 1,480 people were left without housing. A criminal case is ongoing against the former developer, the VVK company. At the same time, the construction of residential buildings has actually been completed. The houses have been partially handed over to citizens and are occupied.
Now almost all problematic construction projects in the region already have new investors, and residents are no longer worried about whether they will get an apartment, but about the fact that they do not receive exactly what they sometimes agreed on with non-existent companies many years ago. In particular, some residents of the Shcherbakova 20 residential complex did not agree to participate in the exchange of their shares for apartments in a building built by the Sverdlovsk Housing Lending Agency. Shareholders of another problematic residential complex, Novy Uktus, in turn, are dissatisfied with the pace of construction under the new investor.
Cheating is for the rich
Assessing the history of the Tyumen region and autonomous okrugs, you understand that big scandals with shareholdings are the fate of poor regions. For example, in the Tyumen region, judging by information from the region’s main construction department, there are three problematic buildings. Two of them were built by PSK Continent in Tyumen, another long-term construction is located in the village of Bogandinsky on Shkolnaya Street. Its developer is LuMaxEngineering LLC, where 18 people suffered from the actions of the developer. The history of the first two long-term construction projects has been going on for about 20 years. All objects have been placed under control, including by the prosecutor’s office and regional authorities.
On the website of the Housing and Construction Supervision Service of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra it is published that as of February 1, 2018, the register of defrauded shareholders in the region includes nine apartment buildings and 126 people. In the middle of last year, the government of Ugra developed and began implementing a regional schedule that will make it possible to find an individual approach to each individual case of defrauded shareholders.
But, what is especially surprising is that in this region those who entrusted their money to pro-government organizations became defrauded shareholders. For example, in Nefteyugansk, the district housing fund was building a 20-story building in the city center. But the completion date of the house was repeatedly postponed. The fund explained the delay behind the schedule by defects in the design documentation and dishonesty of suppliers of building materials. A case was opened against the management of Zhilishche for an administrative offense under Part 2 of Article 14.28 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (“Violation of legal requirements on participation in shared-equity construction of apartment buildings”).
The situation is similar in Yamal, where there are just over a hundred defrauded shareholders and two houses have not been delivered. One of them, in the village of Aksarka, was to be built within the framework of the target program “Social development of the village until 2013”. As a result of the liquidation of the construction company, the manager stole money and caused damage to the budget of the Autonomous Okrug in the amount of more than 19 million rubles, and four families suffered.
The efforts of the authorities in the region are recognized even by critical social activists. For example, the head of the regional working group of the All-Russian Popular Front “Quality of Everyday Life” in the Tyumen region Sergey Soloviev says that the most important point in the problem of shared-equity construction in the region is that the authorities do not leave defrauded shareholders alone with their problems, sometimes making efforts beyond their powers. “By and large, shared construction is an investment project. And the authorities could pretend that this case concerns only the developer and the shareholder and falls within the framework of civil law relations. But, to the joy of shareholders and to the honor of the government, in most cases decisions are made in favor of the defrauded people.
The statistics speak for themselves - during the implementation of the program to save citizens from dishonest actions of developers, the problems of more than 5 thousand people were resolved. And now this topic in the region is by no means global. All problem houses are under control.”
Northwestern Federal District: St. Petersburg among the anti-leaders
The register of defrauded shareholders in the Leningrad Region includes only about a thousand people, but these are only those officially recognized as such. But both the region and the northern capital itself are leaders in the district in the number of defrauded shareholders and frozen objects. A significant part of new housing in the region is being built on the border with St. Petersburg, and residents of the northern capital often participate in the shared construction of apartments there.
There are many victims and the affected shareholders do not like the official statistics. “At the beginning of 2018, we had 47 problematic facilities in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, which were included in our coordination council, this is about 35.7 thousand families, of which 26 facilities are in St. Petersburg, 16.2 thousand families, the rest in the Leningrad region. In the Leningrad region, the accounting is more complicated - these are mainly objects with share agreements and they essentially have no protection at all - the only tool is collection through the court, and when we start suing, the developer has already withdrawn the money from the company,” a representative of the Coordination Council told FederalPress defrauded investors and shareholders of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region Elena Khudyakova.
