This apartment on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg could well satisfy the housing needs of a discerning oligarch: 1248 sq. m. m and 80 large and small rooms. It could accommodate a swimming pool, a gym, a billiard room, and a swimming pool. There is only one thing. This is a communal apartment. True, it’s not at all ordinary, because this is the largest communal service in the country. Moskovsky Komsomolets told about her.

This apartment occupies the entire first floor of a five-story building. On the second, third, fourth of this very ordinary house live the owners of, albeit not the most luxurious, but separate apartments. On the first floor, a communal “paradise” flourishes, in which 40 people live, or rather, are registered. A few years ago there were twice as many of them - 10 families were resettled from here. But it is difficult to determine how many people actually live here. Some owners, unable to withstand the harsh life, decided to rent a separate living space. The room is being rented out and none of the neighbors know exactly how many people are in it.

The front door leads out into a corridor, long and dark, like the entrance to a tomb. 94 meters from one end to the other, 127 steps. It's quite possible to jog here. But for now, every night the residents go through a quest - how to avoid breaking their legs while walking along a dimly lit corridor. Tatyana Lobunova, who has lived here for seven years, says that the apartment has chronic problems with the wiring, so it is useless to change the light bulbs - they will go out in a day or two anyway. In those parts of the corridor where there is light, tangles of wires and bald spots from fallen plaster protrude from the walls. It smells damp, like a basement. Resident Aider remembered the story of how one day three years ago his neighbor was walking in the evening and came across a homeless man. He was sleeping in the corridor near the bathroom. There are no locks on the front door - anyone can come in. One homeless man passed away into another world in the corridors of this huge apartment.

Aider, communal apartment resident:

He died - and God bless him, but that homeless man had an open form of tuberculosis. Then I had to call the sanitary and epidemiological inspectorate so that they would treat all the premises.

There is not a single solid wall between the rooms, so the audibility here is incredible. In fact, this is a former clinic, and it was never adapted for housing.

The apartment has two kitchens, in which the furnishings have been preserved since the mid-80s. Everything is covered with a thick layer of dust. Someone's discarded pants are rotting in the corner. Next to the red, uncleaned sink there is a galosh. It's here instead of a stool. The newspaper-covered table serves as both a post office (there are no mailboxes in the apartment) and a public library. The letters are mainly from two authorities - the military registration and enlistment office and the bank. In the first, they demand that the inhabitants of the communal apartment repay their debt to their homeland, and in the second, they require a loan. There is a self-adhesive film with a still life on the wall. These are the only products in this kitchen - no food, much less refrigerators and household appliances, have ever been left here. A fully working stove has already been stolen, two remain - the first has a functioning oven, and the other has one burner. But they rarely cook in this kitchen - everyone has electric stoves in their rooms.

Residents do not accept the idea of ​​installing a lock on the front door.

Aider, communal apartment resident:

In my memory alone, twenty constipations have changed. It’s just that for some of our residents, if they suddenly forgot their keys, it’s easier to break the lock than to wait for someone to come and open it. We need to install an iron door, but no one wants to chip in on it.

There is always water on the floor in the shower room because during the major renovation they forgot to slope the floor in this room. To get to the tap, a board is thrown across the puddle. It's hard to believe, but in 2015 this apartment underwent a major renovation. At least that's what it looks like on paper. As a souvenir after this “update,” traces of broken tiles remained on the walls of the shower room, and the toilet was decorated with a toilet bowl with black stains on the faience. By the way, the toilet itself is locked. One of the residents installed his own toilet in it, replacing the stolen one, and closed the bathroom.

In fact, there is only one apartment, but historically it has always been divided into right and left halves. The other half of the apartment looks more presentable. There is light, the stove has been cleaned, the walls are freshly painted, and the floor is clean linoleum. More conscientious residents of this part made repairs on their own. In this part of the apartment, the Soviet rules of coexistence in a communal apartment were still preserved: the duty schedule and the distribution of time in the shower.

The residents no longer hope that this emergency apartment will ever be resettled.

Ekaterina, communal apartment tenant:

Everyone was told that we needed to privatize the rooms, then, they say, our apartment would be resettled faster. We obeyed. And they ended up losing. After all, all those who had rooms on social rent, except two, were given separate apartments. And we are vegetating here.

