They are going to take away abandoned plots from summer residents: the government is preparing amendments

They saw it and shed a tear

Maria and Sergey are parents of many children. They have four kids, a little less. Therefore, when they, as a large family, were allocated 15 acres of land for free for a dacha in the Mozhaisk region, they jumped to the skies.

“While we were going to look at a place for a future dacha, we imagined something like this – it’s funny to remember… And what kind of house we would build so that we could live there all year round, and that we would plant a garden with a vegetable garden so that the children could eat everything they had, fresh from the garden,” recalls Masha and sighs bitterly because her happiness was short-lived. The inspection of the area quickly cooled the enthusiasm of the future landowners. It turned out that the site was located in an open field, there was no infrastructure nearby, no roads, no electricity, there was nothing to say about gas and other benefits of civilization.

“You know, I even burst into tears of resentment and frustration when we calculated how much it would cost us to build the access road. Even if you divide it among all the families with many children who were allocated plots there, it still comes out to a million! Where do we get this kind of money?”

In general, although they say that you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Masha and Sergey refused the allocated plot. And, as it turned out, they did the right thing. Because those who did take the land there cannot use it, they only pay taxes. Even after four years there is still no light or road.

“The story of your readers is typical, and the further you get from Moscow, the more such SNT ghosts there are. On the periphery of the Moscow region – for example, in Shatura or Mozhaisk – in some gardening partnerships the number of empty plots reaches 70–90%. But I don’t think that the summer residents themselves are to blame for this,” Fyodor Mezentsev, leader of the public movement “People’s Garden,” comments on the problem. — Our state program to provide summer residents with infrastructure is working very poorly. Municipalities do not build access roads to holiday villages, and social gasification does not apply to SNT. If the authorities would at least build roads and provide electricity, the land would be in demand.”

Snakes, snakes all around

Today, any owner who does not need land can abandon it in favor of the state. This usually happens where it is cheap. For example, in Shatura you can buy a plot of land at a price of 2 thousand rubles per hundred square meters, but you will have to get there by all-terrain vehicle. Therefore, land there is not particularly in demand, many plots continue to be empty, and although they are registered with the municipality, they actually pose a heavy burden on the members of the SNT, on whose territory they are located.

However, it also happens that the village has been inhabited for a long time, all the necessary infrastructure is there, and there are enough “abandoned places” on its territory. Irina Popova’s dacha is located near Orekhovo-Zuev. The dachas there are old, the plots are small – six acres each; the land was allocated back under Soviet rule. Now many of those who received them have already died, and their heirs do not always have the opportunity or desire to regularly visit their haciendas. Therefore, the areas are overgrown with weeds taller than human height, and various living creatures that are unfriendly to humans live there.

“I have abandoned houses on both sides, old people have died, children don’t go. They wanted to buy land from some people in order to enlarge their plot, but they set the price too high, you couldn’t afford it. And at the same time, they have one hogweed growing there and the seeds are flying to me. We have to mow not only our own, but also our neighbors’ plots. Last year, my husband was bitten by the leg by some creature in these thickets, we don’t know who it was, we can’t see it in the grass, just in case we went to the hospital to get injections for tetanus,” says the summer resident.

According to the woman, crawling creatures are actually not the most dangerous. In the same SNT, in another abandoned house, homeless people settled in winter, decided to warm themselves up and lit a fire on the floor, and when the fire engulfed the entire house, they ran away. Unfortunately, the partnership does not have a watchman, so while the firefighters were on their way, the fire engulfed several more neighboring buildings.

Fires in abandoned sites occur regularly. If it’s not homeless people who set the fire, it might ignite on its own. In the summer, from the sun, any piece of glass can act as a lens, some rags or paper will begin to smolder under it, and then the fire will spread to the wooden parts of the house or to the weeds and trash in the yard, and now a fire is ready.

“It seems to me that it would be reasonable to allow local governments to transfer abandoned dachas located on the territory of SNT to members of these gardening partnerships without bidding, so that the neighbors, who are already forced to mow the grass there and fight weeds, could use the land. Because buying a plot of land at auction is most often beyond the capabilities of an ordinary gardener; ordinary people, for example, pensioners, will not be able to compete at an auction with businessmen if they like the same plot of land. Another proposal concerns families with many children. Since the country has a program to provide these families with land plots, let’s make sure that they receive abandoned or unused plots in already populated SNTs, where there is all the necessary infrastructure, and not in an open field.”

Take away and divide?

Many critics of the new law are concerned that the criteria for determining abandoned land are unclear, vague, and raiders can take advantage of this if they want to squeeze out sweet spots from gardeners.

In fact, the new law does not offer anything new. In fact, land can already be confiscated from the owner if the site is more than 50% cluttered. Or if the objects located in the garden area are in disrepair and have not been repaired for five years. The same applies to unused land: the development period for plots is three years. This applies to everyone, developers and agricultural producers, and now it will also apply to summer residents.

“Where are the guarantees that with the adoption of the amendments, abuses on the part of local authorities and businesses will not begin? – asks Mezentsev. — Let’s say that a family found itself in a difficult situation and was unable to come and mow the grass at their dacha in the summer. Such a site will definitely look abandoned. And if in winter the snow collapses the roof, that’s the typical “abandoned” look. Who will delve into when this happened, do people have funds for repairs, and so on? Raiders and developers are cunning people, they know better than summer residents all sorts of loopholes in the law and will certainly use them to their advantage if they desperately need land. We need to work very carefully on the wording of the law, otherwise we will see a new wave of dispossession of landowners.”

But there are other opinions regarding the new law. For example, lawyer Roman Kondaurov is quite loyal to him and believes that it is not at all easy to seize a land plot even through the court. Therefore, conscientious owners have nothing to fear.

“First, these sites need to be identified, then Rosreestr sends information about them to local authorities, who, in turn, issue orders about recorded violations to land owners and impose a fine. In addition, summer residents will be given a period to eliminate violations. A full 5 years are allotted for repairing the same roof or other damage to a residential building; I think during this time you can put your property in order. And only if the summer resident does not eliminate all violations and the site remains cluttered and unkempt, the case can be sent to court to confiscate the property. By the way, when considering the case, the court will have to take into account all the life circumstances in which the family finds itself, including the owner’s illness or other problems. But I agree with my colleague on one thing: at the auction where seized land plots will be put up, priority should be given to members of the SNT on whose territory it is located. This rule now applies to apartment owners – they are given the right to be the first to buy out a share in a shared apartment; it would be fair if the same is done with summer residents,” the expert suggested.