At the same time, according to Elena Khudyakova, the figures cited by officials about the delivery of objects are not always correct. “No one checks in what condition these houses are being rented, that’s the problem - some are being rented without networks, like in our city on Vasilyevsky Island, in the Leningrad Region - our fellow victims from the Krasnaya Zvezda residential complex completed the work at their own expense,”- she says.
Representatives of regional authorities agree that measures should be taken at the federal level. “We ask the federal government for greater powers in organizing assistance to affected shareholders - financial assistance for the completion of projects, the introduction of a simplified procedure for the seizure of unfinished buildings without a bankruptcy procedure, and a more stringent mechanism obliging developers to build houses,” said Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko in February.
Pskov: only one case
In the Pskov region, there has recently been only one case of defrauded shareholders: during the construction of a residential building on Industrialnaya Street. The development company Stroy-Krom was supposed to commission a building with 54 apartments back in mid-2015, but the deadline was repeatedly postponed over the course of two years. In the end, the company abandoned construction due to financial problems. In the summer, the chairman of the regional assembly, Alexander Kotov, found a construction company that agreed to complete the project. In February 2018, the story ended, residents began receiving property registration certificates.
Meanwhile, for more than a year, the conflict has been ongoing between city residents who bought apartments under preliminary agreements and loan agreements through the contracting organization Stroy-SA, which built the facilities of the largest local developer GC LUG, associated with the deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly Yan Luzin.
“The company paid the contractor with apartments under construction, and he raised funds from citizens. For 4 years everything was fine, but then Luzin terminated the contracts with the contractor, although about 40 apartments had already been sold. There is no exact number - many did not apply to be recognized as victims. Many people were already living in the apartments, but the developer sealed them off at the end of 2016.”, – the head of the initiative group of victims told FederalPress Irina Kirillova.
According to her, Acting Governor Mikhail Vedernikov held a meeting in December on the situation; it was decided that the administration would conduct an independent examination of the construction to understand how much money the contractor invested in the house, and whether it was actually taken from citizens. “Now the deputy governor has taken a break until March 1 with the promise that he will talk with the developer in order to again allocate some objects to the contractor to fulfill obligations,” Kirillova concluded.
In Kant's homeland, they are confused about the number of shareholders
In the Kaliningrad region they still cannot count all the defrauded shareholders. According to the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities of the region, at the beginning of January 2018, there were 13 problematic shared-equity construction projects in the region. Over 1,100 citizens signed equity participation agreements with the developers of these facilities. At the same time, the Ministry of Regional Control announced another statistics to the FederalPress journalist: 303 defrauded shareholders who invested in 21 real estate properties.
As it turned out, the Ministry of Control maintains a federal register of affected citizens, in which shareholders are included based on the applications they submit. The Ministry of Construction takes into account the total number of equity participation agreements in the construction of facilities recognized as problematic. Not all unfinished projects receive this status - if there is hope to complete construction without recognizing the object as problematic, the authorities try to use other mechanisms, said Alexander Nikulin, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Economic Policy and Infrastructure Development of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma.
In the Kaliningrad region, as the deputy noted, the authorities are quite actively engaged in solving the problems of defrauded shareholders; regional legislation is now fully regulated. However, we cannot expect a quick resolution of all issues - a difficult and long road lies ahead. In particular, last year the regional Duma adopted a law that provides for the provision of compensatory land plots for investors who will help complete shared construction projects.
So far, the matter has not yet reached the point of allocating plots, said Alexander Nikulin.
Novgorod: construction stopped after the sale of 37 apartments
In the Novgorod region the problem is not particularly acute. In 2017, the regional government decided to take control of the situation with the construction of a 44-apartment building at 43 Shimskaya Street in Veliky Novgorod. The developer Express LLC sold 37 apartments, after which construction was stopped. A criminal case is being investigated under the article “Fraud”. In July 2017, shareholders held a rally. In August, the government of the Novgorod region approved a “road map”, according to which it is necessary to find a new developer by the second quarter of 2018, and to complete the house by the end of the year. Another developer about whom shareholders expressed dissatisfaction, Top Flor LLC, has so far avoided criminal proceedings.
