Many citizens want to improve their living conditions, but, not having the personal funds to buy a larger apartment, they often resort to various tricks.
In order to register as a family in need of housing, sometimes you have to deliberately worsen your living conditions.
This legal concept was reflected in 2005 in the provisions of the Housing Code. Intentional deterioration of housing conditions is deliberate actions on the part of citizens by which they deliberately change their housing status and status of need for the worse.
The country's Constitutional Court provides clear explanations as to what can be considered an intentional deterioration of living conditions and what cannot. One way or another, any such action leads to certain legal consequences, which are sometimes very far from expected.
Deterioration of living conditions: main points
Art. 53 of the country's Housing Code regulates the consequences of deliberate deterioration of housing conditions . It does not reflect what is considered a deterioration in living conditions. This concept is reflected in more detail in the definition of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 258-V O-O.
According to the law, intentional actions to worsen living conditions are actions carried out over a period of time by the subject of legal relations, which entailed an artificial deterioration in living conditions. These actions force state or municipal authorities to intervene in the life of the subject to allocate living space from the local housing stock.
To get housing, a citizen must acquire the status of a person in need and get on the waiting list at the municipality . As a rule, there are a huge number of such people. The municipality is not coping with the task of providing housing to all those in need.
Intentional actions of this nature cannot always be interpreted unambiguously. What these intentional actions are is not clearly stated in any legal act. What is not an intentional deterioration of living conditions is also not spelled out in the laws. As a result, each specific dispute on this issue is resolved in court.
Signs of such intentional actions include:
- as a result of these targeted actions, citizens were registered as a needy family;
- Initially, before these actions were carried out, the citizen was not registered as needing housing;
- the citizen has specific intent in the form of a formed goal;
- The deterioration of housing conditions entails the participation of government bodies making decisions on the allocation of housing.
A specially created deterioration of housing conditions involves a reduction in the accounting rate of housing per subject of legal relations.
Consequences of recognizing the actions of citizens as deterioration of housing
The law defines punishment for citizens who, through their voluntary actions, worsen their living conditions, in the form of refusal for a period of five years to register with local authorities as persons in need of additional living space. It is also possible to be held accountable (administrative, criminal) for fraud with government social support measures.
However, determining the fact of intentionality of actions in the case of registration with local authorities in order to improve one’s living conditions is a rather delicate and controversial - since there is no specific regulatory document that would clearly define the line between:
- the truly plight of man;
- his conscious actions regarding the deterioration of living conditions.
Therefore, such cases are often resolved and disputed by citizens in court.
Examples of intentional actions
Based on the established judicial practice on resolving such an issue as the intentional deterioration of living conditions, we can draw a conclusion about what actions can be considered intentional.
Examples of deteriorating living conditions include:
- Permanent registration of several more citizens in the property.
- Separation of personal accounts and shares with re-registration of ownership rights.
- Relocation by court to premises with worse living conditions.
- Sale, donation or other type of transaction for the alienation of property.
- Refusal to conclude a social tenancy agreement.
- Transfer of part of the housing into non-residential premises.
So, for example, state employees with a large number of relatives registered in their living space can count on receiving a cash subsidy to improve their living conditions.
Military personnel
Whether there was a deliberate deterioration in the living conditions of the military personnel is decided by the Military Court. He makes his decision on the basis of Order No. 1280 of the Ministry of Defense of the country dated September 30, 2010.
For military personnel, the following will be recognized as intentional actions:
- permanent registration of close relatives who at that time owned other real estate properties;
- entering into a fictitious marriage to register the spouse;
- allocation of shares to adult family members or children during a divorce;
- violation of the rules of operation of residential premises;
- carrying out transactions for the alienation of real estate (sale, donation).
Whether a divorce is an intentional deterioration of living conditions will be decided by the court . If the divorce is fictitious in order to allocate separate shares, these actions will be considered intentional.
The designation of a property as unsafe will not be considered an intentional deterioration of living conditions.
Family and Children
In relation to young families, illegal registration of relatives, fictitious divorces or specially created transactions for the alienation of property will also be recognized as deliberate actions to worsen the housing situation.
Registration of a child at the place of residence of one of the parents does not constitute a deterioration in living conditions.
Is it a deterioration in living conditions for a wife to register with her husband? These actions will be recognized as legal and will not in any way affect the housing status of citizens, unless they directly violate legal norms.
Many people are also interested in whether being evicted from their parents’ apartment is a deterioration in their living conditions? No is not. In the event of any discharge of citizens, the standard of living quarters for the remaining family members increases.