The rent here, for example, is several times higher than that of the inhabitants of a separate living space. During the winter, residents pay 4,600 rubles for their 14-meter room. There are no water meters here - the consumption is simply spread out among everyone. As well as payment for “common” square meters - corridor, storage room, bathrooms.

Locals haven’t brought their friends here for a long time, because it’s embarrassing. And they don’t know all their neighbors, especially those from the other half.

Aider, communal apartment resident:

Eight people live in the first apartment from the entrance, although it was agreed that only three would live there. And next door there lives a big dog that doesn’t get walked. That is, she does her business right in the room. And sometimes its owners do the same. Do you think it’s possible to have a dialogue about cleanliness in a public kitchen in this situation?!

Residents say that anarchy in the apartment began after the first rumors appeared that they would be relocated. People simply stopped caring about what would happen in the apartment. Everyone thought they were about to leave. Some were indeed resettled, but not all. How the orders were distributed is a mystery to those remaining.

In 2011, the apartment was declared unsafe, but after 2015 and the “overhaul,” the process stalled. Although its emergency status was never removed. Therefore, the residents of this largest communal apartment became hostages of their square meters. They cannot sell their little rooms due to the emergency status of the apartment, because any transactions with emergency real estate prohibited.

Tatyana, communal apartment tenant:

It seems to me that what is happening here now is a protest. The state doesn’t care about us, and the residents themselves haven’t given a damn about themselves for a long time.

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Subtitles

Story

Before 1917

The prototypes of communal apartments as a type of housing in which several families live appeared at the beginning of the 18th century. Apartment owners partitioned the premises into several “corners” (often through passages) and rented them out. The apartments consisted of 3-6 rooms, with one kitchen (one toilet on the landing), and 3-6 families lived in them. In the 1860s, after the publication of N. G. Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?”, “hostel communes” appeared, when several young people rented an apartment of 2-4 rooms.

1917-1920

Communal apartments became most widespread after the revolution of 1917 during the “densification”, when the Bolsheviks forcibly took away housing from wealthy citizens and moved new people into their apartments. At the same time, the term “communal apartment” itself came into use. The Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of August 20, 1918 “On the abolition of private ownership of real estate in cities” abolished the right of private ownership of urban land and the right of private ownership of buildings that had a cost or profitability above a certain limit, and this limit in each city was established by local authorities of the Soviet government . The largest number of communal apartments appeared in Petrograd, where before the revolution there were many large apartments. People who were active supporters of Soviet power also moved into the apartments: communists, military personnel, and Cheka employees.

Eviction of the dispossessed

NEP period

The lack of payment for housing has led to the fact that authorities began to experience a shortage of funds to maintain the housing stock. During the NEP period, rent and private ownership of housing were partially restored, and housing cooperatives were established. Apartment owners lived in one or more rooms, and could rent out the rest, selecting residents based on personal preference. The rent was set for different categories residents. At this rate, the apartment owner paid a fee to the building management; the difference between the rent and the rate was his income.

Houses that were not rented and remained at disposal local authorities authorities (communal departments), began to be called “municipal”.

In accordance with the Program, a comprehensive approach to the resettlement of communal apartments is provided using various methods of government assistance in improving living conditions citizens.

Assistance in improving housing conditions under the Program is provided to citizens registered as in need of residential premises or registered as needing assistance from St. Petersburg in improving housing conditions.

In accordance with paragraph 4 of the Program, the following main activities are being carried out to resettle communal apartments and provide assistance to citizens:

1) providing citizens participating in the Program who are registered as those in need of residential premises with residential premises under social tenancy agreements out of turn;

2) redistribution of residential premises (rooms) in communal apartments and residential premises of state housing stock St. Petersburg;

3) provision of social support measures to citizens participating in the Program at the expense of the budget of St. Petersburg in the form of social payments for the purchase or construction of residential premises;

4) priority provision to citizens - participants of the Program of types of state assistance provided for by the target programs of St. Petersburg “Development of long-term housing lending in St. Petersburg”, “Youth - affordable housing”, “Housing for public sector employees” on the terms determined by the specified target programs of St. -Petersburg;

5) transfer to citizens participating in the Program under purchase and sale agreements of vacated residential premises (rooms) in communal apartments on the terms and in the manner established by the Housing Code Russian Federation and the Law of St. Petersburg dated April 5, 2006 No. 169-27 “On the procedure and conditions for the sale of residential premises of the state housing stock of St. Petersburg”, using a reduction factor to the market value;

6) involvement of legal (individual) persons - participants of the Program in the resettlement of communal apartments;

7) provision to citizens - participants of the Program living in communal apartments, free residential premises for commercial use in these communal apartments under a lease agreement on the terms and in the manner established by the Law of St. Petersburg of March 28, 2007 N 125-27 “On the procedure for providing residential premises of the housing stock for commercial use in St. Petersburg."