There are no shareholders in Karelia, there are bad housing cooperatives
In this region, scandals with new buildings are not uncommon. However, according to the head of the Center for Public Control of the NP Housing and Communal Services Control, Dmitry Daniliev, the problem of defrauded shareholders is not acute in the region.
“In Karelia, most cases do not fall under the law on shareholders. Basically, these are housing cooperatives - when the money collected from shareholders disappears,” said the social activist. - The state can practically do nothing to help here. People organize housing cooperatives at their own peril and risk - they are practically not protected by law. From the point of view of criminal law, it is also difficult to prove anything here. Developers who have raised money, as a rule, do not refuse to complete construction of “frozen” objects - they cite financial problems. They say “We’ll return everything.” And fraud - the article itself is so interesting that if someone stole something, but assures that he will return it, it is very difficult to attract him.”
One of the most unpleasant stories of recent years happened to the shareholders of the housing cooperative “Novy Sainavolok”, who invested their money in the construction of low-rise residential buildings on the banks of Onego, but instead of apartments they received “unfinished construction”. People should have celebrated their housewarming in 2014. And they haven't celebrated it yet. The prosecutor's office told shareholders that the cooperative's leaders used a simple financial scheme: people who entered into a share contribution agreement paid for the construction of other people's apartments. The chairman of the construction cooperative, Diana Gavarikova, is being tried for fraud. The woman faces up to 10 years in prison. Desperate shareholders are trying to finish building houses on their own.
According to Dmitry Daniliev, not long ago the Karelian authorities proposed to Moscow to legally prohibit developers from collecting money from people before housing is built. However, nothing is yet known about the future fate of the bill.
Far Eastern Federal District: Developers are not interested in Vladivostok
In this district, the most problematic market is not the largest market - Vladivostok, but the Amur region. In total, according to the District Prosecutor General’s Office, as of July 1, 2017, in the macroregion, 229 developers are working with citizens’ funds on 401 shared-equity construction projects. According to prosecutors, the construction of 50 of them was suspended or carried out in violation of the established deadlines. Most of these cases were recorded in the Amur region, where 19 problematic facilities are located. Another 18 are located in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), 10 in the Primorsky Territory, 2 in the Kamchatka Territory and 1 in the Khabarovsk Territory.
According to the administration of the Amur Territory, Amur residents suffered most as a result of the work of three developers. 254 people cannot receive the housing they paid for from SK Gorodok LLC, another 67 people from NEP LLC, and 18 people from Horizont LLC. In total, 339 defrauded shareholders turned to the regional social protection authorities for state support measures.
In the Khabarovsk Territory, there is only one problematic object - the houses of the Raduzhny residential complex. People who paid for their square meters have not been able to move into new apartments since 2014. The developer Tekhnositi LLC owed money to MUP Vodokanal and failed to connect the facility to utility networks, construction stopped. The deadlines were postponed several times. But now the problem has been solved - according to representatives of the regional authorities, the housewarming party will take place this year.
In Vladivostok there is one of the eight most problematic construction projects in the Primorsky Territory - the Snegovaya Pad microdistrict. Here, shareholders got involved in construction under the Housing for Russian Family program. Future residents took out a mortgage, but the houses had not yet been completed. The recently appointed acting governor Andrei Tarasenko took control of the situation. Work at the sites has resumed, and it is now promised that the first stage of construction will be completed at the end of this year, the second stage - in the first quarter of 2019.
Head of the inspectorate for regional supervision and control in the field of shared-equity construction Mikhail Zaichenko noted that problematic objects appeared in the 2000s, there have been no new ones since then. “This is facilitated by both the preventive work of the inspectorate with developers and the tightening of legislation in the field of shared-equity construction. Now every developer who intends to participate in shared construction must have a bank guarantee and contribute funds to the compensation fund, which, if anything happens, will pay the funds to the shareholders. The second important innovation for all developers, especially for careless ones, is criminal liability. In Primorye, some developers are already under investigation. The inspectorate’s position in terms of control has also become tougher; we are doing everything to ensure that not a single resident of the region ends up in such a terrible situation again,”- said Zaichenko.
