The Russians want to ban the independent construction of houses and cottages

Another extortion of money from ordinary Russians was started by representatives of the construction industry. Citizens may be required to prepare project documentation for the independent construction of a private house, summer house, capital extension or bath – supposedly to prevent possible defects. Such a proposal was received by the Ministry of Construction from the Russian Construction Union.

There are far more disadvantages in the initiative than advantages, say MK experts.

“Private developers have a wide range of opportunities to build a residential building: on their own, with the involvement of a team,” Fedor Mezentsev, leader of the People’s Garden public movement, comments on the initiative. – With all the variety of country houses, each owner has the right to decide on the need to develop project documentation.

As a rule, houses up to 100 square meters are built according to simplified projects. A drawing from a customer or a standard project can be downloaded for free on the Internet or bought for 15-20 thousand rubles in a private design bureau. The development of separate project documentation for such houses is not required, the specialist claims. The maximum that is objectively necessary is data on the depth of freezing and on the properties of the soil. These tasks are successfully solved by trial drilling of the pit.

What is behind the proposal of the Russian Construction Union? “Under the pretext of concern for improving the quality of houses that people build, a business initiative is being promoted in order to provide a “kickback” to commercial structures in the amount of 5-10% of the cost of the house,” Fedor Mezentsev believes. “It is this amount that the development of a design estimate will cost Moreover, what is suitable for professional developers, who need only two or three standard projects for the entire village, or customers who use significant budget money to prepare documents, is absolutely unacceptable for a private developer who needs this documentation like glasses for a monkey.

Strengthening control over construction in the private sector, if required, is only in part of the misuse of land. It is no secret that hotels, townhouses and other commercial facilities often appear on lands intended for individual housing construction (IZHS).

The head of the suburban real estate center of the federal company “Etazhi” Anton Saukov says that quite often village houses are built not only without any plan, but even without an approximate estimate and sketch. The expert, however, does not see anything wrong with this:

– Previously, in villages and villages they built without plans and projects, but houses are still standing, people live in them.

A full-fledged project of a house with control over its construction can increase the cost of construction by 10 percent or more, continues Anton Saukov, emphasizing that this is far from justified in all cases. “In the construction of small dachas or traditional log cabins, it is unlikely that the project can somehow radically affect the quality of construction.”

And in general, it will be problematic to organize total control: the volume of construction in the segment of individual housing construction is too large.

The President of the Regional Association of Appraisers, Professor of the Moscow State Construction Institute Kirill Kulakov explains: in accordance with the law, in order to start building a house, it is enough for a citizen to send a notification to the local administration, attaching title documents to the land plot. Construction within the framework of individual housing construction is limited by certain parameters: the number of above-ground floors – no more than three; height – up to 20 meters.

– Yes, a family does not need an approved project to build their own house, – Kirill Kulakov comments. – But 2022 was a record year for individual housing construction. Of all housing commissioned in Russia, 55.7% (57.2 million square meters) became individual (built by people for themselves). – Ed.).

In comparison with these figures, the construction of high-rise buildings seems no longer so significant. Another thing is that buying apartments in new buildings is unaffordable for most Russians, but building houses for oneself is much cheaper: in the capitals – at least twice, in the regions – 3-4 times.

There is another obvious drawback of innovation. Private developers will lose the opportunity to build houses due to a significant rise in the cost of construction. First of all, we are talking about people who want to build a cottage or cottage not for sale, but exclusively for the family. Such an approach will definitely not contribute to the solution of the housing issue, which the authorities are constantly talking about.

Building permits were canceled two years ago, Fedor Mezentsev continues. Legislators have simplified the procedure for registering buildings in the private sector as much as possible. Ownership is registered on the basis of a document for a land plot and a technical plan prepared by a cadastral engineer.

– The risks of errors are borne by the developer himself, and they do not affect the safety of neighbors in any way. Whether to develop project documentation, whether to involve the company in the construction – the owner of the site decides, – the expert emphasizes.

Perhaps the only thing that justifies the initiative is more affordable bank lending. But again – for houses built not for themselves, but for sale in a mortgage. “A house built according to the project is easy to evaluate, which means it can be used as a bank collateral. A house built without the involvement of a professional developer raises many questions for the appraiser. Are the communications installed correctly? What is the fire protection? Is the foundation properly calculated?” – continues Kirill Kulakov.

And then he makes a reservation: “It is not completely clear who will oversee the quality of construction and compliance with the requirements of the project. After all, this is not only about houses in the Moscow region, but also about the construction of wooden houses in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, where the nearest regional center can be 100 “120 kilometers. What construction supervision can be in such cases?”

The state could help individual construction on professional projects, offering preferential mortgages, but not making the availability of project documentation a prerequisite. It is necessary to encourage citizens to build competently, but at the same time leaving the choice to each family, Kirill Kulakov believes.

Sergei Kolunov, a member of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services, also opposes the innovation. He writes that the preparation of documentation by Russians who build houses for themselves will become a great burden for them. As for the expertise, it should be introduced only for buildings that are being built by professional developers for sale. And this expertise should be the same as for apartment buildings, Sergey Kolunov concludes.