Difficult site: conditions for granting state-owned land may be simplified for beneficiaries

It will now be easier for citizens of privileged categories to receive land plots from the state land fund. Today, people with disabilities, veterans, large families and other beneficiaries have been queuing for years and are forced to participate in auctions in order to exercise their right to receive land for a long-term lease. Now the Cabinet of Ministers has supported a bill that regulates the rules for the provision of land — according to the amendments, eligible people will be able to receive land ownership for free. Experts warn that after the adoption of the law, it is necessary to strengthen control over the distribution of land in order to prevent local abuses. How the norm will work is in the Izvestia article.

The land issue

The Russian government has given a positive response to the draft law on expanding the rights of certain categories of citizens to receive land plots that are in state or municipal ownership (Izvestia has a review).

According to the amendments, people who have the right to first-time or extraordinary purchase of land for rent without bidding will now be able to own land for free, said Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Bar Association.

"This transforms the right to preferential rent into the right to gratuitous ownership for certain categories of citizens," he explained.

Federal legislation establishes the right of various categories of citizens to purchase land without bidding: Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of Russia, full holders of the Order of Glory, Heroes of Labor, disabled people and families with disabilities, veterans, citizens from large families, liquidators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and others. But these benefits are prescribed in various federal laws and are not interconnected, not united by a single approach and exist each on its own.

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The essence of the bill is an attempt to simplify the procedure for transferring land from lease to ownership for certain categories of Russians, and without the mandatory bidding procedure, said Tatiana Gribanova, a lawyer at Mikhailov & Co. Legal Agency.

"It's difficult to get a long—term lease on land right now," she said. — Firstly, these are queues in which a person can spend several years of his life. In fact, this is the lost time during which the earth could work. Secondly, the need to participate in the auction. It is very difficult for some people to assemble and prepare the documents in the correct package, send them on time and participate in the auction in the approved manner, and then go through a multi—stage registration procedure.

Also, according to her, different regions may have different rules for bidding, different packages of documents, etc. Even the criteria for selecting applicants for participation may differ — hence the principle of grounds for refusal is not transparent.

— Additional costs incurred by regional budgets are also very likely, — Tatiana Gribanova explained. — The bill is intended to solve the second and third of the mentioned difficulties — to remove the most bureaucratic stages. The main advantage is the provision of land not just for temporary possession, but for ownership, according to a simpler procedure. This is additional social support for vulnerable segments of the population, designed to overshadow the mechanism for providing land to those in need.

What are the risks

The bill should restore order in the provision of land plots to certain categories of citizens, primarily large families, members of the Free trade association, and young professionals, explained Alexander Yakubovsky, a member of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services.

— Today, different rules apply in different regions: some land is given ownership, some is leased, and for years it has been impossible to exercise the right due to the lack of land plots or transparent accounting, - said the deputy.

According to him, the proposed changes should eliminate duplication of benefits, empower regions to determine the procedure for granting land and make the process more understandable and uniform.

— The main thing is that when finalizing the document, all guarantees for beneficiaries should be preserved — so that the law would really simplify obtaining land, and not narrow the possibilities of citizens, — Alexander Yakubovsky added.

The bill has been repeatedly supplemented and clarified, recalled Ilya Vasilchuk, a judicial lawyer and an expert on the security of electronic transactions and real estate transactions.

"The main objective of the draft law is to make the procedure for granting land to citizens who have the right to priority or extraordinary acquisition of land more transparent, understandable and excluding abuse," he said.

The bill will introduce more precise rules for the provision of land plots than now. For example, the latest version of the document restricts the right to grant land plots several times at the same time for different reasons.

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The government is also making comments on the revised version of the draft law, Vladimir Gruzdev said.

"It is proposed to give regions the right to establish additional grounds for refusing to lease land plots without bidding, since the provision may depend on the purpose of the plots, the priority of citizens and other local conditions," he explained. "This will avoid situations where land intended for one purpose will be allocated for completely different purposes," he added.

However, despite the claim that the implementation of the law will not require federal budget funds, 13 regions were unable to assess the possible impact of the bill on their own financial capabilities.

— This indicates the need to clarify the financial and economic justification in order to avoid unforeseen expenses for the subjects of the Russian Federation, — said the expert.

Of the risks, experts interviewed by Izvestia noted the "regional" variability — uniform criteria for the selection and provision of land should be clearly spelled out. In addition, additional control over the allocation of land is needed to avoid abuse on the ground.