A service apartment – your own home or someone else’s living space?

Recommendation points

• What is service housing
• Who to go to work to get service housing
• The procedure for providing service housing
• Is it possible to privatize a service apartment?

In the old Soviet times, almost any young specialist who came to work at a factory or a large industrial complex in another city could surely expect that in a couple of years he would definitely be given an apartment. Yes, “Khrushchev”, yes, small, but separate and quite comfortable, and most importantly – completely free.

The practice of providing so-called service apartments has survived to this day. Only their number has become much smaller, to get such free housing you have to wait in line for years, and the condition of the apartments usually leaves much to be desired.

Let’s try to figure out – who is entitled to service apartments, who can expect to receive such housing, are there any enterprises in our country that provide employees with apartments at their own expense, and, finally, is it possible to privatize service housing, making it truly your own?

What is service housing

A service apartment is a special category of housing that is provided to a person precisely in connection with his work in a specific organization or in a specific position. Such apartments are classified as specialized housing stock.

Thus, in order to get service housing, you do not need to stand in line or be poor, large and socially unprotected, to have some kind of benefits – it is enough to successfully get a job.

Often, service apartments are provided even to those employees who already have their own housing. True, in another city, from where you can’t go to the service every day. In this case, the organization or enterprise where the person works provides him with service housing..

The main condition for the provision of a service apartment is the inability to fulfill official duties due to the lack of housing in the immediate vicinity of the place of work.

At the same time, Article 93 of the Housing Code of Russia limited the meaning of the term “service housing” and determined that only those apartments that are provided “to citizens in connection with the nature of their labor relations with the public authority, state unitary enterprise, local authority self-government, municipal or state institution, in connection with the passage of service, in connection with the appointment to a public office of the Russian Federation or the public office of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, as well as in connection with election to elective offices in local self-government bodies or public authorities “.

That is, according to the article, only state and municipal employees can apply for official housing, workers of private enterprises cannot receive such apartments. However, there is still a practice when a non-governmental company or organization provides its especially valuable employees with housing and such premises cannot be called otherwise than office premises. Many experts note that Article 93 of the Housing Code does not reflect the actual situation that has developed in the field of the provision of service apartments, and also leaves wide scope for interpretation..

Who to go to work to get service housing

M.G. Sokolov. IN AND. Lenin in Razliv. 1969

So, in order to get a chance, often very real, to move into an office apartment, you should choose such specialties, professions and areas of activity as:

1. People’s Choices. Deputies of all levels, whether it be a modest city council in the provinces or the State Duma, are entitled to official housing for the duration of their duties. If a deputy represents the interests of, for example, the Krasnoyarsk Territory or Khabarovsk and arrives in the capital, where a place in the State Duma awaits him, he and his family are provided with a comfortable apartment with furniture and a telephone in Moscow. For some reason, the presence of a telephone is insisted on by the federal law “On the status of deputies of the State Duma and members of the Council of Federation”, which determines the procedure for allocating apartments for deputies and senators from the state service fund.
2. Officials. Employees of numerous ministries, departments and government agencies can also apply for service housing if they do not have it in the city where they came to work. Ministries and departments often solve the “housing issue” of their employees by providing subsidies for the purchase of housing, but this is already a preferential lending option that does not apply to the practice of providing service apartments.
3. Servicemen. As you know, the military are servants and over the years of service they can change several cities and towns. And if a lonely employee can live in a dormitory, sharing a room with a colleague, then family housing is mandatory. The issue of providing both service apartments and permanent housing to those servicemen who are already leaving the ranks of the Russian army is quite acute. The Ministry of Defense regularly reports on plans to build new residential buildings, apartments in which will be allocated to military personnel, but many military families still need to improve their living conditions.
4. Law enforcement officers, in particular district police officers, investigators, police officers, and so on, who are sent to the duty station in another locality. In this case, employees with families are also primarily provided with service housing..
5. Wipers. Traditionally, in order to attract people to this not the most prestigious position, they are provided with service apartments at their place of work. This practice is also connected with production necessity – the janitors usually start working at 6 or even 5 in the morning, and getting at such a time from another part of the city is very problematic. Also, other employees of the housing and communal services system, for example, locksmiths or foremen, can get service apartments..
6. Rescue personnel such as firefighters.
7. Foresters, gamekeepers, fishing workers. The work of representatives of this category of specialists is often associated with trips to hard-to-reach areas, to areas remote from large cities, therefore, for the duration of their official duties, such workers are provided with official housing..
8. Customs officers, tax officers, judges.
9. Teachers and doctors. Ideally, after several years of work, service housing should be provided to all medical staff and teachers who are state employees, that is, they work in ordinary hospitals and schools, and not in private gymnasiums and elite clinics. It makes no sense to tell how things really are – it is well known that teachers and doctors can get service apartments practically only if they agree to go to work in the countryside, and they will have to work for a certain period of time..

It is clear that it is better to be a deputy than a janitor – the chances of getting service housing from the people’s representatives are much greater, but in principle, all of the above categories can apply for free apartments while working in a particular organization.

It can also be said with confidence that many large enterprises, for example, factories and metallurgical plants, provide their especially valuable specialists, for example, managers or engineers invited from abroad, apartments at their place of service or pay rent, which can also be considered one of the varieties of obtaining office living space.

