The whole quarter is against deception: how Muscovites got the apartments promised by Sobyanin

Novye Izvestia has repeatedly written about the scandalous resettlement, which lasted for 8 months and almost ended in a loud

Lyudmila Butuzova

In the Northern District, only four buildings are involved in the renovation: 2 five-story buildings and 2 nine- story buildings , but despite the local nature of the conflict, it has become one of the loudest in Moscow. The essence of the conflict is directly related to the "ideals of renovation" declared by Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin (new living standards, "smart" houses, apartments with high-quality repairs and a total area increased by 30%), and the reality, when people are forcibly pushed into defective houses, the area of renovated apartments is only 30 centimeters larger, and the new "smart" layout and low ceilings do not allow accommodating the furniture that the migrants have. For the first time, the residents of the North raised the question bluntly: either keep your promises, or we will stay where we lived.

As a general settlement Severny, quite comfortable, with a well-developed infrastructure, within walking distance from the forest park and the metro under construction, got involved in the renovation?

“I think that initially there was a deliberate deception on the part of the mayor’s office”, - a local resident Stas Pereguda told NI, by the way, who has not yet gained anything from the renovation. - The place we have is really good - transport is close, everything is there, I, for example, have a dacha 15 minutes walk from the house, many have garages nearby... Voluntarily they don't move from such places. We need a very strong bait, and they threw it to people. A few kilometers from us at 15 Dolgoprudnaya, new buildings were built in 2018, and they corresponded to the promises of Sergey Sobyanin - 30% of the additional area and all that stuff. The government ordered bus tours there, and the residents were literally taken by the hand to the wonderful apartments in which they were to live. But when the hour of receiving orders came (at the end of December last year), the promised good apartments (1-room apartments - 42 meters, kopeck pieces 62-67 meters, three-room apartments - from 81 meters, with excellent finishes) were put up for sale, and the bulk of them began to decline to relocation to a small-sized illiquid asset located at the address: Dolgoprudnaya Alleya, house 14, building 2. In "my" apartment, for example, in one of the tiny rooms there were three doors - an interroom and two balcony doors, and on the walls free from doors by battery. Such a room can only be used as a storage room. I categorically refused the proposed option. Yes, all the settlers were shocked: we were really thrown and it was not clear what to do now.

It is no longer possible to “return everything as it was”, that is, to leave people where they lived. In the place of their houses, according to Pereguda, it is planned to build three forty-story towers, the only question is to quickly resettle and demolish the old housing. In addition, according to the law of Moscow, if at least one tenant has agreed to move, then everyone else has no way back. And in the North, by that time, it is not clear on what basis several families had already received apartments in the desired house, and they managed to settle one five-story building just in illiquid at 14 Dolgoprudnaya Alley, by intimidating people with courts.

Pereguda's neighbor Vasily, having talked with the first wave of settlers, wrote an appeal in the “home chat:

“These houses are not habitable! The people who received apartments there are now moaning and do not know what to do. Elevators break down every day, there is no light on the staircases and ventilation is not working. Basement water, mold and streaks on the walls in rooms, rust on chandeliers, water runs on balconies, etc. Why should we go from our warm housing, in which we have been living for more than 20 years, and where nothing is leaking with us, to such an emergency housing??? Where does the prosecutor's office look ??? Why do we need virtually emergency housing for renovation???"

So in the North began a confrontation with the authorities. Most of the residents were not afraid, united in a group and expressed a desire to collectively defend their rights. More than a hundred people, mainly residents of houses that have not yet been settled, notified the mayor's office in writing that they categorically refuse to move into the new building, which has already ruined the lives of their neighbors. But the neighbors did not lag behind - they wrote to all authorities that the renovation turned out to be a complete deception for them.