These activities are carried out by the administrations of the city districts, the Housing Committee of St. Petersburg, the State Budgetary Institution "Gorzhilobmen" and JSC "St. Petersburg Center for Affordable Housing".

At the same time, at the beginning of the program, the number of communal apartments in St. Petersburg was 116,647. Over the past years, taking into account all assistance mechanisms, the living conditions of 89,659 families have been improved, 39,989 communal apartments have been resettled. As of July 1, 2017, the number of communal apartments in the city on the Neva is 76,658 apartments, in which 245 thousand families live, of which 87 thousand are on the housing register. http://obmencity.ru/state/1093/

Life in communal apartments

The life of several families in one apartment almost always led and leads to quarrels and conflicts. The most resonant modern history a crime that occurred in a communal apartment on domestic grounds occurred in May 2015, when a neighboring family - a husband, wife and their seven-year-old child - were killed because of fuses unscrewed from the electric meter. However, many problems have been and are being solved with an approach agreed upon by all residents of the communal apartment. Thus, during the Soviet era, cleaning of public places could be carried out in turns. The period of duty was determined by mutual agreement. In some apartments, each family was on duty, that is, they carried out routine cleaning for one week, in others - for as many weeks as there were people living in it, etc., and before the transfer of the queue, as a rule, general cleaning was carried out.

In some apartments, a fixed amount was charged for household appliances (TV, iron, etc.). If the apartment had one common electricity meter, then payments were usually calculated in proportion to the number of residents. In other apartments, in addition to the common meter, there were electricity meters for each room. In this case, the calculation by the number of residents was made only for the amount attributable to common areas: it was determined as the difference in the readings of the general and all individual meters. There were also apartments where common areas were connected to electric meters, which stood separately for each room, and when entering the kitchen, each inhabitant of another room was obliged to turn on his own light bulb, even if the light had already been turned on by a neighbor (in this case, several light bulbs were turned on simultaneously, each from its owner).

In some communal apartments there are hotplates gas stove were distributed among residents and could not be occupied without permission.

Many communal apartments remained without renovation for a long time.

Analogues of communal apartments in other countries

Although the concept of a "communal apartment" arose during the Soviet era, the residence of several families in one apartment was not an exclusive feature of Soviet society. And now, if the tenant or tenant of a room in an apartment owned by one owner has state registration of a rental agreement for a period of more than one year (according to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), then such an apartment can also be called “communal” for the duration of the agreement. An analogue of communal apartments exists in Germany - Wohngemeinschaft (WG), when several people (usually students) rent one apartment. The same practice exists in Denmark, the USA and some other countries. In contrast to the listed analogues, the specific features of communal apartments in the Soviet era were state ownership, the settlement of such apartments by government agencies according to living space standards, which did not require the mutual consent of the occupied families, as well as the prevailing participation of government agencies in the daily life of residents.

