Renovation threatens a house reconstructed at the expense of residents

Ludmila Butuzova

The conflict is that the dormitory that fell under demolition is part of a residential complex of several buildings that were not included in the program. All of them have different addresses, but in fact they are structurally a single architectural object with common engineering networks and common supporting structures. Moreover, the houses on the street. Upper Pervomaiskaya, 39 and st. 7th Parkovaya, 19, a common main wall with arches, in which several apartments of the owners from Verkhnaya Pervomaiskaya are located.

It is not difficult to imagine how horrified the inhabitants of this unfortunate house are - the demolition of a neighboring building will inevitably destroy their own housing. Who came up with this?

The most interesting thing is that Moscomarchitecture is not aware of it. Inquiries are answered that the houses “have different address contours. There is no information on the presence or absence of common structural elements of these houses in the Moscow Committee for Architecture.” That is, the dormitory was included in the renovation program without looking, and for two years they did not bother to find out what kind of “Siamese twin” is next to it and why it is that he is trembling for his own skin.

History with reconstruction

At house number 39 on the street. Upper Pervomaiskaya is an interesting and rather difficult fate. In 2005, its complete reconstruction was completed with the addition of two floors and an attic, which had lasted since 1999. It is impossible to recognize the former hostel of the tram depot in this prestigious building now. There are 65 apartments from 50 to 150 square meters with three-meter ceilings and kitchens of 15 square meters, modern elevators, loggias, winter gardens... After the reconstruction, the two brick hostels adjacent to this house were to become exactly the same - Metrostroy on Verkhnyaya Pervomaiskaya, 37 and municipal on 7th Parkovaya, 19. This entire complex of buildings was included in the city's program for the reconstruction of quarters, approved by the government of former mayor Yuri Luzhkov in the late 90s. By that time, multi-apartment brick five-story buildings on the street had already been modernized in Izmailovo. Upper Pervomaiskaya, 45A, 12th Parkovaya st., 5 and others. The investment contract (No. 4-Zh-99 dated 05.07.1999) for its reconstruction of the next residential complex was concluded by the prefecture of the Eastern Administrative District with the developer selected by the competition, LLC Interstrigl.

Why did they start with house number 39, sandwiched between two hostels? Well, it's simple - the house had already been settled, nothing interfered with the construction work, they were going to finish it in a year and move on - to the dormitories released from the tenants .. Responsibilities for resettlement were assigned to the customer - the prefecture of the Eastern Administrative Okrug. This was one of the conditions of the investment contract. The second condition is 100% financing of reconstruction at the expense of citizens. There is no municipal money in the house, the participation of the city was to control the spending of funds raised by co-investors and compliance with the deadlines for reconstruction. With control, as you know, our officials cope best of all.

In 2002, by decision of the Basmanny Court, construction work was stopped. The General Director, OOO Interstrigl, was prosecuted for fraud and sentenced to serve a 5-year term in a penal colony.

“To be left without apartments and without money was a real prospect for us”, - says Valentina Fevralyova, a participant in dramatic events. - We knocked on all the doors, learned by heart the Criminal and Civil Code, mastered the construction specialties, so that we were given the opportunity to complete the construction of the house on our own. The Moscow government found another solution. The prefecture attracted a second investor, concluded with him an additional agreement to the agreement on the reconstruction of the complex. With grief in half in October 2005, one house - ours - was put into operation. With numerous shortcomings, without elevators, with construction documentation inconsistent with the project, etc., which was recorded by the Committee for Construction Supervision of Moscow.

The schedules approved by the prefect of the High Administrative District for the elimination of shortcomings that arose due to the dishonesty of investors and the general contractor remained on paper. For two more years, at our own expense, we ennobled the bare walls, covered the roof and installed elevators. Not only our earned money was given to the reconstruction of this house, but also 8 years of our life, nerves and health, some comrades simply did not live up to their own apartment due to the stresses experienced. And here again the threat of losing everything...

crushing illusions

The stressful situation at the facility had a negative impact on the plans for the modernization of the entire residential complex. No, no one canceled the reconstruction program, they simply lost interest in it. The prefecture of the Eastern Administrative Okrug was unable to resettle the dormitories and did not do it, mired in scandals with the first reconstructed house. Then, with the departure of Luzhkov, the new government of Moscow lost interest in modernizing the old housing stock - it became more interesting to build a new one in its place. However, the renovation that began in 2017 bypassed the complex on Verkhnyaya Pervomaiskaya - 7th Parkovaya - the program did not provide for the demolition of brick buildings with a wall thickness of 70 cm and a service life of up to 150 years. Residents of the 39th house considered this a favorable sign - it means that the dorms will be brought into a divine form, the reconstruction abandoned halfway through will continue.