For military personnel
Persons who are military personnel belong to a separate category. The conditions under which living conditions deteriorate are prescribed not in the Housing Code, but in the Instructions of the Ministry of Defense. Factors of deterioration include:
- fictitious divorce, upon divorce, the state is obliged to allocate shares to one of the spouses, as well as to their children, if any;
- generally established standards were violated intentionally, and the rules for operating the premises may also be violated;
- the citizen entered into a fictitious marriage and registered his real spouse in the apartment;
- the owner has drawn up an agreement under which all of the property or a specific part of it is transferred to another owner;
- the sale of housing or part of the premises was carried out;
- a citizen exchanged an apartment for a smaller living space, this reduced the number of square meters allocated for each family member;
- in social housing, the serviceman did not comply with basic living conditions.
Actions not recognized as intentional
The following actions of citizens in relation to their housing cannot be interpreted as intentional:
- registration of minor children with their parents;
- legal registration of close relatives;
- temporary registration of any residents;
- refusal of the recipient’s apartment or refusal to comply with the terms of the deed of gift by the donor;
- court recognition of a real estate transaction as illegal;
- termination of the rental agreement with the return of housing at the discretion of the recipient.
Refusal of privatization and refusal of inheritance will also not be recognized as intentional actions to worsen the housing situation of a citizen.
In this case, the inheritance is considered as a gift . A citizen has the right to voluntarily decide to accept an inheritance or privatize social housing. His decision will not affect his housing status in any way.
Refusal of the inheritance will be final; in the future, it will no longer be possible to restore the missed period and receive the inheritance many years later. In this case, the citizen will no longer be able to change his mind; the refusal will be documented.
What does not apply to intentional damage
Federal and local legislation allows for cases of deterioration of housing conditions that will not be considered illegal. Most often this is associated with minors or close relatives, but the municipality may introduce its own rules.
What is not considered malicious actions:
- minor citizens are registered in the living space at the place of residence of any of the spouses,
- husband, wife or other close relatives move in, but subject to compliance with the law,
- operations are carried out to terminate the annuity contract at the initiative of the recipient,
- refusal of the donee to receive new housing,
- situations in which the courts recognize a real estate transaction as invalid.
Similar features apply to persons of all social categories.
Consequences of deteriorating living conditions
Art. 53 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation regulates the consequences of intentional actions of citizens to worsen their living conditions.
For 2021, there are two main legal consequences for those citizens for whom it is proven that they committed intentional actions.
These include:
- Refusal to register as needy subjects.
- Re-registration of such citizens can only take place after a period of 5 years has passed after the commission of illegal actions.
According to Art. 56 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the grounds for deregistration of those in need are the provision of incorrect or deliberately false information, on the basis of which the decision to register was made.
In addition, illegal actions on the part of municipal officials identified during inspections will also be grounds for deregistration of needy citizens.
How can someone in need register?
The right to register as a person in need can be obtained by law only to those citizens who are recognized by social protection authorities as low-income.
To acquire low-income status, the average earnings of a citizen for the previous three months in a particular family are taken into account.
To obtain the status of a low-income citizen, social protection authorities carry out the following calculations:
- the total income for three months is divided by 3 to determine the average monthly earnings;
- the resulting indicator is divided by the number of family members;
- the final amount is compared to the subsistence level approved in the territory of the subject of the country.
To register, a family in need must provide a certain set of documents and write an application. Citizens who have become disabled and families with disabled children have the privileged right to register as needy.
Some of the disabled people even have the right to receive additional living space in the form of a separate room, even if the accounting norm is exceeded.
Examples from judicial practice
Judicial practice on the issues of determining the actions of citizens in the form of intentional deterioration of living conditions is quite diverse.
The Constitutional Court in its explanations says that intentional actions must be characterized by two characteristics:
- By intent.
- The artificial nature of actions.
Moving incapacitated parents to their children cannot be a violation, regardless of the presence of real estate in their property.
For military personnel, there is a dubious rule regarding marrying only ladies without permanent registration and their own home. This position is questionable from the point of view of many factors. This is an infringement of the rights to free marriage, which should not be in any way connected with housing issues.
The Constitutional Court also says that each specific case of such a situation must be considered individually in court, taking into account all the intentions and hidden motives of the actions of these subjects.
If a woman sells her home immediately before marriage, her young family will not lose the right to improve their living conditions. All her actions before marriage cannot be recognized by the court as deliberate deterioration of living conditions.
Intentional deterioration of housing conditions is a deliberate action on the part of a citizen by which he tries to acquire the status of someone in need of housing illegally . These actions may become an obstacle to registration in the future, since if there is evidence of premeditation of the actions, he will not be able to get on the waiting list for new housing for another 5 years.
