Now - without indulgences: it is again allowed to dishouse for debts

Irina Mishina

The owners of residential premises will be the first to feel the blow. During the year, in connection with the pandemic, the Central Bank of Russia recommended not to collect the only housing of debtors on real estate pledges (mortgages). There was also a restriction on the forced eviction of clients who were late in payments on obligations. Since April, these restrictions have ceased to apply. Now banks and other financial structures will be able to seize housing.

Take out a mortgage and survive

“The incomes of many citizens fell during the pandemic and have not recovered at present. Therefore, the fulfillment of obligations on loans that citizens assumed earlier, from April 1 in many families, will likely be fulfilled with significant damage to the family budget. Ultimately, this can lead to a wave of bankruptcies"- said the lawyer of the private practice Viktoria Danilchenko.

However, despite the crisis and pandemic, the demand for housing is growing. This is confirmed by both developers and realtors. “The housing market has risen in price by about 30% during the pandemic. But at the same time, apartments are being bought, the demand is great. Neither a lockdown nor an epidemic can affect life situations, and people solve their housing problems even in such conditions", - the developer Alexander Perlin shared his opinion with Novye Izvestia.

These data are confirmed by realtors. “Over the past year, about 50% of our new clients have taken out a mortgage loan. In total, our real estate agency has concluded about 400 transactions in a year, half of which are mortgage transactions. Now, in connection with the introduction of a ban on holidays in Turkey, the money that many have set aside for it will most likely flow smoothly into the real estate market. According to analysts, this is about $ 1.5 billion, they will remain in the country. People need to invest money in something, because they are rapidly depreciating, and everyone understands this”, - says Julia Lurie, realtor-analyst, head of the real estate agency.

Those who have invested in a mortgage are required to repay the loan. And here, in connection with the renewal of the right of banks to seize the only housing, real human tragedies are played out. People who have lost their jobs, who lost their earnings during the pandemic, find themselves one-on-one with the banks.

In Russia, a negative practice has developed when banks sell mortgaged real estate if the loan debt is only a few hundred rubles or payments are overdue for a couple of months. Timofey from Moscow describes his misfortune on social networks. He was dumbfounded when in the morning, at 6 o'clock, two men in army camouflages and with electric shockers and ... in gas masks suddenly burst into his apartment. One of the intruders began to run around the rooms and spray pepper gas from a can. The children who woke up from fright were speechless. The caustic gas began to cause suffocation, and everyone hurried out of the apartment and into the street. Later it turned out that these were the new owners of the apartment. It's just that the bank employees, without further ado, put up mortgage housing for sale for the delay in several payments. The police are investigating this incident.

…About Gulnara Ponomarenko from Ufa, local television has shot more than one program. On February 5, the woman and her son were evicted from the apartment by a court order. The reason why a family with a disabled person of the third group was actually thrown out into the street was an impressive mortgage loan debt. 10 years ago, the Ponomarenko family celebrated a housewarming party. A treshka in a 9-storey building cost the family 3,900,000 rubles. They made an initial payment of 400 thousand, and the remaining 3.5 million were issued in a mortgage. They had to pay 47 thousand rubles a month. Everything went well until her husband left Gulnara and her business "burned down". As a result, there was nothing to pay with, and a huge debt was formed.

Horror films can be made about what happens to borrowers in case of default on loan obligations. In Petrozavodsk, for example, the collectors, having broken the locks, broke into the borrower's apartment and announced that they would live with her. In this way, they decided "ahead of schedule" to resolve the issue of eviction of the woman who could not pay off the loan. Before that, the woman had contacted a construction company, but the conflict was never resolved.

What to do if the borrower can no longer pay off the mortgage loan? “First of all, in the case of insolvency, time cannot be wasted, because the debt is multiplying, and the situation is getting harder and harder to fix every day. Banks are more rigid than realtors, so it is best to contact the latter. There are different ways out. For example, an apartment can be exchanged for housing of a smaller area and the debt can be repaid at the expense of the money received. You can move to the near Moscow region without losing Moscow benefits - this is for Muscovites. Realtors, as a rule, interact with banks and help to resolve such life conflicts", - told Novye Izvestia realtor-analyst Julia Lurie.

According to experts, borrowers should first of all assess the risks before signing a mortgage agreement. Experts calculated that a family capable of paying a mortgage in Moscow should have an average income of at least 152 thousand rubles, in the Moscow region - 112 thousand rubles, in the Omsk region - an average of 61 thousand rubles, in the Orenburg region - 58 thousand rubles. When concluding a contract, banks do not always assess the creditworthiness of the borrower, therefore it is important to assess all risks in advance and insure yourself - either by additional work or by the possibility of selling part of the property.

Housing and communal services without benefits?

The seizure of apartments from mortgage lenders is not the only innovation. From April 1, the procedure for granting subsidies for payment of housing and communal services will also change. Prior to the start of the pandemic, subsidies for housing and communal services were issued for a period of six months. Then it was required to submit documents again to confirm their eligibility for benefits. During the pandemic, the time limit was lifted. No documents were required, subsidies were provided automatically. From April 1, subsidies for housing and utilities will be provided in the same manner, for a period of six months, with confirmation of their right to benefits. “In other words, now the opportunity to extend financial support from the state without a corresponding statement is being removed”, - said Olga Sulim, lawyer of the Sulim and Partners Bar Association.

Another April innovation also concerns the payment of utility bills. Until April 2021, the total cost of payment for services was calculated based on the average indicators over the past six months. From April 2021, Russian citizens who have not carried out the verification on their own will be credited with coefficients to the established housing and utilities standard.

As you know, in connection with the pandemic, many countries have introduced special benefits and material assistance. In Russia, however, they decided to go their own way. From April 1, as it turned out, the simplified procedure for registering citizens as unemployed and receiving unemployment benefits has ceased. Now for this it is necessary to collect a complete package of documents and go through all the circles of the bureaucratic hell.