Volga Federal District: fugitive developers and SU-155
One of the most problematic regions of the district is the Samara region, but here everything has changed significantly with the arrival of the new governor, says Victor Chasovskikh, Chairman of the Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Public Chamber of the Samara Region.
According to him, the situation with defrauded shareholders is changing, a real push has been made. More than 400 people have already received apartments since the arrival of the acting governor, and this is just the beginning. “If earlier this process was left to chance, today the ministry feels strict control from the head of the region and is activated. I think that at least 80-90% of shareholders will receive their apartments in the next year, maximum two. Only particularly problematic objects will remain, which will have to be dealt with more precisely. For example, the village of Dubrava. There, to resolve the situation, it is necessary to attract regional and, perhaps, federal funds.", says Chasovskikh.
There are currently 42 problem sites in the region. The register of defrauded shareholders includes 3,439 citizens who suffered from the actions of unscrupulous developers.
But there are also problems in the region that do not allow us to quickly give all the apartments to defrauded people. The head of the Center for Regional Studies speaks Dmitry Loboyko.
“Of course, in order for numerous objects to be completed, they need to be transferred to new developers. In order for new developers to take on this, they need to be provided with new attractive sites. The number of such sites is limited. Moreover, given the falling market, it seems that sites are not the most valuable thing that can be given to a developer.”
Loboyko says that it makes sense for Samara to take a closer look at the experience of Moscow, where they have taken the path of financing construction companies from the budget. “Innovation there took place taking into account the purchase of completed or under construction facilities. Local developers are expecting something similar from the regional authorities.”, he says.
Businessmen from Titov's list live here
The Nizhny Novgorod region became one of those where the notorious SU-155 holding company operated. He has hundreds of thousands of victims in Moscow and the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Ivanovo and Vladimir regions.
The government of the Nizhny Novgorod region told FederalPress that, as of February 1, 2018, the federal register of citizens who suffered during shared-equity construction included information about 791 citizens for 12 objects (in total there were 2,151 participants in shared-equity construction in these objects). At the same time, the regional government is additionally working on six more problematic objects, in which there are 213 shareholders. In 2017, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, construction was completed and 11 problematic residential buildings with a total area of 80.9 thousand square meters were put into operation. meters, the problems of 984 citizens participating in shared-equity construction were resolved.
Director of the Center for Scientific Expertise Tatiana Romancheva notes that last year the volume of houses completed by defrauded shareholders was quite large. Thus, two houses were commissioned on Oranzhereynaya Street, four houses of the SU-155 Group of Companies, and houses on Varvarskaya, Proletarskaya, and Belinsky streets. “There are two types of shareholders: some are defrauded shareholders, and others are deceived owners. Because when construction is delayed, many take ownership (and there are such houses) and then become not deceived shareholders, but the owners of an unfinished building, and by law they must invest in completion in the same way as an investor,” the expert recalled. In 2018, according to her estimates, two houses of the European residential complex of the Kvartstroy holding may be commissioned, while Atlant and two houses of VSVK remain frozen.
In 2016 and 2017, the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region admits that the largest problem in the region was the failure to fulfill obligations by the Kvartstroy group of companies, which was implementing housing construction projects, to participants in shared construction, including the Novinki Smart City residential complex in the Bogorodsky district. There, Kvartstroy Center LLC planned to build 34 apartment buildings with the participation of shareholders, and, as FederalPress previously wrote, the number of affected participants in shared construction was 1,854 people.
It is interesting that three managers from the Kvartstroy holding - Alexander Delis, Alexander Baygushev and Pavel Vlasyuk, who were put on the wanted list by the Nizhny Novgorod police, ended up on the so-called “Titov list”, which included businessmen who want to return to their homeland. According to the ombudsman for the rights of entrepreneurs, Boris Titov, those wanted have assets - several plots in the center of Nizhny Novgorod and a plot in the Bogorodsky district - which they are ready to give to a new investor to pay off the existing debt and solve the problem of shareholders.