Communal apartments in art

• In 1918, the film “Compaction” was shot based on Lunacharsky’s script.
• The action in Mikhail Bulgakov's play “Zoyka's Apartment” (1925) takes place in a communal apartment. The story “Heart of a Dog” (1925) describes an attempt at compaction. A “bad apartment” can also be called a communal apartment.
• Panteleimon-Romanov’s novel “Comrade Kislyakov” (1930) describes the life of a communal apartment.
• Life in a communal apartment is humorously described by I. Ilf and E. Petrov in the novel “The Golden Calf” (1931), in particular under the title “Voronya Slobodka”.
• In the USA in 1939, the film “Ninochka” was released, in which, in particular, the life of Soviet communal apartments was ridiculed.
• Felix Kandel's novel The Corridor (1967-1969) describes life in a Moscow communal apartment.
• The action of the films “Pokrovsky Gates”, “The Thief”, the play and film “Five Evenings”, as well as many others, takes place in communal apartments.
• In the television program Gentleman Show from 1994 to 2002, the column “Odessa communal apartment” was published. The section was a sitcom about the life of several families in a communal apartment, the eldest of which was Semyon Markovich from Odessa. According to the plot, the social and political events of Russia and Ukraine of those years took place through the communal apartment.
• In 1996, the group “Dune” released the album “In the Big City,” which contained the song “Communal Apartment.”
• The group “Zero” has a song “Communal Apartments”.
• Many poems have been written about communal apartments: “Crying for a communal apartment” (E. Yevtushenko), “Communal apartment” (Nikolai Gol and Gennady Grigoriev), etc.
• In the film “Hipsters” (2008) there is a humorous sketch on the theme of a communal apartment.
• Documentary film “Communal” (France, 2008), awarded the Anna Politkovskaya Prize in 2009.
• The photo project of the German photographer Peter Price “Kommunalka”, two books were published, shown on

Communal housing has always been considered one of the ways to solve the housing problems of citizens for a certain period. This is an integral element of the former communist economy, inherited by Russia and other post-Soviet countries.

Life in a communal apartment is not easy. Let's consider what such a dwelling is and what rules govern the use of residential and non-residential space in it.

Communal apartment: definition by law

The law on communal apartments says little. The definition is not given in any single federal law. Housing policy is mostly regulated by acts local significance

• , which are published by regional authorities. So, for example, we can cite several acts of administrative significance, which contain the concepts of a communal apartment:
• Law on Residence of the City of Moscow No. 6 of March 11, 1998, which defines that a communal dwelling is a dwelling with several owners, users or proprietors who jointly operate non-residential facilities in a given apartment.

Law of the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated 09/07/2007 No. 123-Z, which states that communal housing is considered to be a dwelling in which several families or citizens live, regardless of the basis of residence, who together use auxiliary facilities in this dwelling.

Thus, the defining moment in the selection of communal housing from the entire housing stock is the presence of several residents using non-residential premises in a given dwelling together.

Of course, such housing must be separated from a single-family apartment. For this reason, the definition given in the Law of the Nizhny Novgorod Region is recognized as more correct, because only an apartment where more than one family lives, and not more than one person, can be called communal.

Rules for living in a communal apartment - housing code Of course, not all relationships between neighbors living in such housing are regulated by law. So, many questions and problematic points

it has to be resolved through negotiations, or, as a last resort, in court. However, the law is Housing Code

, still contains some rules that can be appealed in the event of a dispute or in court.

Thus, this article states that residents have absolute rights to premises that are in their ownership, the right of use in relation to rented premises and to common premises in accordance with their shares in total area dwellings. Also, the rules of conduct are the same for all of them.

Communal apartment rights and obligations of residents

The basic rights and responsibilities of residents come from the rights they have to the corresponding premises as part of a communal dwelling.

Thus, persons who own the residential premises of the hostel have the right to:

• rent out a room belonging to them on the basis of a rental agreement;
• register persons in this apartment at your discretion.

In this case, the owners do not require the consent of other residents, but only if the apartment is officially recognized as communal. Recognition is carried out by the housing inspectorate at the request of the owners or in accordance with court decision.

If persons own and live in premises in a communal apartment on the basis of rent, then they have the right to sublease what has been transferred into their possession with the consent of:

• landlord;
• neighbors;
• members of your own family.

At the same time, the minimum living space per person norm of 12 square meters must not be violated.

Cleaning the common area

Cleaning common territory carried out by all neighbors together. As a rule, it is best for neighbors to reach mutual agreement on this issue, since otherwise the issue will have to be resolved in court. However, a complete refusal to clean is fraught with more serious problems, including the arrival of SES officers, fines and deprivation of the right to live in the corresponding apartment.

So, even if certain neighbors do not compromise and do not want to clean the common areas, they can be sued.

In this case, a court decision can not only force neighbors to clean up, but also collect some kind of material compensation for the entire period when the cleaning was carried out instead of neighbors.

