Residential houses, apartments, and rooms in the so-called «DPR», «LPR», as well as in the occupied territories of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, will be converted into state ownership, reported «Vedomosti» citing two sources. The Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services has prepared a bill according to which abandoned houses and apartments can be recognized as «ownerless property», after which they will be transferred to the ownership of the republics and regions or their municipal entities. The corresponding initiative was approved on October 20 by the governmental commission on legislative activities.
This housing is planned to be transferred to Russian citizens who «lost their homes due to hostilities, terrorist attacks, or sabotage». In addition, the premises can be allocated as service housing for employees of state and municipal bodies, military personnel, police officers, teachers, and medical workers.
The bill notes that the residential premises can also be returned to citizens who owned them before the recognition of «ownerlessness», but it does not specify how a person can prove their ownership of what has already been recognized as «ownerless».
The bill also enshrines the right of state ownership over property that cannot belong to citizens or legal entities: on critical infrastructure objects, property complexes of enterprises ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of the economy and the livelihood of citizens, and so on.
According to Rosreestr, 550 thousand «ownerless» real estate objects have been identified in the captured Ukrainian territories, as reported in August by the head of the department, Oleg Skufinsky. These are mainly apartments and private houses of those who fled from war and occupation. Now the practice of seizing apartments from departed owners is intended to be enshrined in law.