In the small and poor Kirov region, the regional register includes 204 people in eight objects. But this list is incomplete: those who began to fight for the right to move into their home only a few months ago are not officially considered “deceived.” Those whose developers, despite financial problems and delays in deadlines, do not want to admit bankruptcy also have problems with inclusion in the register. For example, shareholders of “New Sergeevo” found themselves in this situation: they should have received the keys more than a year ago, but they were not officially “deceived” - there is a movement of funds in the accounts of the developer “Tehkomservice”.
The government of the Kirov region states that it is not financially possible to complete the construction of facilities at the expense of the budget. The Legislative Assembly of the region promised to solve the problem - at the end of last year, parliamentarians adopted a law that allows other companies to complete the construction of a problematic building in exchange for renting a plot of land for development without bidding. The documents will come into force in March. To this period should be added a few more months for the preparation of tender documentation, search and discussion of options for land plots, approvals necessary for the completion of facilities. The government believes that the first houses could be completed by mid-2018.
At protest rallies, however, defrauded shareholders say: since officials could not prevent the appearance of defrauded shareholders, they must allocate budget funds for the completion of the projects.
Are shareholders always victims?
Russian law is on the side of victims, and a developer who does not fulfill his obligations can indeed be punished. Thousands of deceived people are roaming around the country without housing... But do they always maintain a balance between the need to defend their rights and the desire to enrich themselves at the expense of a construction company? For example, shareholders are entitled to very large penalties for the fact that the company missed the deadline for putting the facility into operation. This is now one of the most sensitive and controversial issues in the industry. Thus, in the professional community, the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court is still being discussed: in January, the court made a decision according to which a citizen was awarded a penalty amount equal to the cost of the apartment for a 2.5-month delay in transferring an apartment.
And now lawyers who are trying to profit from the problems of defrauded shareholders have begun to actively join the scheme - punish the developer. As they say in the National Association of Housing Developers, lawyers identify in open sources cases of violation by the developer of the deadlines for the transfer of objects, they offer shareholders to enter into an agreement for the assignment of rights to claim penalties.
The acquirer of the right to claim a penalty is a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur: this gives the right to apply to an arbitration court, where cases are considered faster. There, the buyer of the right seeks from the developer to pay the full amount of the penalty and fine.
But the victims in this case, as a rule, are not the developers, but other shareholders whose houses have not yet been completed - after all, these lawyers are taking money from the developer that should have been used to build the next houses.
Why don’t you want to move into a house without an autonomous boiler room?
For example, this happened in Novosibirsk, where one of the developers delayed the delivery of a house for a year. then he paid several million rubles as a penalty to the residents and went into bankruptcy, leaving the shareholders of the next houses without housing.
There are other cases - for example, in Yekaterinburg, some shareholders flatly refuse to move into finished apartments, which they are given as compensation for housing that was not completed due to the fault of the company. Out of 126, only 76 people moved; the rest are unhappy that their new house does not have an autonomous boiler room, and the new residential complex itself is located further from public transport than the previous one. “These, as we understand, are so-called investors who do not face the acute problem of where to live,”- says the head of the regional Ministry of Construction Mikhail Volkov.
If the problem in Yekaterinburg can be attributed to the whims of disappointed investors, then the situation with debt repurchase worries the professional community.
For example, the National Association of Housing Developers proposes to prohibit the assignment of rights to claims for penalties arising from the developer’s obligations under the agreement for participation in shared construction. A letter addressed to the Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation Mikhail Men and Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources, Property and Land Relations Nikolai Nikolaev states that due to forced postponements of the commissioning of houses only at the end of 2017, participants in shared construction have the right to claim to pay a penalty in total for all houses commissioned in the amount of about 300 billion rubles. According to the association, consumer terrorism is a conflict between shareholders of unfinished houses with professional lawyers who buy out the rights to claim penalties from the owners of already built apartments in houses that were delivered late.
The letter was sent to the authorities on January 18. The non-profit association FederalPress said that they have not yet received an official response from the authorities to their proposals. According to our information, the proposal will be accepted, but the wording will be somewhat softened - the protection of the rights of shareholders remains a priority for the Russian authorities.
