Systematic work is being carried out in the Vitebsk region to reduce the number of vacant houses
A detailed analysis of the situation regarding the implementation of decrees No. 357 "On vacant and dilapidated houses" and No. 116 "On the alienation of residential houses in rural areas and improving work with vacant houses", which came into force in September, was carried out at the meeting of the presidium of the Regional Council of Deputies.
Work in this direction has been carried out for more than ten years, and a certain experience has been accumulated in solving this issue. There are good results for the current year: 769 houses have already been demolished, with 521 – at the expense of the budget, and the rest – at the expense of the owners, emphasized Vladimir Terentyev. These are the best figures ever.
In connection with the adopted new decree, a unified register of vacant houses is being created. And most importantly, there is an opportunity to sell these houses to the population for their own use either for one basic unit without an auction, or with an auction, starting from one basic unit.
In the Dokshitsy district, for example, executive authorities, enterprises and the population have actively engaged in the implementation of the new decree, and there are already certain developments.
This issue is under constant control, emphasized Vladimir Vladimirovich. Field meetings were dedicated to this topic, which were held in the Liozno, Dubrovno, and Dokshitsy districts.
In 2019–2020, 3762 vacant and 2263 dilapidated houses were identified. In the nine months of the current year – 2466 vacant and 845 dilapidated houses.
These figures are constantly changing as old-timers pass away, and houses in villages are left without owners, fall into disrepair, and territories become overgrown. It's good if heirs visit their ancestral home, but sometimes they don't visit their native abode for years. However, it takes time to find heirs, to notify them that the house will be recognized as ownerless or escheated. In short, not only authorities but also law enforcement officers and other services get involved in the work. And only when there are no relatives or they refuse the inherited property, does the procedure for seizing the house (it still needs to be recognized as escheated through court), or demolition, and inclusion in the register of vacant or dilapidated houses begin. At the site of the former structure, landscaping work and the involvement of land in agricultural circulation are necessary. Time passes, and houses age like people, so the number of "ownerless" houses sometimes does not decrease. The simplified system for selling such houses for one base value according to the new decree will change the situation.
As of November 1 of the current year, there are 730 houses in the register of dilapidated houses and 1133 in the register of vacant houses. In October-November, almost 50 hectares of land were involved in economic circulation in the Vitebsk region. For 9 months, more than 124 thousand rubles were spent from local budgets on the demolition of 107 dilapidated houses. The leading positions are occupied by Verkhnedvinsk, Dubrovno, and Chashniksky districts. Property owners also did not stand aside, through whose efforts 125 dilapidated houses were eliminated, and another 35 were restored for use.
Even from these figures, it is clear that a huge amount of work has been done to identify owners and encourage them to make decisions regarding their property. And in this regard, our region looks better than other regions. But we also have something to learn from the Grodno region, where they know how to find funds from local budgets for working with vacant houses.
– There are 268 rural settlements in the Dokshytsy district, 37 villages are uninhabited, but they have 112 houses, only 75 of which are used for seasonal residence, 37 are considered vacant, – reported Valentina Randarevich, Chairperson of the Dokshytsy District Council of Deputies. – Potential heirs exist for such property. These are children and grandchildren of deceased citizens who, for various reasons, cannot or do not want to sell their ancestral home or tidy up the territory of their possessions.
It is not surprising that the primary task is not to demolish houses, many of which are in good condition, but to put them in order so that the villages live. Thus, over the past two years, the territories around 320 houses where no one permanently resides have been cultivated and improved, emphasized Valentina Randarevich.
This situation is also characteristic of the district center, where there are 15 houses that are currently uninhabited, Valentina Randarevich continued. 11 have heirs, for seven, documents on state registration of capital construction have been processed, for four – documents on land plots and buildings have been processed. To somehow compel owners and heirs to take action, in addition to reminders, notifications, and prescriptions, of which over 700 have been sent, it is necessary to resort to penalties. 37 owners who have not fulfilled the requirements have been brought to administrative responsibility.
The new decree allows for more active work in this direction. If a house in a village can be purchased for one base unit, such property will definitely not remain vacant. At the same time, as Valentina Randarevich emphasized, the sale of vacant houses requires an appraisal by an organization for the state registration of real estate, rights to it and transactions with it, and in the absence of a technical passport – the preparation of a technical characteristics statement, which in turn requires about 400 rubles from the local budget. In practice, in rural areas, such houses are sold by agreement of the parties for reimbursement of the costs of preparing documents.
It has been proposed to put up for sale to the public abandoned farms and other agricultural facilities.
These and other issues will need to be discussed with the relevant services, lawyers, and notaries to develop a clear algorithm of actions for the implementation of the new decree.