Use of common property in a communal apartment

In a communal apartment, common property is considered to be property that is located in common premises and serves the functional purpose of these premises. So, for example, a bathtub or toilet will be considered common property and subject to equal use by all residents and repairs accordingly.

Of course, one of the residents can make improvements to such property or change it. In this case, his rights regarding the use of common property do not increase, but he will be able to reimburse his costs at the expense of other neighbors.

In general, residents in a communal apartment have equal rights to common property and no one has the right to restrict their use.

However, neighbors, having agreed among themselves, have the right to establish rules of use.

Common areas

• Common areas in a communal apartment are considered to be:
• corridor;
• kitchen;
• bath;
• toilet;

hallway.

If there are other auxiliary or ancillary premises in the house, then they will be in common use only if someone’s authority to them has not been documented.

Guests in a communal apartment Legislative

The regulation does not in any way limit the stay of guests in a communal apartment, neither in terms of duration nor in number. So the neighbors can't object to the guests in any way. The only one important point

Guest accommodation is that if they stay in the relevant apartment for more than three months, then they need to register at the passport office on a temporary basis.

Smoking

Housing legislation does not in any way restrict smoking in a communal apartment or in other residential premises, if they are not shared.

In this case, it is necessary to refer to the smoking ban legislation. However, even in this case, you will have to go to court to prohibit your neighbor from smoking.

At the same time, it is possible to appeal against smoking ban legislation only if a neighbor systematically smokes in a common room and provided that the complaining neighbor does not do the same.

Although in this case the interests of those neighbors who do not smoke are violated, it will not be possible to prove and achieve a ban on smoking inside residential premises. Repair

When it comes to repairing the premises in a communal apartment owned by the relevant persons, the answer is simple: the one who owns the premises carries out the repairs.

However, when it comes to renovating common areas in a communal apartment, disputes may arise. The most common mistake is that many residents believe that the neighbor who owns the majority of the communal property should pay more for repairs. Actually this is not true. Regardless of the size of the share in the communal apartment,

common areas

Redevelopment is carried out in a communal apartment according to the same rules as in a regular apartment. So, it is necessary:

• consent of all apartment owners;
• redevelopment project;
• permitting documentation for redevelopment.

It is worth noting that even if one of the residents of the communal apartment does not agree with the redevelopment, it will not be possible to do it legally.

Acceptable noise

Housing legislation establishes maximum permissible noise levels that can be produced in residential premises:

• 45 decibels – at night;
• 55 decibels - during the daytime.

It is worth noting that arbitrage practice has precedents that show that due to noise violations, neighbors were forcibly removed from the apartment.

Pets

The law allows keeping pets in a communal apartment only if the owners can ensure compliance with the following standards:

• fire safety;
• SES standards;
• environmental standards;
• legal rights and interests of other residents of the apartment.

If any of the residents of the apartment are allergic to any animal, then judicial procedure he will be able to achieve a ban on keeping this type of animal in a given communal apartment.

Payment of utility services

Payment for utilities is carried out in one of the following ways:

• the bill will be sent to the entire apartment, and the residents will pay it equally or in a different ratio depending on the agreement between them;
• Each of the residents, by contacting the utility service, can open a separate personal account and pay exclusively for themselves.

This way, if disputes arise, neighbors can simply split their bills and continue using utilities without encountering problems.

Neighbors when living in a communal apartment

Neighbors in communal housing are equal users. As a rule, if they are the owners, then they have the right to sell the premises they own. At the same time, neighbors have the right to purchase this premises on a preferential basis in the first month after the announcement of the sale.

That is, the owner selling premises in a communal apartment must first inform his neighbors about this, and then look for buyers on the side.

The rule regarding co-owners of indivisible property applies here. In this sense, a communal apartment is considered as a single property that is not subject to division.

Rights to a vacant room

If any of the tenants of premises in a communal apartment owned by the municipality leaves the premises, then the vacated premises are first provided to the following categories of citizens:

• persons whose turn to improve their living conditions has come;
• low-income families;
• persons applying to buy this home.

Municipal housing is privatized by interested citizens; as a rule, the municipality does not allow the privatization of part of a communal apartment. For this reason, it is necessary to first arrange a full-time hire living space apartments.

Thus, a communal apartment is a special form of housing, where the rights of neighbors and several residents equally apply. All disputes that arise can be resolved through negotiations or in court.