Terrorism is in the details
The government offices are still just developing an approach to the fact that consumer extremism may also be involved in the actions of deceived people. Thus, the Federation Council said that the home buyer always loses. For example, Vladimir Kravchenko, a member of the Committee on Economic Policy of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, is sure of this.
« We are talking, in my opinion, about a banal thirst for profit on the part of legal firms, and the consumer almost always loses in this process. What consequences can this lead to? Firstly, builders will have additional costs, which again affect the cost of housing, and, as a result, on the pockets of consumers.
A similar situation developed in the car insurance market, when lawyers literally overwhelmed insurers with litigation. I think many motorists felt the effect of the high cost of compulsory motor insurance policies. Now, by the way, many of these auto lawyers have simply retrained as “construction lawyers.” You just need to type a request for claims against the developer in any search engine and several dozen commercial offers will be selected for you.
Secondly, citizens often find themselves drawn into dubious stories in which lawyers take money from them for services that will be provided to consumers anyway by the developer or government agencies. Very often it turns out that lawyers convince the consumer to resolve the issue immediately in court. Although in practice, a person himself could present legal demands to the developer, and the shortcomings would be eliminated. Ultimately, even if the claim is successful, the amount paid is in many cases less than the costs associated with paying for the services of an intermediary. According to my information, in the Tomsk region, the region that I represent in the Federation Council, the “average bill” of such representatives is about 50,000 rubles. And this money is paid by low-income consumers. They pay for regular application writing services, with no guarantee of results. Thirdly, litigation affects the timing of construction and commissioning of housing. And this, again, is a cost for ordinary citizens. During this time, people have to rent housing and endure everyday inconveniences.”, - told Federal Press Vladimir Kravchenko.
The ONF Federal Press stated that the problem of consumer extremism is not as important for the market as the fact that there are now tens of thousands of defrauded shareholders in the country. “There are Russian laws that must be implemented. And if the courts decide that the developer is obliged to pay for his mistakes, then the company must do so. In the end, the risks of shared construction should be shared by all participants in the process,”- noted Nikolay Nikolaev, head of the Center for Monitoring the Execution of Presidential Decrees “People’s Expertise” of the ONF.
“It is very important that the state, represented by the Government of the Russian Federation, gives a certain impetus to the heads of the constituent entities so that they treat these problems more specifically, and that the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation deals with the issue of shareholders,”- the deputy chairman of the commission on local self-government and housing and communal policy of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation is confident Igor Shpector.
The State Duma says that defrauded extremist shareholders are a rather exotic phenomenon for the market. “I have not encountered any cases of abuse of my rights by the shareholder; now all the conditions are spelled out in sufficient detail in the contracts,” says a member of the Russian parliament Sergey Bidonko. - We must seek a balance between the interests of developers and future homeowners. In this area, among the measures already implemented by the state, I would note the law on the compensation fund, which has already entered into force. According to the new legislation, all developers pay interest to the fund - 1.2% of the contract price. And if the object is recognized as unfinished, it can be completed at the expense of the fund, or the shareholders will receive monetary compensation. I believe that this kind of measures will increase the efficiency of developers and protect future homeowners.", he is sure.
What will happen next?
The issue of project financing of housing is also currently being discussed - people will purchase it only after the facility is put into operation. This is an idea that requires discussion - we must be sure that we can implement this option with cheap loans for developers.
Now there are indeed many initiatives that will fundamentally solve the problem of defrauded shareholders - after all, today the country is undergoing a major housing construction reform. Back in the summer of last year, an important political decision was made that within three years the existing model of shared construction would be replaced by a new one, when the risks would be taken not by citizens, but by professional market participants.” This mechanism is expected to become operational from July 1, 2018.
We are talking about project financing. During the transition phase - from July 1, 2018 to July 30, 2019 - it is planned to finance housing construction both using escrow accounts or other types of special bank accounts, and through agreements for participation in shared construction, concluded directly with the developer, taking into account existing protection mechanisms rights of shareholders.
