The Russians began to sell garages as apartments

In Khimki, a garage converted into a residential studio is put up for sale for 1.3 million rubles. Old, metal, but insulated, with furniture, a kitchenette, even a dry closet.

How unusual is such a proposal and whether redevelopment is legal, “MK” found out from experts.

A sofa with a fireplace located right in front of it, a ceiling-mounted TV and a bedside table where you can place a tray with food and a cup of coffee – isn’t this the dream of any person? That’s how the tiny wood-panelled room in the garage is set up. True, not every lazy person will agree to serve very peculiar amenities. A toilet, a shower, a sink and even a washing machine are available in the accommodation, but there are nuances.

Water must be delivered from one of the columns installed within a radius of one kilometer, and then go down to the basement and load it into a system with drainage, a water heater and pumps. The sewer drains into a septic tank, which needs to be purchased from time to time. In the near future, the owner of a residential garage left a dozen canisters of water for potential buyers, but they will obviously last only a few days.

The owner reports that the premises are owned, so that in case of a possible demolition, the state will pay some kind of compensation.

The original studio apartment is located in a garage cooperative, 200 meters from Leningradskoe Shosse, one kilometer from the suburban railway station and three kilometers from Sheremetyevo Airport.

Taxi drivers may be interested in the last fact. Indeed, it’s great – lying on the couch in front of the TV, to catch an order from an arriving passenger and in a matter of minutes to get to the air harbor. Another thing is that for the car you will have to purchase another garage somewhere nearby.

– Definitely – we are dealing with misuse of the property. You can also plant tropical plants in the garage, but this will not make it a botanical garden. This studio garage is either demolished or refurbished. It’s very risky, you don’t have to do it, – says Anastasia Romashova, senior legal adviser of the MIEL “Izmailovsky” office,

– Of course, you can put up a small tent and fantasize that this is a house, – says the head of the Mitino office, INCOM-Real Estate, Natalia Borzenkova. – Garage – initially non-residential premises, respectively, there can be no talk of any communications here. Can the garage be used for living? Exactly the same as you can spend the night in the car.

Sometimes the owners of garages stay there overnight, as it has been since Soviet times. But to recognize the garage as a full-fledged space for living and put it on a par with the apartments is not at all right. As for compensation: in the event of demolition, it will be necessary to build on the cadastral value, it is unlikely that it will be higher than 300 thousand rubles.

Nadezhda Korkka, managing partner of the Metrium company, says that in our country there are many modern Diogenes that have settled in garages. This is a budget way to solve the housing problem. However, most people who have settled in garages do not legitimize redevelopment, because it is extremely difficult to do this.

Is it legal to convert a garage into a studio? What compensation from the state will the owner receive if his “home” is decided to be demolished?

– Those who decide to take such a step should first familiarize themselves with the section “type of permitted use” in the land certificate, – Nadezhda Korkka comments. – If the document states that housing can be built on the site, there will be no serious legal problems. However, this mark is often missing. As a result, the owner of the garage will need to submit an application to the local administration with a request to allow the construction of housing. The chances that the appeal will be granted are minimal. Typically, the land where the garages are located is intended exclusively for parking vehicles, and the authorities will not change anything for the specific wishes of one or even several citizens.

If the certificate still contains a permit mark, you can start redevelopment without fear of problems with the law, the specialist continues. It will be possible to register in a modernized garage if the building complies with sanitary and epidemiological standards, that is, you need to have a connection to all engineering networks: water supply, sewerage, electricity and heating system. The requirements for apartments are less stringent, but you will no longer be able to register in them.

The least risky from the perspective of demolition are objects in legal cooperatives and individual garages with privatized land under them. If the authorities nevertheless decided to dismantle, compensation is paid to the owner in the amount established by law. When a garage is converted into a residential building, its owner is paid an amount equal to the market or redemption value established by a specially invited expert commission.