At the legislative level, the mechanism for converting country houses and garden houses into a residential building is defined. Such houses can be transferred only on condition that they comply with state building regulations.
The main difference between a country house/garden house and a manor (residential) house is that, according to the technical characteristics, there cannot be living quarters/rooms in a country house/garden house. In addition, the owner of a garden/cottage house does not have the right to register his place of residence in such a house.
Where should one go to transfer a garden/cottage house to a residential building
To transfer a summer/cottage house to a residential building, the citizen who is its owner or authorized by him a person submits an approved application form to the executive body of the village (village, city) council, and in the event that the executive body is not established in the village council, to the village head. At the owner’s option, the application can be submitted both in paper and electronic form. In paper form, the application is submitted in person (including through administrative service centers), or sent by registered mail with a description of the attachment. In electronic form, the application is submitted through the electronic account of the user of the Unified State Electronic System in the field of construction or another state information system integrated with the owner’s electronic account.
In addition to the application itself, the owner also submits:
- a copy of the document confirming ownership of the country house or garden house,
- certified in accordance with the established procedure (except for the case when the ownership of such a building is registered in the State Register of Real Property Rights);
- written consent of the co-owners (if available) to convert such a building into a residential building (as a rule, such consent is certified by a notary); a report on the technical inspection inspection of a country house or garden house with a conclusion on its compliance with state building regulations (this report must be signed by the executor of certain types of work (services) related to the creation of architectural objects and created exclusively using the Register of construction activities in the form of an electronic document with the assignment registration number).
To conduct a technical inspection of a country house or garden house, the owner turns to a performer of certain types of work (services) who has the appropriate qualification certificate. Based on the agreement concluded between them, the responsible performer of the work (services) ensures the creation, using the Register of Construction Activities, of a Report on the technical inspection of a country house or garden house.
(Note: a technical inspection of a country house or garden house is carried out in order to determine the compliance of the actual condition of the garden or country house with the new functional purpose and, if necessary, provide recommendations to the owner to eliminate identified deficiencies).
The executive body of the village (village, city) council, and if an executive body is not formed in the village council, the village chairman, within a month, must consider the submitted application and make a decision on the transfer of a country house or garden house to a residential building or on the refusal of such translation.
Within three days from the date of the decision to transfer country houses and garden houses into residential buildings, or the decision to refuse, the body that made such a decision issues or sends it to the owner by registered mail with a description of the attachment, or in electronic form through the electronic account of the user of the Unified State Electronic System in the field of construction or another state information system integrated with an electronic account, the user of which is an authorized body, a decision to transfer a country house or garden house to a residential building, indicating its address.
If an application is submitted for the transfer of a country house or garden house to a residential building through the center for the provision of administrative services, the decision to transfer country houses and garden houses that comply with state building standards to residential buildings is issued through the specified centers. The decision to refuse the transfer is accompanied by documents that submitted by the owner to the application.
A decision to refuse to convert a country house or garden house into a residential building is permitted if at least one of the following grounds exists:
- failure to provide a certain list of documents;
- identification of inaccurate information in submitted documents;
- establishing the absence in a country house or garden house of a heating system operating throughout the year to ensure the operation of the house and/or its non-compliance with state building codes establishing requirements for heating, ventilation and air conditioning;
- establishing the presence of deformations in a country or garden house that can lead to loss of load-bearing capacity of structures and destruction of the house, by assessing the mechanical resistance and stability of load-bearing structures.
The legislation provides an exhaustive list of grounds for refusing to transfer a country house or garden house into a residential building.
The decision to transfer is the basis for using country houses and garden houses as housing, in particular for registering a place of residence.