The final stage - from July 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020 - is the transition to the conclusion of all agreements for participation in shared construction using the mechanism of escrow accounts or special accounts.
Is escrow really about Russia?
“Today we can already talk about the general contours of the target model for financing housing construction,” emphasized the head of the profile committee of the State Duma, Nikolai Nikolaev, at a hearing in the State Duma at the end of February. “This is the obligation to open escrow accounts in the bank that provided the credit line to the developer; establishing requirements for banks in which escrow accounts can be opened; exclusion of the obligation to accrue interest on the funds of participants in shared construction in an escrow account; establishing the fact that the property has been registered with the state cadastral register as a basis for transferring funds from equity holders to the developer.”
An important role will be assigned to the compensation fund, created to guarantee the completion of construction, protecting the interests of citizens participating in shared construction. Since the beginning of its work (since the end of October 2017), the fund has collected about 180 million rubles, while assuming responsibility for about 20 billion rubles at a tariff of 1.2%.
Where will the price of an apartment go?
Thus, in the near future the construction market will fundamentally change. And here there are new risks, professionals warn: for example, the price of apartments may rise. “At the moment, the biggest initiative is the idea of project financing. However, I think that they were a little hasty with the introduction of this idea - maybe they shouldn’t have rushed in such a hurry and cut from the shoulder. If project financing is implemented in the current proposed version, the cost of housing in the country will increase sharply - by ten percent, or maybe even higher. Housing prices will rise the most in Moscow and the Moscow region, and as a result, speculative offers will appear on the market, among other things. In this scheme, the only way is preferential loans for developers, or providing financing for them at attractive, low interest rates. In the current scheme, banks use virtually free money from future homeowners. In order to avoid problems, it is necessary to reduce the cost of the housing market,”- says the deputy chairman of the Committee on State Construction and Legislation of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Mikhail Emelyanov.
“The measures taken by the state help to avoid the replication of problematic construction projects in the future. The measures are aimed at stopping the tide of companies that, through improper planning and other erroneous actions (including fraud), have led themselves to default on their obligations under equity participation agreements.”, says the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Housing Policy and Housing and Communal Services Alexander Sidyakin.
Regional authorities will report quarterly to the Ministry of Construction on how they are solving the problem of defrauded shareholders. The ratio of the number of equity participation agreements in problem facilities to the total number of public trusts will be taken into account when assessing the effectiveness of regional authorities. In turn, the Ministry of Construction will report quarterly to the government, said the head of the department, Mikhail Men, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The obligation of the authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to report on the solution to the problem of defrauded shareholders is recorded in government order No. 1063-r, which Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed on May 26. According to the document, regions must draw up schedules (“road maps”) of work in this direction by August 1 in an approved form. The plan should contain lists of problematic objects and unscrupulous companies, statistics on defrauded shareholders and legislative, organizational and financial measures that regional authorities plan to take to solve the problem. Deputy governors are appointed responsible for the implementation of road maps.
According to the order, reports on the work done and updated plans must be sent to the Ministry of Construction on a quarterly basis. The department is charged with monitoring the implementation of road maps and reporting to the government on how regions are easing the situation of shareholders. “It is important for regional authorities to strengthen control over the timing of construction of houses that are being built with the assistance of citizens, as well as over the implementation of measures aimed at restoring the rights of defrauded shareholders,” the press service of the Ministry of Construction quotes Mikhail Me.
According to the ministry, the number of preschool institutions in problem houses out of the total number of such agreements concluded by citizens on average across the country is 5.43%. In some regions it exceeds 20%, and in a number of regions, on the contrary, it is below the average.
President of the Association of Developers of the Moscow Region Andrei Puchkov believes that the participation of regional authorities in solving the problem can significantly improve the situation of defrauded shareholders throughout the country. “Our experience of working with the government of the Moscow region confirms that if the region actively participates in the fate of defrauded shareholders, then the problem is solved. In the Moscow region, they began to actively make efforts, and out of 20 thousand deceived, 5.5 thousand remained. Much depends on the position of the local authorities, if this approach is applied throughout the country, then, naturally, the reliability of the market will increase,” quotes Andrey Puchkov newspaper
