Features of re-registration of real estate in Crimea

Recommendation points

• Do I need to re-register real estate under Russian law
• Translation of cadastral documents
• Cadastral registration
• Registration procedure
• Crimean real estate risks
• Double register
• Home sales to multiple buyers
• Fake powers of attorney
• Uncertainty with self-occupied lands

Do I need to re-register real estate under Russian law

According to the Law of the Republic of Crimea “On the peculiarities of regulation of property and land relations”, re-registration of real estate objects under Russian law must be completed by January 1, 2017. Therefore, people who are not going to sell their homes on the peninsula have more than a year to reissue documents and put them in order..

And Crimeans planning to re-register their homes under Russian law in the near future will undoubtedly be interested in the specifics of this procedure. Let’s dwell on them in more detail.

Translation of cadastral documents

Clause 6 of Article 8 of the aforementioned law on the specifics of regulating property and land relations establishes that all documents that are the basis for state registration must be translated into Russian.

The law says that there is no need to notarize the translation. But copies of title documents will be handed over to Goskomregister, which will still need to be notarized.

The normative act imposes the obligation to translate documents on the State Committee for Registration, but in practice, due to the enormous burden on the state body, these actions are now carried out by notaries. The cost of this service is about 6 thousand rubles. The Goskomregister considers such a price for the translation of a dozen pages to be very high. According to the head of the department, notaries will be asked to lower prices.

Cadastral registration

According to Russian law, property rights to real estate can be registered only after cadastral registration. This can be done in the state department for registration and cadastre of the Republic of Crimea. Its central office, located in Simferopol, has already begun work on accepting applications from individuals and legal entities.

So far, the residents of Crimea cannot do without a trip to Simferopol for registering their real estate, but in the near future the State Committee for Registry plans to open territorial departments in Feodosia, Alushta, Evpatoria, Kerch, Bakhchisarai. The term of registration is legally determined – 18 days.

To reissue the cadastral passport, Crimeans must provide a passport, photocopies of title documents and a technical passport of the BTI. After that, the cadastral engineer will start measuring the real estate and drawing up a technical plan for the premises, which will subsequently be transferred to the cadastral chamber. And then the property owners will be issued a cadastral passport.

It is highly likely that the measurement data of the cadastral engineer will not coincide with the total area specified in the title documents. After all, it was registered according to Ukrainian law, according to which balconies and loggias are included in the total area of ​​the apartment. But according to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, which is now guided by civil servants of the peninsula, these parts of the apartment are not taken into account when calculating the total living space.

In order to correct the data, apartment owners will need to obtain a separate document from the cadastral engineer.

Registration procedure

Translated into Russian, notarized copies of title documents and a cadastral passport must be handed over to the State Register Office. Registration of ownership in the Russian register must be completed within 18 days.

Since the registration of real estate on the peninsula has been resumed recently and so far only the central office of the State Registration Committee is working, officials cannot cope with the huge influx of people who want to re-register their rights to their homes. It got to the point that places in queues are being sold – even the acting head of the republic Sergey Aksenov was forced to admit this.

Beneficial categories of citizens (pensioners, disabled people, participants of the Great Patriotic War) should know that the State Committee for Registration will accept their documents out of turn, as reported by the press service of the department.

Crimean real estate risks

After the referendum on the entry of Crimea into Russia, the demand for real estate on the peninsula has significantly increased, and housing prices have increased by 10% since the beginning of the year. But not everything is so cloudless. For people who own or intend to purchase real estate, there are a number of risks associated with confusion in the law.

Double register

According to the law of the Republic of Crimea “On the peculiarities of regulation of property and land relations in the territory of the Republic of Crimea”, re-registration of rights to real estate obtained prior to the adoption of this normative act is carried out on the basis of Ukrainian documents of title.

But it will not be possible to verify the authenticity of the documents according to the Ukrainian State Register. Since Ukraine blocked access to it after holding a referendum on the peninsula on joining Russia.

This opens up unlimited scope for fraud, because it is not so difficult to forge title documents and register ownership of an empty property. Dozens of similar cases have already been registered.

Home sales to multiple buyers

According to the Crimean laws, from March 18, 2014 to January 1, 2015, a transitional period will operate on the peninsula, during which, along with the Russian legislation, Ukrainian legislation will also be in effect. Therefore, real estate sellers are tempted to sell their property twice – according to Russian and Ukrainian legislation, because in fact it is not prohibited (in the law of Ukraine on the legal regime in the temporarily occupied territories there is no such prohibition).

Similar cases have already been recorded in Crimea. In order not to fall for the bait of scammers, the buyer needs to check the real estate he is interested in using two registries at once – Ukrainian and Russian. It will not work to check the Ukrainian register on the territory of Crimea; you will have to travel to the regions of Ukraine bordering on Crimea.

Fake powers of attorney

Some Crimean residents who retained their Ukrainian citizenship and left for its territory after the change in the status of the peninsula are now trying to sell their real estate. Scammers who know about this can forge a power of attorney and appear before buyers as representatives of home owners. After receiving the deposit, fake sellers will disappear without a trace.

Therefore, buyers of real estate should be very careful about people selling housing by proxy and not transfer a deposit without checking the legal force of the power of attorney in the Ukrainian register.

Uncertainty with self-occupied lands

The Crimean authorities, according to Sergei Aksenov, are planning to soon solve the problem with the self-occupied lands. The plots on which residential buildings have already been built will be legalized and issued in a simplified form. The land on which the unfinished construction objects are located can also be registered officially, after all documents are completed in accordance with Russian law. But temporary buildings located on the occupied lands will be demolished, and the plots themselves will be returned to the state.

But so far all these are only plans, and before the Crimean authorities make a final decision, any transactions to buy real estate located on illegally occupied land are extremely risky..