“We were saved by the fact that people in the village are not disunited, they have known each other for 20-30 years, hence the combination, and the understanding that we need to stick together and put forward uniform demands,” said Novye Izvestia, a representative of the Northern Albina Shelenko initiative group. - Nobody tried to negotiate on the side about the best conditions for themselves. From the very beginning, I decided that I would go to the end, I was ready to sue the authorities if they did not fulfill their promises. This was not easy to achieve. All instances - the renovation fund, the government, the mayor's office - either kept silent or threatened to relocate by court all those who were not happy with the happiness that had fallen on them. It's unpleasant to remember: we send a letter to the DGI, a hundred signatures of citizens outraged by the deception, I am the contact person, so they answer me - "Dear Albina Shelepko, your rights have not been violated, you have been given an equivalent apartment in accordance with the law". In short, we are about the fact that there is an elder in the garden, and they tell us that there is an uncle in Kiev. I am very glad that our problem situation has been resolved. But if not for the help of the Moscow City Duma deputies... I do not know how it would have ended.

Nikolay Zubrilin, chairman of the Communist Party faction in the Moscow City Duma, told NI that violations of citizens' rights are a frequent occurrence during resettlement under the renovation program:

- Compliance with the footage, layout, number of storeys and other moments associated with the move bring serious concern to the families of residents, if expectations are not met! Therefore, the property rights of people are so important today, which must be protected at the level of deputy powers, if other forms are exhausted. At the beginning of the year, on the basis of the Communist Party faction, a round table was organized on the problems of renovation, including in the Northern region.

One of its initiators was human rights activist Klim Likhachyov, who had already met with residents on several occasions and studied the manipulations with renovated apartments on the spot. We invited the residents of the Severny district. It turned out that they were never given the promised housing. Instead, they offered apartments of lower quality, different layouts and in other houses. People refused such a replacement. Based on the results of the round table, it was decided to apply with parliamentary inquiries to the Department of Urban Planning and Development of the City of Moscow and other authorities. Covid intervened, the resolution of the issue was postponed, but thanks to the uproar and publications in Novyye Izvestia it was possible to stop the sale of apartments in the house promised to the settlers at 15 Dolgoprudnaya.

In further work to protect the interests of people for 8 months, lawyer Klim Likhachev continued to actively interact with the deputies, for which special thanks to him. He prepared materials for inquiries, met with residents and, as they say, kept his finger on the pulse until a positive outcome of the case.

Deputy Yelena Yanchuk spoke in the interests of the residents, in her deputy inquiry she tried to figure out how this is possible: new high-rise buildings have been built in the area, but the resource for relocating the renovation participants to the apartments they promised has already been exhausted. How did it happen?

- I wrote a lot of requests on this topic, - says Yanchuk. - From the words of the residents it was known that the small-sized apartments in the buildings of house No. 14 were built by the State Enterprise of the Civil Construction Department of the City Hall, and the buildings of the house No. 15 were also they, but as commercial versions, not renovations. It turns out that the difference is in the purpose of construction. They were built in one location, but for different purposes, and it turned out that the renovation “goals” are worse in terms of layouts, decoration, and sizes. Why did this happen? Who made the decision of part of the residents to provide the promised apartments, and the other part simply to deceive? No additional explanations were received from the authorities and the renovation fund, but I can guess why this happened: there was an attempt to cash in on the program and pocket what was intended for Muscovites and was built with budget money. We will surely see such stories more than once, and even worse.

Only public resonance and consolidated efforts of people with the support of activists and representatives of the capital's parliament will be able to resist the violation of the rights of migrants. Here is an example before our eyes: when the situation in the North became public, the authorities had to turn back. Renovation is one of the mayor's main projects, which is already accompanied by a mass of scandals at the design stage and discussion of planning projects. I believe that another scandal for the mayor's office, at the start of a large-scale resettlement, is unacceptable and someone who tried to provoke was given a hand.

Nikolay Zubrilin is more peaceful, according to him, when solving such difficult housing issues, a lot depends on the territorial executive authorities. The prefect of the North-Eastern Administrative District and the head of the Severny District Council met the residents halfway during the resettlement, and took an active part in their fate. True, people only remembered that this couple took excursions to a luxurious house, praising the renovation, but after being deputy. The head of the council was one of the first to receive an apartment there; interest in the fate of the rest of the settlers boiled down to driving them into illiquid assets and provoking a scandal throughout Moscow. By the way, nothing but promises from the head of the council and the prefect should not be expected: they do not have the authority to issue orders for apartments, they are not allowed to make decisions on determining the sequence and order of relocation of renovation participants, but residents were not informed about this - the main thing is to give promises...

