'If a building is being put up on the land that has never been officially allotted to the builder, or if the construction rules and norms are violated in the process, this half-finished building is classed as unauthorized and must be pulled down by the builder,’ Intellect-C’s Legal Safety Director Roman Rechkin said to UrBC.


The regional authorities might ban the construction of an apartment block at 57 Radischev St. (Yekaterinburg) currently supervised by Aston Building Company. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the state board of experts looked into the project and was planning to turn it down on February 20, 2008, since the experts found a number of problems in this project. In the meantime, the local council is not allowed to let any builder start working unless the experts approve of their project.


The building, however, is half-finished already, even though the people from the nearby houses complain about the facts that it is being put up in a place where the revolution memorial is situated, that a recreation area was destroyed to clear up the space, and that the building would deny any sunlight to dwellers of thirty apartments by blocking them completely. Aston was reported to offer the unfortunate dwellers a chance to move to some new places, but the terms of the offer were rather disadvantageous. The builder had to drop the issue for the time being, as the whole construction process could be banned in court.



According to Mr. Rechkin, whether the dwellers can move into new homes depends on when and how the disputable land allotment was occupied. If the dwellers own their current homes, they can demand to be paid for them, with price depending on the result of the negotiations. In whichever case, according to the Russian Federation Housing Code, the proprietors have the right to be compensated for the dwellings’ real market value and for the moving costs.



'A difference of 200,000 to 300,000 RUR wouldn’t matter much to the builder, as the costs of handling a proprietor’s claim in court would definitely be much greater. If the court’s experts do state that Aston’s construction violates the rules and regulations, the building will be classed as unauthorized. This is why the developer is naturally interested in settling everything with these dwellers out of court,’ Rechkin noted.