The next law on real estate activity may be submitted to the State Duma for consideration in the fall, and each provision of the new law, if adopted, may change the real estate market
In early autumn, the development of another law on real estate activity may be completed in Russia. This is far from the first attempt to establish clear rules of the game for the realtor community, adopted at the federal level, since the second part of the Civil Code, which now mainly regulates the work of realtors, is clearly not enough.
And even if we leave aside the talk about the terrible “black” realtors, in general, the real estate business is extremely far from the definition of “white-fluffy”: for example, according to data provided last year by the president of the Guild of Realtors of Moscow Andrey Bannikov, “in Moscow about 20-30% are legally operating companies and about 70-80% are individuals who work for themselves, and the state does not see them, they do not pay taxes. The situation in St. Petersburg is a little better, I think, 50-50. But still, the proportion of those who work in the shadows, are not registered in accordance with the procedure established by law, do not pay to the budget, is huge.”
About what provisions the new law will contain and at what stage is its development today, BFM.ru I had a conversation with Svetlana Razvorotneva, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services:
From your point of view, why does the question of adopting a special law on real estate activity arise again and again? I mean, why can’t I do without him?Svetlana Razvorotneva: Well, in fact, even the professional community itself is making such demands now, because they work in an absolute legal vacuum. Unfortunately, those market participants who do not submit reports to Rosfinmonitoring, do not invest in training, sometimes do not even pay taxes — that is, uneducated, not entirely conscientious intermediaries — often find themselves in a more advantageous situation compared to those who work strictly according to the law and try to meet understandable standards of professional activity. We really do not have any specialized body right now that would control the activities of realtors, there are no clear requirements for them, and this, of course, does not benefit either the market itself or the citizens. And if we talk about citizens, the situation there is even more difficult, because, taking advantage of this legal uncertainty, a huge number of scammers come to the market. That is, absolutely anyone can call themselves a realtor, but it is impossible to check how conscientious and qualified they are. They often impose unprofitable deals on citizens, do not verify information — in general, all this leads to a large number of fraudulent actions, lawsuits, lost money, and huge amounts of money appear here, as you understand. Therefore, attempts have been made repeatedly in the State Duma to create such a law, there are already several options, and the one that we are currently working on together with colleagues from the professional community is, of course, one of many. But I hope that he will have a perspective, because he does not protect the interests of any specific groups (although there are, for example, attempts to transfer all this to self-regulatory organizations).As far as I know, do you have a different concept?Svetlana Razvorotneva: Yes, it is a little different, it is based on a registry maintained by the authorities and which will have the easiest entry possible. There are few requirements in principle: of course, the presence of personnel who meet professional qualifications, of course, the presence of a manager who also meets professional qualifications, of course, registration on the territory of the Russian Federation. And, of course, we believe that only legal entities can participate in this market: no self-employed, no citizens, who came from nowhere, can be those who accompany transactions. In addition to the realtor register, it is necessary to work out a mechanism for exclusion from it, and a register of unscrupulous realtors who have committed some violations of the law must be created. In addition, it is necessary to put up a barrier for people with criminal records to enter this market. Both registers should be public so that citizens can see for sure that this realtor is good or bad. Now we are actively working on the law together with the professional community and with insurers, because we believe that this activity and in general all transactions of citizens must be insured. I really hope that sometime in early August we will send the bill to the regions for review and get a reaction.… The most important fork, in my opinion, is who will keep the mentioned registers: will they be at the regional level or at the federal level? The costs are not very high there, but we need to understand the position of the regions. Well, by the autumn, I think we will try to introduce a bill to the State Duma.Last year, the president of the Guild of Realtors of Moscow, Andrey Bannikov, cited data according to which about 20-30% in the capital are legally operating companies and about 70-80% are individuals who work for themselves, and the state does not see them. A little later, in January of this year, your colleague Vladimir Koshelev, announcing the law on real estate activity, which the LDPR party is going to introduce to the State Duma, also stated that the very concept of “realtor” is missing in Russian legislation and most realtors (all the same 70%) work in the shadow market zone. Some kind of frightening statistics…Svetlana Razvorotneva: I do not know where he got such statistics, I do not have such statistics, I cannot even understand where it can be taken from. But I have, for example, statistics of court cases related to some unfair services. This, of course, is not 70%, but the fact that it is really unclear who works in this market, and it is not known how citizens can protect themselves from an unscrupulous realtor, if he suddenly comes to you, starts offering some services, swears that the apartment is clean, and you buy it, and It turns out that there are minors there, or people who are serving sentences are registered, or it is generally someone else’s property — this is true. And I am sure that this needs to be actively combated.You named the key, so to speak, system-forming provisions of your draft law: maintaining registers of bona fide and unscrupulous realtors, participation in real estate activities only of legal entities, insurance of transactions… And what do you think are the most subtle, most dangerous and demanding points in the document being developed?Svetlana Razvorotneva: I have already mentioned the first one — the very fork. I would not say that it is directly dangerous, but it is a fork in the road: after all, at what level will surveillance and registration be conducted — at the federal or regional level. Personally, I tend to be more regional, because it is still difficult to be responsible for the whole country from the center. On the other hand, the question is where, in which register to register, because a person can register in Dagestan, but conduct transactions on the territory of Moscow, and here the Moscow authorities may probably have some difficulties. So the interaction between the regions needs to be worked out. The second topic is, of course, insurance. What should I insure — the work of the agencies themselves or the subjects of real estate activity? But then it’s not very clear what they should be responsible for; maybe something happened through no fault of their own, but then how to prove it? Insure the transactions themselves? But this will create a certain burden on citizens.There is always another question: who and how will monitor compliance with the new law if it is adopted? And what will happen to those who refuse to follow the prescribed rules?Svetlana Razvorotneva: I believe that those who do not enter the register should simply be punished for illegal business activities. By the way, we have another serious topic for debate and discussion: what kind of activity can and should be classified as real estate? Actually, we want to get away from this foreign name, which is not completely understandable to Russian people, but it’s not about the name, of course. So we had disputes: for example, lawyers, people who simply provide legal advice — should they comply with all the requirements prescribed in the law? Personally, my opinion is that everyone who is involved in real estate transactions in one way or another should be in this register and be responsible for their actions. And as for control, first of all it is necessary to formulate a list of punishable violations: for example, if the head of the agency is convicted of non-payment of alimony, probably this is still not a reason to deprive him of the status of a realtor. And if the agency has not submitted information about staff retraining, how should this be regarded? So once again, it is necessary to create a list of administrative and criminal violations for which the realtor will be excluded from the register and entered into the register of unscrupulous.And unscrupulous people may end up behind bars?Svetlana Razvorotneva: This is what is happening now: regardless of the presence or absence of the law on real estate activity, there are articles about fraud, some other articles, and according to them a person can get a real term. But we do not want to kick tails and it is less interesting to imprison those who have already committed an offense — we want to protect citizens from having to deal with such people at all.
Of course, the discussion of the law on real estate activity urgently requires listening to the opinion of the realtors themselves. To them BFM.ru and he asked to comment on both the idea of adopting the law and its specific provisions. In addition, BFM.ru I suggested that representatives of the development business speak out: which realtors are more convenient and calmer for them to deal with?
See also:
Objects of special regulation: What awaits them?
Is it possible to prevent the theft of personal data?
Effective ways to protect your business
Technology import substitution: pros and cons
What should I invest in so as not to lose?
How to successfully resist scammers?
The answers of the portal’s interlocutors will be available next time.
English 
Russian 
German 
Polish