But, perhaps, there were some secret gestures, because in the end Since the beginning of October, almost every day, people have been issued warrants for housing that is one third more than they had. Moreover, two more "commercial" houses were transferred for the needs of renovation. According to the initiative group, about 60 families agreed to move.

But the unrest in the North does not subside, again people call the press and deputies to tell "the whole truth about the renovation." The correspondent of Novye Izvestia saw this truth with her own eyes. The first thing that caught my eye was an absolutely unprepared infrastructure: a huge block was built in a field, the school was not completed, there was no clinic, no parking lots. That is, even having the opportunity to roam, placing a whole block on free land, officials and builders decided to maximize the density of the area with housing and that's it. The rest, they say, will follow over time.

But it is not known when this time will come. Now even coming from the old village to a newly built area is a problem, there are only two buses on the route, they run only on weekdays, on weekends either sit at home or call a taxi to go to the city for bread.

By some amazing accident, yesterday, just before the meeting of residents with the Moscow City Duma deputy Nikolai Zubrilin on transport problems, one of them broke, elderly people could not get there to personally hand over written appeals to the deputy.

“The meeting took place anyway”, - says Klim Likhachyov. - About 40 residents gathered. On the sidelines, "secret observers" were seen - representatives of the council with masks on their faces and two police officers in civilian clothes. Obviously so that people are not indignant and do not say "too much". All "Superfluous" is already in sight - in addition to the underdeveloped infrastructure, there are questions about the quality of construction and the interior of new houses. The lack of transport in the microdistrict is generally some incredible savagery for the capital of Russia. We will demand a solution to the problem".

The "secret observers" did not receive words of warm gratitude from the residents.

- I had a treshka, 58 square meters on Severnaya, 9, I am moving to Dolgoprudnaya, 15, bldg. 4, will become 82 squares, - the settler Viktor Demin shared with Novye Izvestia. - What are you talking about, what joy? So many nerves were frayed... I didn't need this renovation at all. I didn’t know about it, I was doing major repairs in my apartment, I invested very seriously, and as soon as I finished, it turned out that our house was being demolished - so the neighbors decided. Where to go? I went with them all the circles of hell. And if I am happy about something now, it’s only that I managed to fight off the apartments that they had foisted on us by deception. But what is happening in the new areas of the renovation is not a gateway. Is it really like that everywhere? They build a house on a bare bump and that's it, live as you want?

The torrential rains that flooded new buildings from top to bottom made one look at the renovation not only as a scam with the square footage for settlers, but also as a serious construction scam - houses in the North were literally made of "shit and sticks". Moreover, everything, including the desired buildings with spacious apartments. They were washed away in the same way as the poor house for the second-class settlers. “We are swimming, there is dirt throughout the apartment, there are not enough basins and buckets, the door cannot be opened because of the water” - typical SOS signals from sinking ships. The imperfections have not yet been eliminated. Because of this, people who have been sitting on suitcases for eight months cannot move into apartments, but they have counted a communal apartment with debts. And at the same time they stole the entire fire safety system - from fire hoses to fire detectors. The caring administration reacts to complaints with lightning speed: “Thank you for contacting us. Let's eliminate. Let's figure it out. Let's take action. " The same reaction when residents ask questions: where to put their personal vehicles? There is not enough space in the yard, and the houses are still only partially populated. "Let's figure it out!" Many have heard about the plans of the capital's renovators to rent out parking spaces for 7 thousand rubles a month and are not ready for these expenses - before they could put their cars in their yard freely and completely free of charge.

