For irresponsible living – Newspaper Kommersant No. 38 (7483) dated 03/04/2023

On Friday, the New People faction sent its bill to the government to abolish administrative responsibility for living without registration (available to Kommersant) to the government for feedback. The authors believe that now these norms are applied selectively and arbitrarily. Representatives of other factions are skeptical about the initiative. They allow some softening of the existing norms, but note that cases of prosecution for such offenses are extremely rare, and registration at the place of residence is necessary at least for sending mail and court summonses.

“New People” propose to recognize as invalid articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) 19.15.1 “Residence of a citizen of the Russian Federation at the place of stay or at the place of residence in a residential building without registration” and 19.15.2 “Violation of the rules for registering a citizen of the Russian Federation at the place of stay or at the place of residence in a residential area.

Under these articles, citizens who do not live at the place of registration face a fine of 2-3 thousand rubles, tenants or homeowners (individuals) from 2 thousand to 5 thousand rubles, legal entities – from 250 thousand to 750 thousand. rub. In federal cities, fines are higher, 3-5 thousand for citizens, 5-7 thousand for homeowners and 300-800 thousand for legal entities. At the same time, citizens are exempted from administrative responsibility if they have registration in the same region.

In the explanatory note, the authors refer to data from sociological surveys, according to which about 20% of citizens do not have their own housing and rent a room or apartment, and in 2017 about 25% of citizens under the age of 30 lived outside the place of registration (permanent or temporary). Now, according to the deputies from the New People, there are even more such citizens. The authors note that earlier information on the number of citizens in the territory was necessary for state planning for the management of communal infrastructure, determining the required number of places in kindergartens and schools, etc. But now everything has changed, “attaching to a polyclinic, enrolling a child in a kindergarten or school are possible in any region of Russia, regardless of the place of registration,” the explanatory note says. The authors note that almost all public services can be obtained on the portal of public services, indicating on it the actual address of residence without registering at the place of residence.

“At the same time, the administrative penalty for the lack of registration does not correlate with the ability to indicate the “actual address of residence” on the single portal of public services of the Russian Federation. The citizen is asked to tell where he really is, and if he is not at the place of permanent registration, then the citizen is actually invited to confess to committing an administrative offense, ”the explanatory note says. The deputies also state that the procedure for obtaining permanent or temporary registration is bureaucratized. Registration can be obtained only upon a personal visit by the owner of the territorial body of the FMS of Russia. “At the same time, owners, as a rule, categorically refuse to register tenants in their apartments, because they fear difficulties in removing a citizen from the place of registration,” the explanatory note says.

“Now there is responsibility for living outside the place of registration, but in fact it is applied selectively when you need to squeeze someone,” Sardana Avksentyeva (NL) explained to Kommersant. “This is an atavism, not legislation. We need a voluntary notification procedure for informing about the place of residence of citizens. If law enforcement officers need to find someone, there is every opportunity for this.”

Pavel Krasheninnikov, Chairman of the Legislation Committee (United Russia), told Kommersant that the committee would carefully study the New People’s initiative after it was submitted. “Responsibility could be mitigated in some cases, for example, when there is some kind of contractual relationship. For example, a contract of employment, when a person lives legally with the consent of the owner. But it’s probably not worth canceling responsibility for everyone at once,” the deputy noted.

The first deputy chairman of the committee on legislation, Yuri Sinelshchikov (KPRF), carefully allowed “liberalization in this matter.” “We need to read the bill, maybe I would agree with these proposals,” the communist told Kommersant.

The head of the Duma committee on labor and social policy, Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR), believes that fines without registration are not a problem today. “It was a problem in the 90s and early 2000s. I have not heard for a long time that someone was attracted for the lack of registration. I do not understand the relevance of these changes. But if the bill is introduced, we will consider it,” the deputy told Kommersant.

Galina Khovanskaya (“Fair Russia – For Truth”) told Kommersant that she would not support the New People bill, especially “in the current situation”: “Registration at the place of residence or at the place of stay is also necessary to make postal dispatches, send subpoenas, etc.

Ksenia Veretennikova