The illusion didn't last long.

The fact that part of their single residential complex is included in the renovation program was found out on Verkhnyaya Pervomaiskaya by accident - from a resident of the hostel, who worked as a concierge in their house. “Finally we are being relocated,” the woman boasted. How? Where? What is meant here? - she had no idea, but was glad that she would get a separate apartment, and signed up for the demolition of the hostel as soon as she was asked about it.

“Having heard this and worried about the safety of our home, we began to look for official information,” says Valentina Fevraleva. – And it is not on any resource! Almost clandestinely, they obtained an order from the Government of Moscow dated 08/12/2020 on the approval of the launch pad at 7th Parkovaya, 19 for the construction of a residential building with an underground shelter for 2,500 people in case of emergency. Wow! Not only the wall, but our entire complex will slide into such a foundation pit. We did not agree to put our housing at risk, we were not asked about it. But such decisions are not made randomly...

Conspiracy of Silence

Finding out the fate of the house, which had nothing to do with the renovation program, but thanks to it had every chance to reset the past and future of dozens of families, was not so easy.

- “Business something! We will arrange your house as emergency and relocate,” Valentina Nikolaevna retells the conversation of the angry owners with one of the officials. - You understand? What is a tragedy for us is an easily eliminated misunderstanding for them. And what about the fate of the architectural complex? What are the consequences of its dismemberment into parts? Where are the surveys, examinations and security guarantees? - "Ask something easier ...". We could not agree with this. They began to look for answers in more competent instances.

It took two years to correspond with departments of the Moscow government. From there, if they answered, then according to the principle, “There is an elder in the garden, an uncle in Kyiv.” Depstroy, for example, no matter how much they asked him about the availability of project documentation for the future building, “on renovation issues” sent residents to the department of urban planning policy. They were transferred to the DGI, catching on to the phrase snatched from the letter that a thoughtlessly chosen launch site could lead to the loss of property in a neighboring house that was not involved in the renovation. DGI sent activists to the renovation fund, which, in turn, reported that it was building housing, and not choosing launch sites, and it would be best to contact the Moscow Architecture Department, which was probably in the know ... The Moscow Architecture Department, as noted at the beginning of the article, had information only about that the houses on Verkhnyaya Pervomaiskaya and 7th Parkovaya “have different address contours. There is no information about the presence or absence of common structural elements between them.

Get answers to specific questions - was there a construction and technical expertise of the “launch site”, what conclusions are drawn from this and what are the risks for the part of the complex that was not included in the renovation, what number of storeys the house is planned at the place of the hostel, where to look at the development plan of the territory and exists whether he was at all - it was impossible.

Meanwhile, very disturbing events began to take place behind the scenes. Two years ago, without the consent of the owners of the 39th house, the management company suddenly changed. What for? The old one did a good job with them .... By January of this year, it turned out that the new "manager" - General Contractor-MFS LLC - was appointed by the Moscow Renovation Fund "for the design and construction of the Residential Building with Underground Shelter for 2500 people" (with the demolition of residential buildings at the addresses 7th Parkovaya, 19, 21, 21A)”. That is, the drama inevitably approached and began to grow in size. - According to the information from the employees of this organization, LLC-MFS has no experience in demolishing similar 5-storey buildings that have common communications and residential arches with unbearable houses. “They will train on us,” the residents suggested.

- Very similar, - confirms Valentina Fevraleva. - Representatives of contracting organizations go from house to house, asking if the owners have at least some materials from the construction and technical or design documentation. That is, at first the decision to demolish was made, and then they began to find out how everything works between the buildings. Imagine how we feel to hear that the risks are huge, they have no guarantees to save our house.