- And I would she closed her eyes to all the troubles, if only here, to her neighbors in the 15th house, - sobs Vera Ivanovna Malysheva, who by some ill will found herself with her family in the hated 14th house. - Everyone from our entrance was given large apartments, and for some reason we were given two rooms - 15 and 16 meters for three adults. My husband and I are 70, I am 50 years old worked as a nurse ... I'm not about my merits - about justice. After all, everyone was promised the same, but for some reason our family was cheated. The DGI says: the resource of good apartments has run out, take what you have. But we see that in three buildings, whole risers are empty from the first to the fourteenth floors, and the guard says that these apartments are not shown for renovation. And why then do they cherish them? For sale again? We are given the most wretched and smallest. We refused from two options, they are not lagging behind... I already decided to buy a room, but I have to pay extra 1,350,000. Where does a simple nurse get that kind of money? Generally, they waited for this renovation as happiness, but it turned out to be a bitter grief.

Several families from the North are in the same disadvantaged position. At the district resettlement headquarters they are told that there are no apartments, get ready for trial. The initiative group promises not to leave people. “We will strive to ensure that all neighbors are offered good options for resettlement”, - says Albina Shelenko, inspired by the success. But something tells: it will not be easy to persuade the authorities a second time. Formally, the mayor kept his promises: the majority received apartments according to the concepts - sorry, according to the "renovation standards", the minority will also receive, but - according to the law. What complaints can there be?

Klim Likhachyov, a lawyer with the Moscow Group for the Protection of Residents' Rights in the Implementation of the Renovation Program, comments:

- Of course, this is a pleasant victory! Dozens of families eventually received apartments that were promised to them by the state in the person of Moscow officials. But it seems to me that this resolved situation is a great exception to the general rule. The mechanism for providing apartments to renovation participants even now, four years after the start of the renovation program, is not transparent and understandable to its participants, the public and the Moscow City Duma deputies. It is still unclear how the choice of the launch site is made, how decisions are made, to which particular house the specific participants in the renovation move.

Another point: the emergence of more and more new myths that justify the super-dense building under the renovation program. One of them: dense building is needed for the payback of the program. The moment itself is very controversial - the renovation program was originally declared as a non-profit and implemented at the expense of the budget of the city of Moscow. And the developer under the renovation program is a non-profit foundation ... But renovated apartments are sold right and left, without disclosing the available resources for relocation. Non-transparency of decisions always breeds corruption and creates social tension

That is why a give-away game is possible as in the Northern District: offer some apartments, issue warrants for others, and then, if a mass protest flared up and the danger of filing lawsuits ripened, the situation is replayed again, and people get the promised apartments. Yes, we can say that in order to comply with the interests of citizens, the Prefect of the North-East Administrative District found new resources, and the state bought or persuaded the developer to transfer additional apartments, but why is everything happening only under the duress? Why is everyone replaying somewhere in the offices, around the corner or on the knee, only if ordinary people are ready to march to the mayor?!

For a long time I defended the interests of the participants of the renovation, whom they tried to evict from their former apartments in court and move into new UNEQUAL apartments, and I am well acquainted with the arguments of the Moscow City Property Department. Where to whom to move - they decide at a meeting of the mysterious Headquarters for the implementation of the Renovation Program, and then the decision of this Headquarters is fixed in the specific order of the DGI. This allows the department to apply to the courts of general jurisdiction for further involuntary resettlement.

At the same time, the DGI refers to the data of the IS Kurs-3 system, indicating in the statements of claim that, in accordance with the data of their system, there is no other free resource, besides the one to which it is proposed to move forcibly. I have repeatedly demanded that the data of this system be provided in court, but the courts, "protecting" the plaintiffs, indicate that according to the law of the city of Moscow, DGI must offer only one option for resettlement, and, accordingly, the existing or missing resource does not matter for resolution affairs. You see how simple everything is with them: somewhere, someone in some headquarters suddenly decided, the DGI of Moscow issued an order, and the system is to blame for everything, the data of which will not be submitted to you in court. This obvious example of the barbaric attitude towards the participants in the renovation warns that the experience of the Moscow renovation cannot be extended to the whole of Russia. The procedure is not regulated in Moscow, and no one is trying to correct the errors that arise, to respect and protect the rights of the displaced participants, it is simply not profitable and unnecessary.

The result is obvious: if before there was a large percentage of opponents of renovation, now it has become even greater due to Muscovites who voted for the program in 2017. They saw that their neighbors were being deceived, even the faithful "suckers" were being deceived, like only there is no need for them.