The procedure for providing service housing

According to the Housing Code of Russia, in order to obtain service housing, a person in need of living space at the place of a new job must write a corresponding application for the provision of an apartment from the local specialized housing stock.

In the application, it is imperative to indicate how many family members will live with the applicant, since there are approved norms on the minimum living space per occupant of a service apartment. For example, if the family has two children – a boy and a girl over the age of 9, then the applicant can apply for a three-room apartment. In addition, each family member must have at least 6 square meters of living space, but no more than 15 – this is already considered an impermissible luxury..

Vincent van Gogh. Ward in the Hospital in Arles. 1889

However, such norms do not apply everywhere; in many cities, service housing is provided according to the principle – take what they give, there is nothing else. And you cannot argue with such a statement, since the Housing Code regarding service apartments states that they must be “residential” – and that’s it, no more clarifications and norms.

In addition, the municipal specialized housing stock often consists of so-called “escheat” housing, that is, apartments that have been privatized, and the deceased owners have no heirs. Such apartments are usually abandoned for a long time, while the search for possible heirs is underway, they are in a state of disrepair, and local budgets do not have funds for their repair, even cosmetic. It is not uncommon for a new district police officer, who arrived at his place of service in the district center, to receive service housing “without windows, without doors” and could not believe his “happiness”, refusing to move into such an apartment..

After the application for service housing is written and received by the authorized official, a contract of employment of service accommodation is concluded between the provider and the employee, which is considered valid for the duration of military service, labor relations or performance of official duties. The tenant is provided with a warrant that gives him the right to move into the specified apartment.

Inhabitants of a service apartment pay for utilities in the same way and in the same amount as the owners of privatized apartments. At the same time, they are required to maintain the premises in proper order, not to delay utility bills, and so on..

The rights of residents of office premises are limited – they cannot rent out the provided apartment, book or exchange it for other housing. The tenant can move all of his household, dependents and relatives into the service apartment, if the other adult tenants do not mind and have given their written consent.

Alexander Benois. Illustration for The Queen of Spades. 1910

The office lease contract is terminated in the event of termination of employment, expiration of the term of office or dismissal from office.

Is it possible to privatize a service apartment?

In the list of residential premises that are not subject to privatization, established by part one of article four of the RF Law of July 4, 1991 “On the privatization of the housing stock in the Russian Federation”, there is also service housing.

That is, it is impossible to privatize it according to the law, however, in a number of cases, employers of service housing still manage to draw up all the necessary documents and achieve a positive decision from the authorities and heads of a company or organization.

An important nuance – in each region of Russia, local authorities are in charge of the privatization of office premises, therefore the conditions and procedure for privatization can be very different.

For example, in Moscow, a government decree is in force, according to which tenants who have lived in the given living space and, accordingly, have worked in the organization that provided the living space for more than 10 years, can privatize an office apartment..

Such employees can write a statement on the basis of which the service contract will be terminated and a social rental contract for an apartment is concluded. Thus, before starting the process of privatization of office housing, it must first be removed from the specialized office housing stock and included in the state or municipal social housing stock..

What is needed for this? First of all, the consent of the organization, enterprise or institution that owns the apartment.

In some specially stipulated cases, employers who have not yet worked in the organization for 10 years can also privatize office housing. These special cases include:

• retirement of an employer who was provided with service housing, if he leaves in connection with reaching retirement age from the organization that provided the apartment;
• getting disability of groups 1 and 2, which occurred in connection with injury due to the fault of the employing organization or an occupational disease received during service. In this case, the organization can “atone for its guilt” by allowing the privatization of a service apartment;
• in the event of the death of the employer of official housing, his family may also further privatize the apartment provided to him at the workplace;
• restructuring or liquidation of an enterprise that led to the dismissal of the employer from the workplace.

The list of documents required for the privatization of a service apartment includes:

• the permission of the owner of the official housing stock is the most important document, without which it is practically impossible to privatize official housing;
• the original of the order for the apartment or the original extract from the decision with the social contract;
• an extract from all house books, without exception, from all addresses where the employer previously lived and was registered, starting from July 1, 1991;
• explication issued by the BTI and cadastral passport;
• originals and copies of passports of all family members of the tenant registered in this residential area;
• if the passport was issued after July 1, 1991, a certificate of replacement of passports is also required;
• a notarized power of attorney for an employee of the single window service;
• statements from all family members registered in the apartment, as well as their personal presence during the paperwork;
• receipt confirming payment of the state fee.

It should be noted that the transfer of service housing from a specialized fund to a municipal or state social fund, which will give the right to privatize an apartment, can take several months or even years. To speed up this process and privatize an office apartment, you can go to court with a statement of claim, which will require to recognize the tenant’s right to privatize housing. It is also worth going to court if the employer, the organization that owns the apartment, does not give its consent to privatization, despite having ten years of experience. Unfortunately, court proceedings can also take a long time, and a positive decision in such cases is rare..

Thus, in order to privatize a service apartment, it is necessary to negotiate with the employer by any means and still obtain permission from the organization that provided the housing. In this case, it is quite possible to privatize the office space, although the process of collecting documents, especially extracts from all house books in places of previous residence, may be delayed.

The only consolation for those tenants of office space, who, despite ten years of experience in one organization, were denied the right to privatize an apartment and the owner, and the court, can be the fact that it is impossible to evict such families without providing other housing..