Independent experts, recruited by residents on their own initiative, express the same concerns.

The municipal deputy of the Izmailovo district, Nadezhda Zagordan, joined the alarm. I sent an official request to the Moscow Committee for Architecture, attaching the signatures of the residents and a request to Ms. Knyazhevskaya for a personal reception of the initiative group of owners. Two weeks later, a response came from the deputy. Chairman of the Moscow Committee for Architecture Alexander Ilyin. According to Zagordan, he said that "the requested information is confidential", i.e. the district mudep does not have the level to dedicate it to the problems of urban planning. As for the personal reception of citizens, it is impossible due to anti-epidemiological measures. According to good tradition, the request of the Moscow City Duma deputy Elena Yanchuk and the round table in the Moscow City Duma with the participation of government representatives, who were directly asked the question “What is the need to demolish a solid brick house (if it is possible to reconstruct it), and even with the risk of destroying the neighboring one, which has already been reconstructed, remained unanswered ?

Letter to Mayor Sobyanin

“Is it because,” the residents of the 39th Omsk express a guess in a collective letter to Mayor Sobyanin, “that the Prefecture of the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow failed to implement the previously approved project for the reconstruction of these 5-storey brick houses, for many years (since 2002) was engaged in the resettlement of the hostel at 19, 7th Parkovaya Street, and now, at the expense of the Renovation Program, she is solving the issue of providing separate housing for tenants of residential premises?”

Sergei Sobyanin is the last resort, which, according to the addressees, can not only understand the crisis situation, but also turn it around 180 degrees. “We count on it,” desperate residents write to the mayor. (A copy of the letter is in the editorial office of "NI" and in the administration of the President of the Russian Federation). -It is impossible to imagine that as a result of someone's decisions, about which we are not even informed, and for the sake of someone's profit, a threat to our life and property arose. But this may happen as a result of the implementation of the Renovation Program in the Izmailovo district of the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow. Really, during the renovation of the whole block, there was no other place (100 m) for the construction of housing, and everything rests on the only Moscow courtyard where our house is located? Recall that only in Izmailovo there are a dozen dormitories unsuitable for living, in the city, according to the DGI, there are 247 dilapidated houses, but at the same time, the attention of the Moscow government is directed to a strong viable complex that will outlive us and our grandchildren.

With the same sincerity, the authors describe the problems that fell on the mayor during the renovation program - what if he does not know? “It's not a secret that in the place of the demolished buildings, investors, in pursuit of profit, are building houses of much higher number of storeys. Accordingly, the reconstruction of 5-storey brick houses, which brings less profit, is of little interest to investors, and our 7-storey house with an attic is an obstacle to the construction of high-rise buildings nearby. All this gives reason to believe that under the guise of renovation, the expansion of the construction site is planned.”

Let's omit the fears and risks for house number 39, they are described in detail above. The mayor will certainly be interested in the constructive proposals of Muscovites. Here is, in particular: “Design documentation for construction work on the demolition of house 19 on the street. 7th Parkovaya and a project for a new construction site have not yet been developed. We do not know if it is planned to carry out a set of measures to preserve the house at 39 Verkhnyaya Pervomaiskaya, including strengthening the foundation and the wall. In any case, this will require significant financial costs. Unfortunately, we know from our own bitter experience how difficult it is to make decisions that can “move” the interests of the Investor in favor of citizens, and how “effectively” Investors defend every ruble of their profit. But we also do not want to lose our apartments for the sake of someone's financial interests and someone's irresponsible decisions. Therefore, for a positive solution to our problem, it is advisable and possible at this stage to make a decision on the reconstruction of the hostel on the street. 7th Park. At the same time, there will be no need to change or refine project documentation, the architectural appearance of the complex will be preserved, and Muscovites will receive not hasty remodels, but real modernized housing, which you told Muscovites about at the beginning of the renovation”.

There is no answer from Sergei Sobyanin yet. But, in fairness, so many questions and tasks were thrown at him that until you shake up the whole kitchen of the renovation that has fallen on Izmailovo, there is nothing to console the owners who are in trouble. Meanwhile, the demolition of the hostel on 7th Parkovaya is scheduled for 2020...