The regional prosecutor's office conducted an inspection of the implementation of the requirements of the Presidential Decree "On vacant and dilapidated houses"

The prosecutor's offices of the Vitebsk region pay increased attention to the implementation of housing policy by executive committees, taking into account the rational use of the existing housing stock, as well as ensuring the timely involvement of land plots occupied by unused residential buildings and structures into circulation.

In particular, the prosecutor's offices of the region organized and conducted an inspection of the compliance by local executive and administrative bodies with the requirements of Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 357 of September 4, 2018 "On vacant and dilapidated houses" (hereinafter referred to as the Decree).

The aforementioned Decree is aimed at reducing the number of vacant and dilapidated houses with or without outbuildings and other structures in rural areas, as well as further improvement and rational use of the territory of settlements.

At the same time, the inspection showed that the work of the absolute majority of local executive and administrative bodies at the basic territorial level to implement the Decree is formal in nature, and effective measures to implement the established requirements are not being taken by the executive committees. There is no proper accounting of vacant and dilapidated houses. No explanatory work is being carried out among the population about the consequences of negligent maintenance of residential premises.

Despite the fact that commissions for inspecting the condition of residential buildings located in rural areas within the districts have been created in district executive committees in accordance with clause 3 of the Decree (hereinafter referred to as the commission), the activities of the latter do not meet the requirements, inspections of residential buildings are not carried out, conclusions are not drawn up or are drawn up in violation of the requirements of the Decree, and the personal composition of the aforementioned commissions requires revision. For example, at the time of the inspection, the commission for inspecting the condition of residential buildings located in the Chashniki district included the chief physician of the State Institution "Chashniki District Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology," who has been on parental leave since May 2019 until her child reaches the age of 3 years, as well as an inspector of the state fire supervision inspectorate of the Chashniki district,

who has been dismissed from his position since 01.04.2020.

The study of the materials on the inclusion of vacant houses in the relevant register has established that vacant houses are actually identified not by the commission, but by the chairmen of rural executive committees, which leads to an unjustified delay in the adoption of relevant decisions (Verkhnedvinsk, Postavy districts).

Contrary to the requirements of clause 2 of the Decree, district executive committees have not ensured the proper maintenance of the register of vacant houses in rural areas; information about houses is entered into the register untimely or not entered at all (Rossonsky, Chashniksky, Ushachsky districts, etc.).

In violation of the requirements of the Decree, district executive committees have not organized the notification of owners of vacant houses about the upcoming inclusion of these residential premises in the register. Work on locating owners who have not used residential premises for a long time is not carried out properly (Beshenkovichsky, Tolochinsky, Rossonsky districts, etc.).

District executive committees have not ensured the timely and complete fulfillment of the requirements of clause 9 of the Decree regarding the mandatory submission to the court at the location of the vacant house, within two months from the date of inclusion of the residential house in the register, of an application to recognize the vacant house as ownerless and transfer it to the ownership of the relevant administrative-territorial unit.

The inspection of the organization of accounting and reduction of the number of dilapidated houses in rural areas shows that this work is also not organized properly by rural executive committees, and control by district executive committees is absent.

For example, the register of vacant houses located in the territory of the Ivansky rural executive committee of the Chashniksky district includes 8 houses in the settlements of Ivansk, Demidovichi, Krasnitsa; the register of dilapidated houses includes 16 houses in the settlements of Ivansk, Demidovichi, Podrezy, Pristoi, Krasnitsa. At the same time, during the inspection of the territory of the rural executive committee, the prosecutor's office of the Chashniksky district revealed a significant number of both vacant and dilapidated houses not included in the relevant registers.

In addition, primary level executive committees have not ensured proper control over

with timely and full compliance by owners of dilapidated houses with the issued orders to cease the negligent maintenance of these houses. Decisions on demolishing dilapidated houses in case of non-compliance with the orders, or on applying to the court with a claim for expropriation of a dilapidated house from the owner, are not made, although in some cases more than six months have passed since the order was sent to the owner (Vitebsk city, Dokshitsky district, etc.).

The absence of effective accounting of vacant houses, improper maintenance of the relevant register, and demolition work on dilapidated houses contributes to the inefficient use of housing stock and land plots occupied by vacant and dilapidated houses.

In order to eliminate deficiencies and violations in the area of reducing vacant and dilapidated houses, based on the results of inspections by the prosecutor's offices of the Vitebsk region, 9 submissions were made to the city and district executive committees, demanding that exhaustive measures be taken to reduce the number of vacant and dilapidated houses in rural areas.

Prosecutor of the Department for Supervision of Legislation Enforcement
and Legality of Legal Acts
of the Regional Prosecutor's Office Tatyana Ivanova